SWEETWATER, Fla. \u2014 Controversy is swirling at Florida International University.<\/p>\n
Seven students say they were targeted and disciplined after wearing anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement t-shirts to a school event.<\/p>\n
The students say the university is forcing them to record a video about a policy they violated in order to register for classes.<\/p>\n
The shirts in question read \u201cICE OFF FIU.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt very betrayed by this action,\u201d said student Reinier Luna. <\/p>\n
For more than a year, those students said they have expressed concerns to the administration that they say fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most notable one for the past year and a half was the increasing occupancy of ICE on our campus,\u201d said student and protest organizer Carlton Daley. <\/p>\n
In order to get the message across, the students assembled during an event on campus that FIU President Jeanette Nunez was hosting with former MLB baseball star Alex Rodriguez back in March. <\/p>\n
At one point, they say, they stood up and revealed their shirts.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter about a minute or so facing the audience, we then turned around to face the stage where Nunez and A-Rod were having their conversation,\u201d said student Andrew Caro. \u201cShortly after that, about a minute of just standing, we then peacefully, silently, not disruptively all left together.\u201d <\/p>\n
Added student Kaitlyn Daley: \u201cI was shocked by how little she reacted because she did not flinch, she kept going.\u201d <\/p>\n
The students said nothing happened after they left the event, but then they received an email a month later saying they were responsible for violating Regulation 110 of the FIU Student Conduct and Honor Code, which states: \u201cFailure to comply with a request or directive of a university official.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the whole time we were standing, there was never a FIU official, officer, absolutely no one came up to any one of us saying that we were causing a disruption,\u201d said Luna. <\/p>\n
Last month, a hearing was held and the students were reprimanded.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll their testimonies kind of went against the evidence that was provided,\u201d said student Caleb Dean. <\/p>\n
The students were told they had to record videos about FIU policies they allegedly violated or be forced to have a hold on their accounts, where they won\u2019t be able to sign up for classes or receive a diploma.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we are going to make these video, we are going to express how unconstitutional it is, how it violates our first amendment,\u201d said Caro. <\/p>\n
FIU released a statement to Local 10 News regarding the incident, which read:<\/p>\n
Federal law prohibits the university from disclosing details of students\u2019 academic or disciplinary records. All student conduct cases at FIU are administered, reviewed, and adjudicated in accordance with federal and state laws and university policy and regulation. https:\/\/dasa.fiu.edu\/all-departments\/student-conduct-and-academic-integrity\/<\/a>. Case law and Florida statutes allow public universities like FIU to establish and enforce limitations on the time, place and manner of expressive activities. FIU applies its rules consistently, regardless of viewpoint, to ensure that classes, research, and academic spaces can function without interference or disruption. <\/p>\n \u2014 Maydel Santana – FIU Associate Vice President, Communications and Media Relations<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SWEETWATER, Fla. \u2014 Controversy is swirling at Florida International University. Seven students say they were targeted and disciplined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-331249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}