Florida International University is facing a lawsuit over its decision to punish students who protested immigration enforcement on campus.<\/p>\n
CHUYN\/iStock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Florida International University is being sued after punishing students who protested against immigration enforcement, according to a news release<\/a> from the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which filed the lawsuit on the students\u2019 behalf.<\/p>\n In March, the group of seven students wore shirts that read \u201cICE OFF FIU\u201d to an on-campus event during which FIU President Jeanette Nu\u00f1ez was speaking. The students, part of a group called ICEBreakers, stood silently for a few minutes and then left the event, according to local media reports<\/a>. The students were specifically protesting a university contract<\/a> that allows campus police to conduct federal immigration enforcement, according to the ACLU.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the lawsuit, the ACLU argues that FIU\u2019s ban on \u201cexpressive activities\u201d inside campus buildings<\/a> violates the First Amendment. The group says the university violated students\u2019 rights to free speech, protest and assembly by enforcing the policy, charging them with misconduct and requiring them to submit videos agreeing to comply with the policy<\/a>. The ACLU also filed a motion to block the university from enforcing the policy as the case is pending.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFlorida\u2019s colleges and universities are meant to be places for debate, disagreement, and discussion,\u201d Nicholas Warren, an ACLU of Florida senior staff attorney, said in the release. \u201cThe ICEBreakers have every right to express themselves, and FIU cannot turn its campus into a \u2018protest-free zone\u2019 through student conduct rules. We\u2019ll see FIU in court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida International University is facing a lawsuit over its decision to punish students who protested immigration enforcement on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18025,113,684,28,30,29,18024,960,115],"class_list":["post-369171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-career","tag-education","tag-events","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-higher","tag-jobs","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369171","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=369171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}