During the spring semester at Florida International University, a student meeting on immigrant rights was monitored by police as an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was being finalized.
What FIU students and faculty witnessed during that time may be a preview of the upcoming fall term as the ICE partnership firmly takes hold.
To combat an anticipated ICE crackdown across Florida, students belonging to a group called Justice in Palestine at FIU, which also includes faculty and community members, invited others to learn about immigrant rights in the spring. It remains to be seen if that will continue in the fall.
But it has been six months since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and his deportation efforts are beginning to make an impact. For instance, Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate, was detained – a warning from the Trump administration to other pro-Palestine foreign student protestors.
Bayan Abedulazis, an architecture student at FIU and board member of Students for Justice in Palestine, has observed increased security at group events in past semesters. She was not surprised campus police showed up to the “Know Your Rights” meeting the group had organized in the spring.
Throughout the event, an FIU police officer paced outside the small classroom where 12 students gathered. A trained member of the American Civil Liberties Union led the presentation on individuals’ rights – including their right to remain silent and not discuss citizenship status with police, immigration agents, or other officials.
The school officer intervened when the session ran eight minutes past the scheduled end time. Although student board members booked the room with 30 minutes to spare after the end time, authorities urged the students to wrap up.
FIU Police Chief Alexander Casas confirmed the department’s partnership with ICE program 287 (g), which allows campus police to enforce immigration laws.
“We want to ensure that our school, our administration is going to prioritize student safety over any other priorities,” Abedulazis said. “I think that it is really important that students feel safe on campus.”
The labor union representing FIU faculty, the United Faculty of Florida Chapter for FIU, issued a public statement calling for a withdrawal days after the 287(g) agreement was announced.
“We’ve requested that FIU Police withdraw from this program again and again,” said Tania Lopez, an FIU associate professor and president of the union. “[We] have been told verbally that they will move forward with it, not because it’s a mandate, but because the Chief believes that this is the best way he can do his job.”
Earlier this month, FIU’s police force was formally accepted into the ICE program. Lopez said. She hopes to get more details on guidelines for faculty and students in the event that ICE shows up in the classroom.
Requests for comment from FIU Police, addressing the safety concerns of faculty and students or what they should expect from the ICE program, were not returned.
