Miami – After the Police Department of the International University of Florida signed an agreement with the Federal Government to carry out the application of immigration on the campus, some students say they are terrified.
“It’s scary and stressful,” said a university student at the university.
The student, who is not being identified because he lacks legal immigration status, told NBC News that he arrived in the United States when he was 5 years old with his family after they were threatened by gangs in his native El Salvador. He said he was very focused on high school and high school and took many kinds of advanced placement, knowing that he had to work more to have a chance at the university.
Now, the student is not sure if he will continue at the FIU next year. For now, he said he is avoiding certain parts of the university that he considers risky. “I have been trying not to go to the main areas of the campus where the police are,” said the student.
FIU is one of several universities in Florida who have signed agreements with the application of immigration and customs of the United States under program 287 (G), which enables local law agents to interrogate immigrants and stop them for possible deportation.
In addition to Fiu, the University of Florida in Gainesville, the Florida State University in Tallahassee, the University of Northern Florida in Jacksonville, the Atlantic University of Florida in Boca Mouse and the University of Southern Florida in Tampa have agreements in place with ICE.
Florida is the state with most local agencies signed 287 (g) agreements, including all the 67 Sheriffs of Florida County. Dozens of cities have been signed, including some with large populations of immigrants such as Hialeah, Miami Springs and West Miami.
It is part of the radiant immigration measures of the Republican governor of Florida, who are aligned with the promise of President Donald Trump to carry out the greatest deportation effort in the history of the United States.
“Florida is giving the example of the states in the fight against illegal immigration and working with the Trump administration to restore the rule of law,” said Desantis in February about the agreements with ICE. “By allowing our state agents and law agents being trained and approved by ICE, Florida will now have more deputy execution personnel to help federal partners. That means that deportations can be carried out more efficiently, which makes our communities more safe as illegal extraterrestrials are eliminated.”
In FIU, where more than 63% of the student population is Hispanic or Latin, cooperation has alarmed many. At the beginning of the week, many FIU students on campus seemed unknown to the new collaboration with ICE, but among those who run the risk of deportation, fear is palpable.
The Faculty and the students have mobilized and had protests against FIU’s decision to collaborate with ICE. In a protest on Tuesday, the students celebrated a banner that said “no ic @fiu”.
In a statement sent by email, Fiu said his police department “has signed a cooperation agreement with the application of immigration and customs of the United States in accordance with the directive of Governor Ron Desantis to the agencies of application of the law.”
ICE did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
On Friday in a session of the Senate of the Faculty, the professors issued a resolution asking the president of the FIU, Jeanette Nuñez and the police chief of the campus to withdraw from the agreement with ICE. Nuñez was the former governor of Desantis who became the interim president of Fiu in February, after a vote of the Board requested by the governor.
‘I try to act normal’
After almost four years as a university student at Fiu, a student said he was looking over his shoulder.
The student requested anonymity because he lacks legal immigration status. He arrived with his parents from Central America when he was 9 years old.
“It seems that I am being persecuted even though I have done nothing,” he said. “I feel more anxious. I don’t know why, but I see more police officers on the campus recently. I try to act normal and dress well.”
The student said that when he and other undocumented students learned about collaboration, “everyone was scared. People cried. Everyone feels unfair.”
A FIU professor described the atmosphere as “that he remembers” Latin American universities and how it was in the Soviet Union. The teacher’s name retains because they are not authorized to speak in areas outside their experience.
“This is how it used to be in Latin America. The government would look at the university to make sure you were towing the line,” said the professor. “Let’s go in that direction now.”
“The campus police are here to protect the students from the crime. They are not supposed to enforce the federal government policy. Immigration policy is federal policy,” said the professor.
Cooperation with ICE occurs when the Trump administration has taken energetic measures against some foreign students, revoking their visas and ordering them to leave the country immediately. At least 36 students in Florida have been stripped of their visas, 18 in Fiu.
The actions of the administration are a great deviation of the established policy more than a decade ago that restricted that federal immigration agencies of the immigration application in sensitive places such as schools and churches. The Trump administration ended that orientation in January, making students on university campuses possible objectives of application of immigration.
Universities in Florida have seen several changes under desantis. The critical theory of the race has been forbidden to teach; Centers have been created to promote center-right ideas; A recent law limits the content taught in public universities; and multiple members of the Faculty have been completed after the State adopted reviews subsequent to the possession of teachers.
The Dream.us, an organization that gives university scholarships to “dreamers”, young adults who have been in the United States since they were very young but lacked legal immigration status, announced that it will withdraw scholarships for hundreds of students in eight universities in Florida. Gaby Pacheco, president of Dream.us, cited Florida’s decision to end the registration of the State for students without the state of legal immigration, which enters into force in July, as well as the agreements of universities 286 (g) with ICE. “We do not feel that our students will be safe on the campus,” Pacheco told Miami Herald.
Melissa Tavara and Katerin Crespo, both theater specializations in Fiu, said they were worried how the campus police will carry out their new tasks while walking through the campus on a recent afternoon. Both are US citizens, but they care about the racial profile.
“How else would you look for these students,” Tavara said.
Crespo said: “This creates fear. It is an international school. We are supposed to be a melting pot.”
