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Miami Herald
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Florida International University finalizes agreement to assist ICE
Florida International University Police has finalized its agreement to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will deputize members of its staff to act as federal immigration officials. FIU is among 13 Florida university police departments that now have a finalized 287(g) agreement signed both by the university and ICE. All 13 universities have signed on to ICE's 'Task Force Model,' the most expansive version of the 287(g) agreement. It gives trained officers the authority to enforce federal immigration law — including the ability to arrest individuals for immigration violations and access federal databases. The other universities with finalized 287(g) agreements are: Florida A&M UniversityFlorida Gulf Coast UniversityFlorida Polytechnic UniversityFlorida SouthWestern State CollegeFlorida State UniversityNew College of FloridaNorthwest Florida State CollegeTallahassee Community CollegeUniversity of Central FloridaUniversity of FloridaUniversity of North FloridaUniversity of West Florida The decision to enter FIU into the agreement was made by the university police chief, Alexander Casas. He said he felt it was in the best interest of the university and its students to formalize a relationship with ICE, giving FIU police more control over how immigration enforcement is handled on campus. FIU President Jeanette Nuñez told faculty during a meeting that she supported Casas' decision. It is not legally required for university police to enter 287(g) agreements. However, Gov. Ron DeSantis has publicly encouraged all law enforcement agencies in Florida to sign on. With the addition of these university police departments, Florida now has more finalized 287(g) agreements than any other state, followed by Texas. A total of 306 agencies nationwide have signed on. FIU Police will soon have more authority In an interview with the Miami Herald in June — before the agreement was finalized — Casas said immigration enforcement is clearly a law enforcement priority at both the state and national level. He said he chose to sign on to support that priority, likening immigration to any other enforcement issue, such as 'a traffic initiative, fentanyl, [or] human trafficking.' Although FIU police officers have not yet begun the required 50-hour online training — and there is no set timeline for when it will begin — Casas confirmed that once trained, officers will be able to make arrests if they have probable cause. Casas acknowledged that determining probable cause for immigration enforcement 'really is a case-by-case thing, because the devil is in the details.' 'The judicial standard, which is what we have to adhere to,' he said, 'is you have to have a set of facts that would make a reasonable person believe that a crime occurred and that this person committed that crime.' FIU's relationship with ICE FIU police and ICE had not previously operated under a formal agreement, but they have collaborated in the past. Casas said that if ICE came onto campus with a judicial warrant, his officers would assist in locating the individual and ensuring that the interaction remained calm and safe. Casas said he can only recall two times in his 14-year tenure at FIU when ICE agents came onto campus. Historically, if FIU officers discovered that someone they were investigating had an immigration issue, they would notify ICE and allow federal agents to handle it. But officers did not have access to immigration databases or the authority to act independently. 'If this is going to be something that may happen more frequently,' Casas said, 'it's a good idea to have it codified, to be very clear, to establish indemnity and you know, who's responsible for what.' 'Rather than, 'Hey, do me a favor. Can you help me out?' And if it doesn't turn out right? 'Oh, well, no, you're responsible. No, you're responsible,'' he added. Once trained, FIU officers will gain access to a federal immigration database. This will allow them to check a person's visa status or see if there is a deportation order, even if there is no existing warrant in the state's criminal system. Previously, if an FIU officer ran a criminal history check, which Casas said his officers always did, a persons' immigration status or visa status would not show up unless they had a warrant for arrest. 'It wouldn't show up if they were just undocumented, if they were completely under the radar,' said Casas. Casas has emphasized that the new agreement is primarily about clarifying responsibilities, not about radically changing the department's behavior. FIU will decide how many officers to train, and the agreement does not mandate that police participate in every ICE operation. 'The only thing I can see different now is they may say, hey, go do it, and we can. We don't have to just assist,' Casas said. In some cases, he said, FIU officers could follow through on deportation orders without ICE being physically present — for instance, by transporting someone to a detention facility. Controversy on campus Since its establishment in 1996, civil rights advocates and researchers have documented that the 287 (g) program often targets individuals with little or no criminal history and strains the relationship between police and immigrant communities. Maintaining trust with students has long been a goal of Casas. In May, he has addressed the topic publicly at a town hall and at a faculty senate meeting. Still, opposition to the agreement at FIU and other universities has been vocal and growing. Students and faculty have organized protests, rallies, social media campaigns, and public meetings to demand that their police departments withdraw from the agreement. Read more: Faculty at FIU continue to urge campus police to get out of ICE agreement Dariel Gomez, a senior at FIU, has been vocal in his opposition to the agreement and is concerned that students may be falsely arrested and end up at the new detention facility in the Everglades known as 'Alligator Alcatraz.' 'We have not been reassured that this won't be happening,' said Gomez. This week, a DACA recipient, now in his early 30s, who has been in the United States for twenty years, was detained at Alligator Alcatraz. Read more: DACA recipient detained at Alligator Alcatraz, attorney says. 'We don't know why' But Casas, whose family is from Cuba, has given students and faculty some reassurance. 'Our approach is just usually a little more understanding of our community,' he said.
Miami Herald
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
FIU police chief pledges no racial profiling under pending deal to help ICE
Florida International University Chief of Police Alexander Casas repeatedly assured students and faculty on Wednesday that his department would not engage in racial profiling under its pending agreement to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce the Trump administration's immigration agenda. The plan has drawn mounting backlash from the predominantly Hispanic school's students and faculty. At an emotional, two-hour forum attended by nearly 200 students, faculty and community members, Casas faced pointed questions about ICE's controversial 287(g) program which the university signed onto in April. If enacted, trained FIU officers would be given the authority to stop, question, and in some cases detain individuals suspected of being in the country illegally. Seated on a panel with immigrant rights advocates and legal experts — FIU law professor Juan Carlos Gómez; Alana Greer of the Miami-based Community Justice Project; Renata Bozzetto, deputy director for the Florida Immigrant Coalition; and FIU students Dariel Gomez and Kassandra Toussaint — Casas promised that FIU officers wouldn't question individuals on campus without a warrant or probable cause. But when asked by moderator Clara-Sophia Daly, Miami Herald's education reporter, to define what could constitute probable cause to determine if a person was undocumented, Casas said, 'I couldn't tell you.' Probable cause would be determined on a case by case basis, he said. Other key details of the yet-to-be-finalized agreement remain uncertain — including how much the program will cost the department, what mechanisms exist for reimbursement and when officers would undergo the required 40-hour training. 'It's a mess,' Casas told the Miami Herald prior to the forum. 'What do we do? What do we not do?' As signs reading 'NO ICE ON CAMPUS' and 'PAWS OFF OUR STUDENTS' waved in the crowd, Casas attempted to assuage other concerns about the plan, emphasizing it wouldn't extend the university police department's presence into K-12 schools or hinder its ability to address other issues on campus. One student asked what would happen if someone on campus alerted FIU's police department to the immigration status of another student. 'Will there be a culture of chivatos at this university,' the attendee asked, using the Spanish word for snitch. Casas said that any such accusations would still require further investigation, but that such information could potentially initiate probable cause. This created tension during the meeting which Casas tried to calm. 'No,' he said. 'We don't have a culture of snitches.' The exchange illustrated the widening gap between what FIU's police sees as preventative policing and what students fear is the beginning of an atmosphere of surveillance and suspicion. Despite Casas' repeated insistence that officers would not ask about immigration status without legal cause or engage in racial profiling, some professors said their students had already stopped attending class due to fear of detention. Panelist Greer pushed back on the idea that racial profiling could be entirely avoided under the proposed agreement. She pointed to the troubled track record of similar programs nationwide, where efforts to deputize local police in immigration enforcement have repeatedly led to racial profiling, breakdowns in communication with federal agencies and costly lawsuits against local departments. 'I commend you for your commitment to not racially profile,' Greer said, addressing Casas. 'But when you have an agreement that has such historical baggage of opening opportunities for racial profiling to happen, for distrust and clearly putting people into harm's way, the community does not have a way back.' FIU's student body is largely Hispanic — about 68 percent, according to the U.S. News and World Report — and many are permanent residents or are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides temporary protection from deportation for some immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Casas told forum attendees that students won't be required to carry immigration documents, but added: 'If, by all means, you think that will help you dispel any suspicion that should arise, I'm not gonna tell you not to do that.' When asked on Wednesday whether he was under pressure from the governor to enter the agreement, Casas said 'no.' The forum unfolded against a backdrop of rising campus anxiety over immigration enforcement. In recent weeks, 18 FIU international students had their F-1 visas revoked, prompting protests and an emergency faculty meeting last month. At the time, interim President Jeanette Nuñez — who served as DeSantis' lieutenant governor until February — defended the revocations, saying that it was the university's responsibility to remove students who had engaged in criminal activity. It remains unclear whether those students, who have since had their visas reinstated and have been reenrolled, had violated any laws. Nuñez, who is slated to take over the presidency permanently, also backed FIU's agreement with ICE, stating at last month's emergency meeting that Casas told her he signed on to the program because he felt that campus police were better positioned than outside agencies to handle cases involving suspected undocumented students due to their community ties. One professor challenged that reasoning, which Casas repeated during the panel on Wednesday, telling the police chief that for students with fragile immigration statuses, being detained by university police would feel like a betrayal. 'I understand that,' Casas responded. 'I think that's my burden to bear.'
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
FIU police chief defends decision to enroll in immigration enforcement program
How will you ensure students can trust their school police? How are non-citizens supposed to feel safe on campus? Can a parking ticket cause a visa to be revoked? Is student data being shared with Immigration? These were some of the questions being asked of Florida International University police chief Alexander Casas at an emotional emergency meeting of the university's faculty senate. For over two hours on Friday, FIU faculty and students pressed the police chief to explain his decision to enter FIU's police force into a collaborative agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Miami Herald reported last Friday that FIU has signed on to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the 287(g) program, which will train some of FIU's police officers to assist in the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. At the meeting, it was clear that students and faculty strongly opposed the move. FIU serves a largely Hispanic student body — about 68 percent, according to the U.S. News and World Report. Many students are permanent residents and some are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides temporary protection from deportation for some immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Prior to the emergency meeting, there were two different protests this week on FIU campuses to speak out against the agreement, as well as the recent revocation of 18 international students' visas. In the meeting, interim president Jeanette Nuñez addressed the recent visa revocations, saying that FIU has around 3,400 students on F1 visas, and that the 18 visas represent 'less than half of 1 percent' of FIU's international students. 'If there are students who have engaged in criminal activity, it is our responsibility to remove them,' she said. 'We have a responsibility to follow the law.' It is unclear what laws the students whose visas were revoked had broken. Casas stated several times that he suggested the school enter this agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement because he wants his officers to be the ones interacting with students in the case of immigration enforcement. Legally, FIU does not have an obligation to sign on to the program. Only sheriff's offices are required to do so, and the chief confirmed this, saying that this was something he wanted to do in order to protect students. 'I want to be the head of the agency that addresses this issue,' he said. 'I can't control what ICE does. But if I don't enter the agreement, I don't have the opportunity to say, 'call us first, let us deal with our community,'' he said. Casas said the FIU Police Department will be funding most of the initiative itself and has control over how many officers it will train. 'I am going to choose my best,' said Casas, who has been with the department for over a decade and is an FIU graduate. Nuñez stated that when the chief came to her with the proposal to sign on to the agreement, she agreed with his rationale and supported his move. Casas and Nuñez both confirmed that faculty or students were not consulted before signing the agreement on March 4. Noel Barengo, the chair of the faculty senate and member of the university's board of trustees, said he wishes that faculty and the larger university community was counseled before the agreement was signed by FIU Police. Many of the students and faculty who spoke during the meeting were unable to control their emotions as they described the climate of fear the program will create on campus, and they expressed concern over students losing their visas, or being detained or deported by ICE. Faculty members brought up recent examples of ICE officials detaining people unlawfully, such as Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez, a citizen who was detained this week in Florida by immigration officials. One professor mentioned the Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was grabbed off the street by ICE and is now detained in Louisiana without bond. Read more: He was arrested under a suspended Florida immigration law. Turns out he's a U.S. citizen Alana Greer, an immigration attorney and co-founder of the Community Justice Project, who spoke on behalf of the faculty senate, became teary-eyed as she spoke about pleading with officials to release Gomez. During the meeting, she raised concerns that this agreement will allow officers at FIU who are trained by the program to act on administrative warrants that are often not reviewed by a judge. She said the 'agenda behind relaunching 287(g) is designed to break trust and to see neighbors and peers as 'other.'' She also cited a study where researchers found the program failed to reduce crime. Erik Camayd-Freixas, a modern language professor at the university, called the agreement an 'attempt to systematize immigration enforcement on a level never seen in democracy.' During the meeting, one student said that the scholarship program, which supports young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, was being terminated at eight Florida universities. Through tears she said several FIU students would lose their scholarships and no longer be able to attend because they can no longer get in-state tuition waivers. A professor from Spain spoke during the meeting about how he was scared to leave the country for a business trip to the Netherlands, and was in conversation with experts to understand his risks before finally deciding to take the trip. He says he jokes with his students, 'I don't know if I will see you next semester.' Juan Carlos Gómez, a law professor and director of the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic at the law school, said he now has students afraid to publish work that may be viewed as against the foreign policy interest of the United States. Following the two-hour discussion, the faculty senate voted in favor of a motion calling on university leadership to withdraw from the agreement immediately.
Miami Herald
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
FIU police chief defends decision to enroll in immigration enforcement program
How will you ensure students can trust their school police? How are non-citizens supposed to feel safe on campus? Can a parking ticket cause a visa to be revoked? Is student data being shared with Immigration? These were some of the questions being asked of Florida International University police chief Alexander Casas at an emotional emergency meeting of the university's faculty senate. For over two hours on Friday, FIU faculty and students pressed the police chief to explain his decision to enter FIU's police force into a collaborative agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Miami Herald reported last Friday that FIU has signed on to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the 287(g) program, which will train some of FIU's police officers to assist in the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. At the meeting, it was clear that students and faculty strongly opposed the move. FIU serves a largely Hispanic student body — about 68 percent, according to the U.S. News and World Report. Many students are permanent residents and some are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides temporary protection from deportation for some immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Prior to the emergency meeting, there were two different protests this week on FIU campuses to speak out against the agreement, as well as the recent revocation of 18 international students' visas. In the meeting, interim president Jeanette Nuñez addressed the recent visa revocations, saying that FIU has around 3,400 students on F1 visas, and that the 18 visas represent 'less than half of 1 percent' of FIU's international students. 'If there are students who have engaged in criminal activity, it is our responsibility to remove them,' she said. 'We have a responsibility to follow the law.' It is unclear what laws the students whose visas were revoked had broken. Casas stated several times that he suggested the school enter this agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement because he wants his officers to be the ones interacting with students in the case of immigration enforcement. Legally, FIU does not have an obligation to sign on to the program. Only sheriff's offices are required to do so, and the chief confirmed this, saying that this was something he wanted to do in order to protect students. 'I want to be the head of the agency that addresses this issue,' he said. 'I can't control what ICE does. But if I don't enter the agreement, I don't have the opportunity to say, 'call us first, let us deal with our community,'' he said. Casas said the FIU Police Department will be funding most of the initiative itself and has control over how many officers it will train. 'I am going to choose my best,' said Casas, who has been with the department for over a decade and is an FIU graduate. Nuñez stated that when the chief came to her with the proposal to sign on to the agreement, she agreed with his rationale and supported his move. Casas and Nuñez both confirmed that faculty or students were not consulted before signing the agreement on March 4. Noel Barengo, the chair of the faculty senate and member of the university's board of trustees, said he wishes that faculty and the larger university community was counseled before the agreement was signed by FIU Police. Students and faculty concerned Many of the students and faculty who spoke during the meeting were unable to control their emotions as they described the climate of fear the program will create on campus, and they expressed concern over students losing their visas, or being detained or deported by ICE. Faculty members brought up recent examples of ICE officials detaining people unlawfully, such as Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez, a citizen who was detained this week in Florida by immigration officials. One professor mentioned the Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was grabbed off the street by ICE and is now detained in Louisiana without bond. Read more: He was arrested under a suspended Florida immigration law. Turns out he's a U.S. citizen Alana Greer, an immigration attorney and co-founder of the Community Justice Project, who spoke on behalf of the faculty senate, became teary-eyed as she spoke about pleading with officials to release Gomez. During the meeting, she raised concerns that this agreement will allow officers at FIU who are trained by the program to act on administrative warrants that are often not reviewed by a judge. She said the 'agenda behind relaunching 287(g) is designed to break trust and to see neighbors and peers as 'other.'' She also cited a study where researchers found the program failed to reduce crime. Erik Camayd-Freixas, a modern language professor at the university, called the agreement an 'attempt to systematize immigration enforcement on a level never seen in democracy.' During the meeting, one student said that the scholarship program, which supports young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, was being terminated at eight Florida universities. Through tears she said several FIU students would lose their scholarships and no longer be able to attend because they can no longer get in-state tuition waivers. A professor from Spain spoke during the meeting about how he was scared to leave the country for a business trip to the Netherlands, and was in conversation with experts to understand his risks before finally deciding to take the trip. He says he jokes with his students, 'I don't know if I will see you next semester.' Juan Carlos Gómez, a law professor and director of the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic at the law school, said he now has students afraid to publish work that may be viewed as against the foreign policy interest of the United States. Following the two-hour discussion, the faculty senate voted in favor of a motion calling on university leadership to withdraw from the agreement immediately.
