A day after President Trump said his deportation push “might be too tough,” a WLRN report shows how that push looks on Florida campuses — where university police now help ICE.
Why it matters
Florida is the only state where university police departments partner in immigration enforcement, WLRN reports. The University of Florida and 11 other campuses, with more than 400,000 students, agreed to help ICE stop, question and sometimes detain immigrants on campus.
The big picture
- Ten of those schools — including FSU, USF, UCF and FIU — have seen protests.
- More than 17,000 arrests have been made under Florida’s 287(g) agreements, mostly by the Florida Highway Patrol, per the state dashboard cited by the Miami Herald.
- Nationwide, 287(g) agreements rose from 135 at the start of Trump’s second term to 2,698 as of Oct. 20, per DHS figures reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Between the lines
At FIU, seven students staged a silent “ICE OFF CAMPUS” demonstration on March 13. The school called it a disruption and threatened enrollment holds. They sued with the ACLU of Florida; on Aug. 23 a federal judge barred FIU from banning expressive activity inside its buildings and from punishing the students. FIU police chief Alexander Casas has said he wants his officers to be ICE’s point of contact because they “know this community.”
What’s next
Rep. María Elvira Salazar, awaiting a recount in FL-27, cheered Trump’s “60 Minutes” remarks as “the core” of her Dignity Act. But no bill has passed, and Florida’s agreements remain in force.
Our view
The story isn’t the protests — they’ve run for nearly a year. It’s the gap: a president conceding “too tough” on national TV while Florida’s enforcement apparatus runs at full speed. For Miami families, what matters is what happens at the classroom door, not on prime time.
Sergey Danilov
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