The University of Florida has joined the list of higher education institutions in that state partnering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out immigration enforcement on campus, officials told CBS News on Saturday.
“We can confirm that we have signed the 287(g) agreement,” a University of Florida spokesperson told CBS News. The agreement, which Gov. Ron DeSantis issued in February, allows law enforcement to act as immigration officers.
It was not immediately clear who at the University of Florida would act as immigration officers under this agreement and the school’s spokesperson did not provide additional comment. They did, however, confirm that eight students have had their visas revoked.
The agreement allows local officers to question those they suspect of being in the country illegally and “to serve and execute warrants of arrest for immigration violations,” according to a February statement from DeSantis.
Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and the University of South Florida in Tampa are all seeking to deputize their campus police for immigration enforcement, representatives for the schools confirmed to The Associated Press.
Joshua Glanzer, a spokesperson for FAU, said “all state schools” in Florida are expected to pursue the expanded immigration enforcement authority.
“We are simply following guidance from the Governor’s Feb. 19 directive to state law enforcement agencies, of which FAUPD and other state university police departments are included,” Glanzer said in a statement.
Under a 287(g) task force model, such as the agreement being pursued by the University of Florida, participating officers would have the authority to interrogate “any alien or person believed to be an alien” about their right to remain in the country, as well as the power to make arrests without a warrant in some cases.
The Trump administration has continued to target foreign nationals who are affiliated with universities in the U.S. On Friday, an immigration judge in Louisiana allowed the Trump administration to move forward with its effort to deport Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, upholding one of the deportation grounds cited by the government. Khalil, a vocal member of the protests at Columbia University over the war in Gaza, was arrested in early March by ICE outside of his New York City apartment, where he lived with his pregnant U.S. citizen wife.
