A Florida International University student who was brought to the U.S. as a child voiced his worries about the school’s partnership with ICE. NBC6’s Ari Odzer reports
Florida International University is the latest state university to allow its police force to partner with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
On Tuesday, two separate demonstrations were held on campus against the university’s move, which allows campus police to be trained by ICE to interrogate and detain students suspected of being undocumented.
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WATCH HEREThe students taking part in one of the protests felt safe voicing their opinions and showing their faces. “Jose” doesn’t have that luxury.
“Everything came crumbling down,” he said, describing the change from last school year to this one.
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Jose, which is not his real name, is a Dreamer, a student at FIU brought to the United States by his parents as a child. Now he’s endlessly worried about his future.
“Done everything that every other American does, I’ve worked here, pay taxes here, studied here, grew up here, so it’s really unfair,” he said, pointing out that there’s a climate of fear among the estimated 600 Dreamers who attend FIU.
“Anywhere you go, you’re in fear that something’s gonna happen regardless, no matter where you’re at, no matter how secluded or private it may seem,” Jose said.
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Jose says there’s been a series of concerning developments, starting when the Florida legislature decided that Dreamers should pay out-of-state tuition instead of the much cheaper in-state rate they had been paying, followed by the collaboration of the FIU Police with ICE.
Jose said this will be his last semester at FIU because he can no longer afford the tuition.
FIU faculty members also held a demonstration Tuesday, supporting students like Jose.
“The last place where a student should feel scared and should feel not safe is on campus,” said Dr. Batira Rojas, a health sciences professor.
“And at FIU it’s not just students,” added Tania Lopez, an associate professor of English literature. “It’s faculty and staff who are here on work visas, who are here legally, but they can still be approached, and interrogated about their visa status, so do I have to carry my passport around all the time now because I don’t look American enough?”
I asked Jose if he’s worried now about being profiled and stopped by police.
“Yes, just because I look Hispanic and have color,” he said.
Jose feels almost paranoid these days, thinking that the Trump Administration will eliminate DACA protections for students like him and also that FIU Police will start detaining students because of their status, not because they’ve committed crimes.
“You have to make sure of everything around you now, you have to be so alert, so observant,” Jose said.
The university sent a statement saying that it is simply following the directive of Gov. Ron DeSantis, which instructed all police agencies in Florida to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
