Florida universities’ agreements with ICE deepen student anxiety

An unusual series of agreements between many Florida public universities and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has prompted protests and anxiety among students, The New York Times reported on Jan. 30, 2026. Florida International University students protested on Friday after their campus agreed to cooperate with ICE in July.

The agreements give university police departments, after training from ICE, authority to conduct immigration enforcement and access databases to check immigration status, the report said. Florida International is one of at least 16 public higher-education institutions in the state that have joined such partnerships in the last year.

Carlton Daley, a student activist and engineering major, said the decision was especially troubling at a campus with about 4,500 international students from more than 140 countries. The partnerships are known as 287(g) agreements, a provision added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996 that allows ICE to delegate immigration enforcement to local law enforcement.

The number of such agreements has risen to about 1,000, more than a 600 percent increase, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and for the first time the list of cooperating authorities includes colleges and universities. The list on ICE’s website names schools including the University of Florida, New College of Florida and the University of Central Florida.

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