From Boca to the Border: Immigration Debate Reaches Florida Atlantic’s Campus

Under the watchful eye of police outfitted in riot gear, around 100 students, professors, and community members gathered on Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus on the afternoon of September 5 to protest the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and that FAU police department signed a 287(g) agreement that allows them to do the ICE enforcement.

[For more on the agreement, see our latest: What is a 187(g) agreement and why did Florida Atlantic sign one?]

“I couldn’t sit anymore while our democracy was being stripped from us day by day,” said Philip Katz, a Boynton Beach resident and activist who organized the protest. 

The demonstration–which was organized to highlight how immigration enforcement affects university and community members, and to question whether or not Florida Atlantic should cooperate with ICE–reflected a larger debate on college campuses nationwide, where questions of safety, inclusion, and compliance with federal law often collide. The protesters were met with opposition from student members of Turning Point USA, a conservative group that is active on college campuses nationwide.

For the students and residents of Palm Beach County who joined the demonstration, this was not just about raising awareness but about pushing for a change at Florida Atlantic. 

Protestors called on Florida Atlantic’s administration to offer more transparency about the university police department’s partnership with ICE, to guarantee that the agency would not be on campus, and to protect non-citizen students. Demonstrators also expressed the sentiment that there needs to be changes in the way the police department, university officials, and the administration treat non-citizen students. 

The sound of drums, chants, and megaphones filled the university's main area, known as the breezeway, as students waved signs painted in bold letters: “Abolish ICE.” Onlookers leaned over balconies while police in riot gear stood nearby, scanning the crowd.

“We live in an environment where people are being disappeared from colleges and workplaces and homes and schools, so to see it so visible on a college campus needs to be brought to everyone's attention,” said Katz, who added that he organized the protest because he felt a disconnect between administrators and students whose voices weren’t being heard. 

Protesters also expressed concerns about how ICE’s presence interferes with student life. 

Organizers and protesters said ICE’s presence on university and college campuses can discourage students from seeking resources, attending classes, or feeling safe on campus. The protesters demanded that Florida Atlantic clarify its stance on cooperating with ICE and ensure students feel secure regardless of their immigration status.

“I believe FAU shouldn’t be a political battleground; education should be available to all,” stated Savannah Warga, a freshman at Florida Atlantic.

ICE on or near college campuses is a sensitive issue, particularly at Florida Atlantic, which is known as one of the nation's most diverse universities and promotes itself as such. The campus includes students from 101 nations and is located in South Florida, an area of the country that is home to a large immigrant population. Many of the university's students are themselves immigrants or the children of immigrants. 

Some of the protesters highlighted the irony of a university that actively advertises its diversity while its police department partners with ICE. Florida Atlantic president Adam Hasner, a former Republican member of the state legislature, is allowing ICE and the university police department to come to campus, "and yet he's the president of the university," said Maryln Murphy, a resident of Pompano Beach, speaking about her feelings that Florida Atlantic officials are not being transparent about the institution’s decision to cooperate with ICE. 

While federal guidelines limit ICE enforcement actions at schools, the protesters argued that any cooperation at all between universities and ICE creates fear among non-citizen students.

Students affiliated with the conservative Turning Point FAU were on the site offering information on ICE and immigration enforcement.

“There are a lot of people in this group with signs that ICE is comparable to the Gestapo or Nazis. Some swastikas are painted on some signs over there, and I think that is entirely off base,” Nick Coyte, a senior at Florida Atlantic and president of Turning Point FAU. Coyte argued that some people may be uneducated about what's happening on campus. 

“The university is following Governor Ron DeSantis’ law enforcement directive on Feb. 19, which requires all state law enforcement organizations in Florida to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” said Joshua Glanzer, Associate Vice President for Media Relations and Public Affairs for Florida Atlantic, in an emailed statement. “This includes FAUPD and all other state university police departments.”

Critics, however, have called into question DeSantis’s legislative attempts to tighten immigration enforcement, arguing that immigration enforcement is a federal issue–not a state issue–and that DeSantis is overstepping authority. The Supreme Court blocked in July some aspects of the state immigration law that DeSantis signed in February.  

As the crowd gathered together that evening, chants of “education, not deportation” echoed time after time across the breezeway. Students hugged, hoisted their signs, and continued on with their promise to themselves to fight this controversy.