The implementation of 287(g) agreements on US college campuses marks a turning point in the relationship between educational institutions and immigration agencies.
This expansion of immigration enforcement into higher education…opens a new chapter in the debate about universities’ responsibility to protect their students.
The term “287(g)” refers specifically to section 287(g) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The law created a mechanism to facilitate collaboration between federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local police.
These agreements allow state and local authorities to assume federal immigration control functions and were once rare—as of 2016, at the end of the Barack Obama administration, only 32 law enforcement agencies had active agreements. Today, more than 1,000 state and local agencies have signed on.
Some campus police departments are now also participating in the 287(g) program. This expansion of immigration enforcement into higher education through local law enforcement, although still limited, opens a new chapter in the debate about universities’ responsibility to protect their students.
Campus Police in Florida Join ICE Program
Implementation of section 287(g) requires a memorandum of understanding between ICE and the interested agency, which must agree to training, federal oversight, and specific protocols.
A 287(g) agreement deputizes local agents to verify the immigration status of detained individuals, issue administrative detentions, and assist in deportation proceedings.
Immigrant rights organizations and sectors of the university community are coordinating collective protection strategies.
There are different models of application, including the Jail Enforcement Model, which operates within detention centers, and the Task Force Model, which enables local police to undertake specified ICE functions. Both have raised civil rights concerns due to their potential to encourage racial profiling and the criminalization of immigrant communities.
According to available information, Miami-based Florida International University’s campus police department applied to join the 287(g) program in April 2025 and executed an agreement on July 2. As of July 12, 13 universities in Florida have done the same, including the state’s flagship university, the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Mounting Internal Campus Resistance
Given the risk of surveillance on campus, exacerbated by 287(g) agreements, immigrant rights organizations and sectors of the university community are coordinating collective protection strategies in response.
“Right now, our anti-ICE efforts are pretty new,” said Kassandra Toussaint of Florida International University (FIU), when asked how students and the community have sought to raise awareness about the immigration enforcement role university police would play.
Toussaint, a political science undergraduate student and grassroots organizer at FIU, told NPQ, “Currently, we’re working with the ACLU of Florida for students to get training on being legal observers.”
The purpose of this ACLU-supported training is to ensure that students are equipped to legally observe and document an incident if they see someone being detained by ICE or campus police. Ideally, they can also help facilitate communication between the person being detained and their family.
Toussaint also noted that organizer training sessions are being offered to help students develop practical skills that effectively raise awareness about ICE and the impact of immigration enforcement on campus.
In September, FIU students and faculty gathered in front of the Graham Center, where the university’s President’s Council was meeting, to demand that the agreement not be implemented.
Similar demonstrations took place at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Students argued that the agreement transforms their campus into an environment of surveillance and suppression. Signs with phrases such as “No one should be afraid to learn” accompanied the protests, which were covered by media outlets such as Univision and Telemundo.
Faculty members have also expressed strong opposition to the implementation of these agreements, warning that they will erode trust in campus police and expose students to racial profiling. Immigration advocacy groups and legal experts, such as the ACLU of Florida, concur.
One effect of 287(g) agreements, the ACLU of Florida notes, is to discourage people from reporting crimes, as immigrant victims avoid contacting police out of fear that their immigration status might be questioned or revoked. Even legal residents and people holding valid international student visas still face the very real risk of arrest or deportation.
Tania Cepero López, an associate professor in the FIU English Department and president of the faculty union, told NPQ that building bridges with campus police and leaders to discourage cooperation with ICE can be valuable, even if authorities are initially resistant.
“We have made every effort to maintain consistent communication and collaboration with our chief of police, our students, and our faculty,” she said.
At a public rally in September, Cepero López told the student newspaper Panther NOW, “[The agreement is] creating safety issues on campus that are completely unnecessary. What we’re asking the FIU Police to do is withdraw from the ICE 287(g) agreement, and that the FIU Police does the work of FIU Police, and ICE agents can do the work of ICE agents—there’s no need to conflate the two.”
Thomas Kennedy, an Argentine immigrant graduate student at FIU and spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, emphasized that the agreements are voluntary, telling NPQ that Florida universities are free not to sign them.
“State law is actually quite clear—it only requires counties that operate jails or detention centers, like Miami-Dade or Broward, to sign this type of agreement. Other institutions, such as cities or universities, are not obliged to do so,” Kennedy explained.
An Opportunity Missed
Organizations such as the ACLU, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), and United We Dream have long documented the impacts of 287(g) agreements on immigrant communities and have publicly denounced the program’s contribution to racial profiling, the detention of people without criminal records, and the erosion of trust between residents and local authorities.
Educational exclusion based on immigration status violates fundamental principles of equality and justice.
In June 2023, during the Joe Biden administration, more than 100 organizations—including the ACLU, NILC, and United We Dream—wrote a joint letter to then–Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, calling for all 287(g) agreements to be revoked. The letter noted that “the history of the program is riddled with unlawful forms of racial profiling and stereotyping.”
A year before that, in 2022, the ACLU published a report titled License to Abuse, detailing how the 287(g) program had empowered sheriffs with histories of racism and civil rights violations, becoming a tool for immigration persecution that undermined racial justice and community safety. The report noted that the ACLU had sought to end the 287(g) program for more than a decade due to “the racial profiling, civil rights abuses, and erosion of community trust that it spawned.”
Unfortunately, the Biden administration didn’t heed this call. Since Donald Trump’s inauguration as president in January 2025, the number of agencies participating in 287(g) agreements has increased sixfold.
The Struggle Continues
Educational exclusion based on immigration status violates fundamental principles of equality and justice, but it also affects the quality of education.
As Cepero López emphasized, maintaining academic standards requires that students be safe on campus, free from fears tied to immigration status or documentation.
“We’re trying to communicate to our university that, in order to remain on a path of academic excellence, we must adopt policies that support our international students,” she said. “Policies that allow us to engage with the global community and maintain a safe learning environment.”
