University of North Florida signs ICE agreement to enforce immigration law

The University of North Florida (UNF) in Jacksonville has finalized an agreement with immigration officials to enforce federal immigration law.

The move continues a trend of Florida public universities helping U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to crack down on illegal immigration. Gov. Ron DeSantis directed all state law enforcement agencies to sign cooperations with ICE in February, and five public universities signed an agreement to do so in April.

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The news of UNF was first reported by The Spinnaker, the school’s student-run newspaper. The report cites an email notifying the university community about the new Memorandum of Understanding with ICE, which was signed on July 7.

“At this time, none of UNF’s University Police Department (UPD) officers have been trained by ICE, and no training has been scheduled. UPD continues to conduct business as usual,” President Moez Limayem said in the message.

Police must go through ICE training before beginning to enforce federal immigration law.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January seeking cooperation from local law enforcement regarding illegal immigration. 

“Over the last 4 years, the prior administration invited, administered, and oversaw an unprecedented flood of illegal immigration into the United States,” the order says. “Millions of illegal aliens crossed our borders or were permitted to fly directly into the United States on commercial flights and allowed to settle in American communities, in violation of longstanding Federal laws.”

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Under President Trump’s administration, the federal government has also moved to stop illegal immigrants from attending American colleges and universities. The president signed another executive order in May targeting states and universities that give preference to illegal immigrant students over Americans.

In response to the president’s attempts to crack down on illegal immigration, several universities have promoted materials seeking to protect illegal immigration students, including Michigan State University and the University of Maryland.

Maryland continues to run an office called the Office of Immigrant and Undocumented Student Life.

One of the office’s programs pushes students to use the term “UndocuTerp” to refer to illegal immigrants to “navigate away from the negative connotations given to terms such as undocumented, immigrant, non-U.S. citizen and so forth.”

Campus Reform contacted the University of North Florida for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.