Hundreds of boisterous, angry marchers took over Gainesville’s main drag, University Avenue, earlier this year. They stomped to the beat of bass drums and chanted:
“Immigrants are welcome here.”
“Together…united…we’ll never be defeated.”
The crowd surged as people finished work or left classes and joined. Thirty minutes later, they stomped into the middle of the road at Bo Diddley Plaza. Their spirits kept ballooning.
“I remember the electric feeling of the crowd carrying this amazing energy, yelling ‘Chinga la migra’,” said Kai Blades, co-president of Students for Socialism at the University of Florida. “We got the crowd dancing and jumping and moving…”
Last year, at U.F. and 11 other Florida university campuses representing more than 400,000 students, administrators had agreed to cooperate with ICE in stopping, questioning and sometimes locking up immigrants on campus.
Ten of those schools, including Florida State University, the University of South Florida, the University of Central Florida, and Florida International University, have hosted protests like the one at Bo Diddley Plaza.
Florida is the only state where university police departments are partnering in immigration enforcement.
“Students have really been a leading force against this collaboration with ICE,” said Alana Greer, co-founder and director of Community Justice Project, a Miami non-profit of lawyers. “Even though the fight is not going to end tomorrow, they have not let this issue become normalized.”
The most publicized protest was at Florida International University in Miami, where seven students silently demonstrated at an on-campus event this past March 13. They stood in front of a crowd wearing shirts that read “ICE OFF CAMPUS.” The administration considered it a “disruption,” threatening enrollment holds and demanding apology videos. The seven students filed a lawsuit alongside Florida ACLU.
READ MORE: How a brief silent protest against ICE turned into Florida's big test on free speech on campus
“I’ve gotten people reaching out a lot from FSU and FAU saying they’re also worried about this issue on their campus,” said Kaitlyn Daley, one of the FIU Seven and a board member of FIU ICEBreakers. “We see the same rhetoric in all the schools where all the students are fighting for immigration rights and their community. And yet the administration pushes for the opposite.”
On August 23, a federal judge ruled FIU could not ban ‘expressive activities’ inside university buildings and blocked administration from punishing the students involved.
Administrators who have allowed ICE on campus generally say they are trying to keep their community safe.
FIU P.D. Chief Alexander Casas told PantherNOW that he wants his officers to be the point of contact for immigration enforcement on campus because they “know this community, serve this community, and are accountable to this community.”
FIU’s case has made headlines, but it is far from the only protest. Below is what happened at other universities as described by students who organized them and took part.
University of North Florida
Only two weeks after the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, the University of North Florida allowed Customs and Border Patrol to set up recruitment tables on campus. Jacksonville’s Student of Democratic Society (SDS) did not let it go unnoticed.
The chapter organized an emergency protest and mobilized right where CBP was tabling. They held a five-foot-long hand-painted sign that read “ICE OFF CAMPUS” with a bold red and black graphic of a silhouette stepping on a melted ice cube.
Several police officers were dispatched to defend the CBP table, but protesters stayed for hours, climbing to a second-floor balcony and unfurling the sign. They also distributed immigrant rights information to passers-by.
The tables turned when people walking past began to join SDS.
Quinn Gomez, president of UNF’s SDS chapter, complained that the university should pay more attention to other problems on campus.
“Their priorities are just completely out of order,” said Gomez. “I think the most important thing any administration should strive for is looking out for their students. That means offering more scholarships, building buildings that need to be built and offering services that students will actually use.”
University of Florida
“Solidarity Fest” was organized Jan. 30 by U.F.’s Young Democratic Socialist of America (YDSA) chapter. Students and Gainesville residents were a part of a national protest effort against ICE in response to the killings in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti and Renée Good.
At least 400 students, professors, and residents marched down West University Avenue. They carried signs that read, “PRO-STUDENT, ANTI-ICE,” and chanted, “Immigrants are welcome here.”
Speeches were made on campus about ‘ICE terror’ while the U.F. College Republicans counter-protested nearby.
Haley Pridgeon, the vice president of UF’s NAACP chapter, said the administration has refused to even converse with student organizations.
“They just won’t budge,” she told the “Daily Alligator.”
It was known as the largest anti-ICE protest in Gainesville history.
“We ended up taking the streets of Gainesville,” said Blades. “Students walked out of class to show support for their immigrant brothers, sisters, neighbors, and family.”
Florida State University
The same day, 150 miles away, over 100 students marched up to the building where FSU President Richard McCullough’s office is located.
They called it the “March on Admin.” Led by a blue-haired student and another carrying a sign scrawled with “F*** ICE,” the students tried to submit a petition with 1000 student signatures calling for an end to their collaboration with ICE.
At first, administrators locked the doors and refused to speak to protesters. Then, two admins approached the crowd and agreed to set up a meeting so students could share their concerns, but it never happened.
“They wouldn’t even come out to look at the petition,” said Alejandro Carralero, FSU’s YDSA co-chair. “It seems like the administration chose their strategy to ignore it, and if they continue to ignore it then nothing will happen.”
February 4, YDSA posted the official 287(g) document on their Instagram after the university tried to suppress it, according to Carralero. The post received over 3,000 likes and comments were filled with outrage and disappointment in their school.
Only a day later, another 100 students were chanting outside FSUPD until nightfall, giving speeches and holding signs reading, “Protect Student Immigrants.”
FSUPD was trying to scare them away by saying protesting at night was illegal, but students weren’t convinced.
“I didn’t get my citizenship until two years ago,” Carralero said. “Before that, I was scared of speaking out, even when I saw things that I knew were unjust. It’s very common for immigrants to get ‘the talk’ from their parents like ‘no te banderes,’” meaning to lay low.
Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University
Advocacy at the state capital institution goes beyond the marches and signs.
On September 29, Byron Donalds, who’s running for Florida governor, visited FAMU’s campus for a town hall. Hundreds of students excitedly packed into Lee Hall to share their voices as the only HBCU.
Tensions began when Donalds addressed immigration and 287(g). He said Florida would comply with federal law and there needs to be an immigration standard.
The crowd broke out in boos. Then, Jayla Jones, a senior political science major and FAMU’s SDS president, stood up in the crowd and pressed him to answer whether he was going to protect students from ICE.
“We have so many students here who are Black and brown, and we have these ICE agents who could potentially profile them,” Sarah Tinord, a senior at FAMU, wrote in an WFSU article.
Jones was soon escorted out of the event by security. Vice President of Student Affairs Bryan Smith met her outside to set up a meeting and talk about their concerns.
At the meeting, Jones complained that he had acted unaware of the agreement. Smith was willing to listen to their complaints, then suggested they rephrase ‘demands’ to ‘concerns.’
Jones cited the scores of Haitians who have been returned to an unstable country in just the last few months.
“Now is not the time for ‘concerns’,” said Jones. “Especially after the recent TPS status taken away from Haitian immigrants, our concerns are demands now. We need to move and get this off our campus.”
After numerous emails and attempts to reach out to the administration, no further meetings have been discussed.
“We have a few Haitian students in our organization, and they speak to me about how they’re very afraid to leave their house and do the activities they love to do,” said Jones. “Like going to church, going to community events, and it’s so isolating for the Haitian students on our campus.”
University of Central Florida
Students in Orlando have been consistently protesting since last year. They’ve dealt with dead-end meetings with the administration and counter-protesters yelling, ‘Deport them!’ at their group.
So, they’re taking a new approach this semester.
UCF’s SDS chapter is starting weekly letter deliveries to the administration on why they think ICE should not be allowed on campus. The organization has collected over 100 letters in three days, which will be delivered this week to the president’s office.
Some letters are more formal and explain to President Alexander Cartwright that universities should be a safe space for students. Others cuss him out and question his authority. Grisha Glozman, UCF’s SDS chapter president, says everyone has their own style and level of anger.
“The goal is to be a consistent form of pressure,” said Glozman.
UCF’s SDS has also been working on the case of two students from the Orlando area who were detained by ICE and sent to a detention facility in Texas. According to Glozman, the students were here legally.
The case is still ongoing, but advocates have been working closely with the students’ families and organizations in Texas to get them back home.
“People telling us they’re an immigrant and feel unsafe because of ICE, but seeing the work we do makes them feel safe to leave the house,” said Glozman. “That keeps me going.”
Florida Atlantic University
Over 100 students gathered Sept. 5, 2025 in solidarity. Officers followed the protesters on golf carts, bikes, cars, and on top of roofs.
Police cars from FAUPD, Boca Raton, and Delray Beach were on sight, according to Nicholas Ostheimer, former FAU president of College Democrats who took part in organizing this protest.
The tension made protesters uncomfortable, but they nevertheless rallied in front of their university’s administration building.
Ostheimer led the crowd with “We’re surrounded by cops! Do you fear for your safety?” The crowd responded, “No!” according to a WLRN article.
“We gave them fair warning and were very careful about compliance,” said Ostheimer. “I was upset to see that the police department reacted with such an over-the-top militarized response, which I think it was intended to intimidate the protesters.”
FAU’s Turning Point chapter, a young conservative organization, was counter-protesting, holding up pro-ICE signs.
Other Schools
At Florida Gulf Coast University in Lee County this past February, hundreds of protesters from the Borders to Bridges student group and locals gathered in their plaza to protest ICE activity, according to the school paper. At the University of South Florida, Students for a Democratic Society and other groups have held at least three protests this year. And at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, students walked out of class and angrily carried signs reading “Brown ≠ criminal.”
“Obviously people are very angry about what’s happening,” said Kriti Bastola, Co-President of ACLU at FIU. “The First Amendment doesn’t stop at the door once you walk in school. We’re going to keep fighting until we feel a resolution has been made.”
