Resolution 2025-2026-1
Call for Withdrawal from UCF’s 287(g) Agreement
The UCF Faculty Senate endorses the Florida Advisory Council of Faculty Senates Resolution on 287(g) Memoranda of Agreements between State University System Institution Campus Police Departments and United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement by also urging the University of Central Florida and the University of Central Florida Campus Police to withdraw from this 287(g) agreement.
Addendum 2025-2026-1
Florida Advisory Council of Faculty Senates Resolution on 287(g) Memoranda of Agreement
between State University System Institution Campus Police Departments and United States
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The Advisory Council of Faculty Senates calls on State University System institutions to withdraw from the Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) signed by Florida’s public universities with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the 287(g) program. These partnerships are unnecessary and harmful to student, faculty, staff, and the broader communities our universities serve. To effectively protect our universities, campus police cultivate a unique relationship with campus communities. They come to know our students, our educational spaces, and our communities. They are present at peaceful protests, in classrooms, and at student events. Repurposing this unique trust for federal immigration enforcement makes our campuses less safe, puts our officers in an untenable position, and chills students’ access to the support services they critically need to succeed. The 287(g) agreements create an array of challenges, including the following.
- These agreements unnecessarily sacrifice campus safety. Engaging in immigration enforcement will require campus police to divide resources that need to be fully focused on the core issue of campus safety. Moreover, it will undermine the hard-earned trust they need to work effectively with our communities in ensuring campus safety. Recent events in Florida highlight, more than ever, the need to maintain Campus Police focus on critical safety activities and on ensuring that campus populations trust them enough to share safety and security concerns.
- With these agreements in place, every individual on campus – even citizens – will need to carry papers documenting their legal status at all times to avoid the possibility of immigration detention. These MOAs empower a campus police officer to detain any individual based solely on the officer’s belief regarding their immigration status and without a warrant [287 (g) Task Force Model MOA, Section V]. The recent detention of a Hispanic United States citizen by Florida law enforcement at ICE’s request illustrates the reality that even U.S. citizen students, faculty, and staff will face the possibility of detention by campus police acting at ICE’s direction.
- These agreements risk chilling students’ willingness to seek medical, mental health, and educational support services at our institutions out of fear of ICE-affiliated police presence. In a post-COVID era in which students have become increasingly isolated, engagement with these services and with the university community is more critical than ever in enabling student success – the core mission of our institutions.
- The fear of ICE-aligned immigration actions by campus police that is created by these MOAs erodes the environment of trust and safety needed for effective student learning and free expression. Students and scholars living in continual fear that campus police may engage in arbitrary immigration-oriented actions cannot effectively learn, create new ideas, speak freely, and innovate – the very activities at the heart of our Universities’ missions.
- These agreements are not necessary for the federal government to enforce immigration law. ICE and other federal and state agencies already possess broad authority to operate independently.
For all of these reasons, we call on the Board of Governors of the State University System to urge
Florida Universities to withdraw from these agreements.
- Approved by the Faculty Senate Steering Committee on April 23, 2025
- Approved by the Faculty Senate on September 4, 2025
- Submitted to Provost Michael D. Johnson for action on April 25, 2025
- Denied by Provost Michael D. Johnson on May 8, 2025 with the following comments:
“When any law enforcement agency operates within our jurisdiction, the UCF police department liaises with them. The 287 (g) MOU only engages the UCF police when ICE comes to campus.”