Students at the University of West Florida (UWF) organized a walk-out on the Pensacola campus this past Tuesday, April 14 at 12 p.m.
The students converged on the steps of Pace Library in front of the Canon Green in continuing protest of the university’s 287(g) agreement with ICE. The peaceful demonstration lasted about an hour with over 30 students in attendance.
The Message: “ICE Out!”
Student organizer, Alex Hatley told the voyager that “ICE should not be allowed on our campus… we’re inviting what we’ve seen them (ICE) do in other cities onto our campus, and the students deserve a safe campus, especially given the amount of international students that we have. They should have a safe campus, we deserve a safe campus,” she said.
What is the 287(g) Agreement?
Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), “permits the delegation of certain immigration enforcement functions to state and local law enforcement agencies.” The agreement is a voluntary formal partnership with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Governor Ron DeSantis directed Florida law enforcement to enter into additional Memoranda of Agreement with ICE in February 2025. Florida was the first state to enter into this agreement in 2025.
NPR reports that the use of Section 287 (g) “has dramatically expanded under President Donald Trump’s second term in office…In 2019, during Trump’s first term, just 45 of these 287(g) agreements were signed, available data shows. As of Feb. 13, ICE reported 1,412 active agreements across 40 states and territories — more than 1,130 of them signed in 2025 alone,” they said.
UWF joined the voluntary 287(g) agreement in April 2025, among over a dozen other state colleges.
The ICE Impact
According to the ACLU, the implementation of the 287(g) Agreement hurts college campuses by undermining the educational mission, harming international student recruitment, and diverting limited resources, among others.
As of January of this year, a report from Inside Higher Ed states that the Trump administration has revoked the visas of over 8000 international students without any warning or recourse for appeals. “In some cases, the terminations appeared to be related to encounters with police where the student was a witness to or even a victim of a crime, rather than a perpetrator,” they said.
MSN states that recent reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights First, and other groups “detail widespread abuse, deaths, and rights violations in ICE detention centers across multiple states,” including Florida.
In a study by College Factual from 2020, international students made up an average of over 271 out of a total of 13,061 students at UWF, a number that is steadily trending downward.
