FL University Aims to Deputize Campus Cops as Immigration Enforcement Agents
Florida Atlantic University’s police department has a pending agreement with the federal government that would allow campus officers to question and detain people they suspect are in the country without authorization.
The public university in Boca Raton could be the first to enter such an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which lists the campus police department as one of 75 entities that have submitted paperwork for consideration.
FAU’s trustees in February picked a new president: Adam Hasner, a former GOP state lawmaker and executive of a for-profit prison group that manages 16 ICE detention centers across the country.
Hasner served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2002 to 2010, taking the role of House majority leader during his last three years in the chamber. Between 2016 and his appointment at FAU, he was executive vice president for public policy at the GEO Group, where he oversaw 60 consultants representing the company’s interests in D.C., according to his resume.
The $4 billion company’s stock value doubled after Election Day, according to ProPublica.
Following a two-year-long presidential search, FAU’s trustees picked and the state university system’s Board of Governors confirmed Hasner as the new president, with a base salary of $875,000 and a potential performance bonus of $150,000, according to his contract.
“When I step onto this campus, if I were to be the eighth president of this university, my commitment to you, sir, and my commitment to this board and my commitment to this entire university community is that I am not involved in partisan politics,” Hasner told trustees during the Feb. 10 meeting when they picked him. “I do not believe that it is politically red or politically blue to be a university president.”
“Incredibly Concerning” and “Unbelieveable”
The university of more than 31,000 students describes itself as a Hispanic-serving institution and the number-one Florida public university in terms of campus ethnic diversity.
Details of the paperwork FAU submitted to ICE, such as the number of officers it intends to deputize, have not been published.
Paula Muñoz, executive director of Florida Student Power Network, said that, considering Hasner’s background with GEO Group, she wasn’t surprised FAPD could be the first campus department to deputize its officers to act as immigration enforcement agents, which requires them to undergo a 40-hour online training.
“It’s incredibly concerning. It’s something that should not be a part of the education or institutions,” Muñoz said in a phone interview with Florida Phoenix. “They should be worried about how to make sure that students are feeling safe on campus.”
The pending agreement raised concerns for FAU junior Nicholas Ostheimer in light of the detention of nearly a dozen students and faculty across the country. He led the student protests against Hasner’s selection as president.
“It’s unbelievable and it’s an insult to our community and an attack on our freedoms,” Ostheimer told the Phoenix.
Push for as Many ICE Agreements as Possible
Meanwhile, the DeSantis administration is pushing for cities and counties to enter into the agreements that the governor has characterized as the maximum level of collaboration and has said will lead to street-level enforcement. So far, Florida cities, counties, and state agencies have entered into 194 agreements with ICE, although some of the agreements are aimed at apprehending people without legal status already in jails and prisons.
In early March, the chief of Pinellas County Schools Police signed and submitted paperwork to enter into the task force model agreement with ICE without the knowledge or authorization of the school board and superintendent, which he later told the board he had done because he thought he had to comply.
The school district didn’t know about the agreement until the Phoenix contacted a spokesperson for comment.
FAU and ICE didn’t respond to the Phoenix’s request for comment.