At least 15 Florida universities have quietly signed agreements to voluntarily cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — but how those partnerships are being implemented remains largely hidden from view.

Among the first to formalize such a partnership was New College of Florida, a small public liberal arts college whose board of trustees got a conservative makeover by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023.

In April, New College’s campus police signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with ICE, but more than three months later the school has not reported any immigration enforcement activity or provided further details on its partnership with the agency.

When Raw Story asked the school for email communications about ICE, immigrants and undocumented students from its chief of police, Jennifer Coley, the Florida public records request yielded just over 2,000 responsive documents.

But nearly 1,500 pages of emails sent were entirely covered with black boxes. The rest were heavily redacted.

One of nearly 1,500 blacked out pages sent to Raw Story in response to a public records request about ICE at New College of Florida

“I’ve been doing open government law in Florida since 1991, and just as I’ve not seen an abuse of power like you see with Ron DeSantis, I haven’t seen this animosity towards open government and access to public records ever,” Barbara Petersen, executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, told Raw Story.

“We used to think [Republican governor turned U.S. senator] Rick Scott was bad.

“Ron DeSantis is the black hole where sunshine goes to die because they’re so difficult about everything.”

Among visible information shared with Raw Story — hundreds of pages of mostly police training advertisements and newsletter blasts — few specifics could be ascertained about the execution of New College’s agreement with ICE, which grants state and local law enforcement the “authority to perform certain immigration enforcement functions” as part of Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“We were one of the first institutions in the state university system to sign the MOA with ICE,” Jamie Miller, vice president of communications and chief marketing officer of New College of Florida, told Raw Story.

“We are proud partners with a variety of law enforcement agencies, and we stand ready, willing and able to assist our partner agencies in their efforts to keep Floridians safe and follow the law.”

As of July 29, according to the ICE website, ICE had signed 868 memoranda of agreement with programs across 40 states.

A federal database of participating agencies shows New College’s 14-page agreement, signed by Coley, that allows selected school law enforcement personnel to “perform certain functions of an immigration officer under the direction and supervision of ICE.”

Raw Story did not receive a response from ICE or Coley. The Executive Office of the Governor referred questions to the Board of Governors for the State University System of Florida, which recommended “contacting individual universities for specific information about the partnerships.”

“Several police departments at universities within the State University System of Florida are partnering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Cassandra Edwards, director of communications for the State University System of Florida, said via email.

“Our university police departments are always encouraged to collaborate with other law enforcement entities to enforce state and federal law.”

Asked about the redactions in Raw Story’s public records request, New College’s Office of General Counsel, cited exemptions for cybersecurity and active criminal intelligence.

“I don’t understand how information about ICE activities and undocumented students on campus could be considered active criminal investigative information,” Petersen said.

“I don’t understand how this is active in any way since they’re just complying with ICE.”

‘Red alert’

Coley sent New College’s signed MOA to ICE on March 12, according to emails obtained by Raw Story.

But more than two months later, Coley reported the college had not “received any communication from ICE,” according to an email sent to David Brickhouse, New College’s vice president for legal affairs.

In the same message, Coley said ICE had incorrectly listed the school as a “municipality instead of a state agency.”

Around the same time, Coley received communications that appeared to ready local law enforcement for federal coordination. On May 6, Coley received a “red alert” bulletin from Jennifer “Cookie” Pritt, executive director of the Florida Police Chiefs Association, about ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). The message outlined how state and local agencies could contact ICE for support during immigration-related encounters, including routine traffic stops.

“ERO has established a response center for fielding calls from our state and local partners when encountering immigration-related matters,” the May 6 email said.

“ERO will assist state and local law enforcement partners who may encounter individuals during their normal routine vehicle stops with determining alienage and inadmissibility/removability.”

The email provided contact information for Krome Detention Center in Miami.

Shortly after New College’s memorandum of agreement was signed on April 15, Coley forwarded an email from Rachel Kamoutsas, chief of staff for the Board of Governors, that included a letter from state Attorney General James Uthmeier.

The letter concerned the temporary restraining order granted in the Florida Immigration Coalition’s lawsuit against Uthmeier, blocking the enforcement of a new immigration law, Florida Senate Bill 4-C.

Uthmeier, former chief of staff for DeSantis, last week appealed a federal judge’s ruling holding him in contempt of court for a letter he sent arguing law enforcement agencies are not bound to the restraining order.

Internal emails reveal extensive cooperation between New College police and Florida’s network of fusion centers: multi-agency hubs combining data from local, state, tribal, federal and other partners to analyze and disseminate threat-related intelligence.

Emails show New College police specifically working with the Southwest Florida Fusion Center (Region 6), overseen by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, and the Tampa Bay Regional Intelligence Center (TBRIC).

The college appears to be expanding its law enforcement capabilities. A June 2 email to Coley from Jean Harris, assistant vice president and chief procurement officer, shows New College police considering a quote and agreement with Axon, a company known for creating TASERs, dash cams and body-worn cameras.

In 2020, Axon announced a $13 million contract with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to equip nearly 4,000 border patrol agents with body cams.

The agreement and quote details were not shared with Raw Story, so it is unknown if the agreement involves the partnership with ICE.

‘Profound betrayal’

When Florida universities began signing formal agreements with ICE, the United Faculty of Florida union issued a sharp rebuke.

“These agreements, conducted without meaningful transparency or community input, represent a profound betrayal of the core values of higher education and an alarming escalation in the ongoing erosion of democratic norms in our state,” the April 22 statement said.

“Our campuses must be institutions of learning, critical inquiry, and inclusion — not instruments of surveillance and state-sponsored oppression. The presence and involvement of ICE on our campuses sows fear among students, staff and faculty, particularly those from immigrant, undocumented or international communities.”

The United Faculty of Florida did not provide comment in response to Raw Story’s inquiry, nor did its New College chapter president.

But Talat Rahman, union faculty president at the University of Central Florida, told Raw Story when the ICE agreements were first signed, “there was a lot of panic, where people were not sure what was going on.”

The uncertainty, she said, created fear among students, particularly those who may be undocumented or have undocumented family members.

“If the students are afraid that somebody can walk in and arrest them, they’re not going to be able to focus on what they’re there for,” Rahman said. “And with the number of people who have been deported under wrong identification or without any reason, the concern is real.”

While the Trump administration has framed its immigration enforcement as targeting “criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, gangbangers and other violent criminals,” Raw Story investigations have documented detentions and deportations of everyday people — a breastfeeding mother, recent high school graduates, a newlywed and a construction worker.

In March, New College welcomed U.S. “border czar” Tom Homan to campus, to discuss immigration policies with DeSantis, who appointed a slew of rightwing trustees in 2023 as part of a crusade against the “woke mob” at the school known for being a safe haven for progressive and LGBTQ+ students. Some students and politicians labeled DeSantis’ appointments a “hostile takeover.”

Activists protest against an immigration policy event featuring Ron DeSantis in Sarasota. REUTERS/Octavio Jones

“Majority of the people who are Board of Trustees members were appointed by the governor — they’ve been hand-placing and picking people that are loyalists to the governor and are going to do whatever the governor wants,” said immigration advocate Gaby Pacheco, president of TheDream.US, a national college and career success program for undocumented immigrant youth.

Rahman said colleges like her school, the University of Central Florida, have yet to answer key questions, including whether ICE officers will be permitted in classrooms.

“We have asked that, a) the agreement be spelled out and b) that the university not participate in it, but we haven’t gotten any responses to that,” she said.

For now, Rahman said faculty and students are left waiting.

“I think what has happened here is that we are waiting for what is going to happen next, and probably there’ll be a lot more activity in the beginning of the year.”

As faculty and students await clarity, immigration advocates like Pacheco are raising alarms about how ICE agreements could create workarounds to federal privacy protections.

She warned that these agreements may allow campus police to access records that could be used to identify students’ immigration status, effectively creating a loophole to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

FERPA, she said, “protects students’ data and doesn’t allow colleges or universities to use that data to inform ICE or another agency about a student’s immigration status.”

Pacheco added that such agreements raise serious questions: “What is the coordination that’s going to happen? Will there be data sharing? Which there shouldn’t be.”

• Rachel Heimann Mercader is a freelance investigative journalist based in Chicago. She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she was selected as a SESP/Medill Education Journalism fellow, partnering with Raw Story Investigative Reporter Alexandria Jacobson.