Tampa students demand ICE off USF campus

Tampa, FL – On Friday, April 18, 15 people, including Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), students and community members, rallied near the entrance of the University of South Florida in response to the University of South Florida (USF) Police Department’s recent signing on with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The rally was in collaboration with the National Day of Action for Higher Education, a coalition of student and professor groups organizing in response to Trump’s recent attacks on higher education.

The rally started by demanding that USF not comply with Trump’s attacks on higher education, and to defend diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at USF. USF has shamefully complied with Governor DeSantis’ commands to shut down its own DEI office back in 2023.

“Tampa Bay SDS rejects the backwards notion that diversity initiatives are divisive measures,” Saba Indawala, a member of Tampa Bay SDS stated. “Instead, we recognize that there cannot be unity and progress without protections for those systematically oppressed.”

Next, Joseph Charry, a Tampa Bay SDS member, gave a speech on the current state of ICE on USF’s campus. The USF police department has already signed onto the 287(g) task force model, a program that allows law enforcement agencies to train police officers to enforce ICE’s attacks on immigrants.

“This is a shameful decision by USFPD and Desantis, which will only increase police surveillance of students on campus,” stated Charry, “and will no doubt be used to racially profile and harass international students and immigrants on campus.”

The USF police department has been a repeat offender of repressing student movements on-campus, brutally assaulting and arresting the Tampa 5 and more recently, and violently shutting down the Gaza Solidarity Encampment led by Tampa Bay SDS.

Riled up protesters rejected the USF police department’s collaboration with ICE, chanting “No fear, no hate, no deportation in our state!”

The rally continued with a speech demanding free speech for Palestine activists. Tampa Bay SDS continues to face extreme measures of political repression from the USF administration, where Tampa Bay SDS members and the organization itself have been suspended, expelled and faced disciplinary conduct charges for standing in solidarity with Palestine and for demanding disclosure and divestment.

Under the Trump administration, pro-Palestine international students have been targeted and abducted by ICE for their solidarity with Palestine. Tampa Bay SDS has previously faced politically-based deportations, as the USF administration, in the spring of 2024, ended the visa of an international student, Joseph Charry, for organizing pro-Palestine Solidarity Encampments. Despite this political repression, Tampa Bay SDS and the student movement across the U.S. continue to stand in unwavering solidarity with Palestine.

Students also spoke out in solidarity with public sector unions, particularly with unions on campus, such as the Graduate Assistants United (GAU), a union that is soon starting bargaining their contract with USF.

Tampa Bay SDS members continue to remain hopeful and steadfast, despite the severe political repression the organization and its members have faced this past year.

“I think the student movement is one of Trump’s biggest concerns because he knows a united student movement can change history,” Connor Jaap, a Tampa Bay SDS member, stated. “The encampments of last year changed the way millions of people thought about the genocide in Gaza and that poses a direct threat to the U.S. imperialism Trump hopes to enact during his second term.”

#TampaFL #FL #StudentMovement #SDS #Trump #ImmigrantRights #ICE