These School Cops in Florida Ordered to Help ICE Arrest Immigrants, Records Show

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

64% : A Miami judge ordered police agencies to stop enforcing the state law in April, saying it likely violates the Constitution's Supremacy Clause and "unlawfully encroaches" on the federal government's authority to enforce federal immigration laws.
57% : She acknowledged the district police chief "maintains ongoing communication" with the sheriff's office and other local law enforcement agencies and his decision to submit the 287(g) application was "guided by state and federal directives, intending to remain fully compliant with the law.
56% : Asked by The 74 what knowledge she had of the 287(g) application before it was submitted to ICE, Mascaranes responded, "Can I get back to you on that?" In a follow-up email, Mascaranes didn't elaborate on when she first learned of the agreement, simply noting that she routinely handles "all media requests and releases."
55% : " Sign-up for the School (in)Security newsletter. Get the most critical news and information about students' rights, safety and well-being delivered straight to your inbox. ICE and the Florida governor's office didn't respond to requests for comment.
54% : Records show the school district's lawyers had planned to meet to discuss the 287(g) application before it became public and Isabel Mascaranes, the district spokesperson, was listed on the form as the point of contact for ICE "to coordinate any release of information to the media" regarding immigration enforcement actions.
53% : School districts have for decades been navigating how much information they should share about students with law enforcement "but adding ICE to the mix is a new chilling dimension to that relationship," said Cody Venzke, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union focused on surveillance, privacy and technology.
52% : Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Kevin Hendrick was looped in on a Feb. 24 directive from his police chief ordering campus officers to detain and question anybody they encounter with a federal deportation order and to alert U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to emails and other documents obtained through a public records request.
52% : Greer noted the school district police department's directive to assist ICE, and its 287(g) application, were voluntary decisions that undermine community trust and its mission to promote campus safety.
52% : Even though that more far-reaching mandate did not pass, dozens of Florida law enforcement agencies voluntarily formed federal immigration enforcement partnerships, including the police departments at 15 colleges and universities.
51% : And even though the Pinellas school police were not legally required by the law that did pass to pursue 287(g) or to act in concert with ICE when coming into contact with someone with a deportation warrant, Williams, the police chief, told the superintendent, the school board's attorney and other districts leaders that they were.
49% : " "The new law puts legal obligations on all of us to ensure we do certain things and the consequences for not doing so include removal from office by the Governor, including his power to remove police chiefs, city managers, mayors and commission/council members," he continued, adding that he would hold a call to "on how to best comply with the new Florida law.
49% : "If an ICE officer cannot arrive at the scene within one hour, then collect as much information from the person as you can and release the person and ICE will have to try to find them through their fugitive operations," Gualtieri said.
47% : Voicemail records obtained by The 74 show it was ICE -- not the district -- that withdrew Pinellas school police from 287(g) consideration.
47% : Gualtieri's Feb. 24 order came after ICE added some 700,000 people with federal deportation orders to the massive National Crime Information Center, a centralized database that law enforcement agencies nationwide use to track and act on criminal warrants.
45% : "It should alarm and enrage every parent, teacher, and taxpayer in Florida that school police are being pressured to become informants for ICE and unconstitutionally detain members of our school community," attorney Alana Greer, the director and co-founder of the Miami-based Community Justice Project, told The 74.
44% : Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Immigrant rights groups and privacy advocates have for years warned that school-based police officers could share information about undocumented students and their families with federal immigration officials and that the program to deputize local cops, known as 287(g), could give immigration agents a foothold in schools.
44% : That law would have required Pinellas County school district police and other law enforcement agencies outside of sheriff's and corrections departments to join forces with ICE.
44% : "I do not want to place yourself or the School Board under scrutiny because I followed my beliefs but failed to follow the law.
43% : "ICE will not be entering into an agreement" with the district, Melanie White, an ICE deportation officer, said in a voicemail to Williams, adding that the immigration enforcement agency "will not extend the program in that way" to include K-12 school district police departments "at this time.
43% : " Schools have for decades been considered a safe haven for undocumented students and their families after the 1982 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision enshrined childrens' access to public schools regardless of their immigration status -- a right Trump-aligned conservatives in several states are now actively trying to undo.
38% : " Related From Defiant to Compliant, Schools Take Varying Tacks to Possible ICE Raids Trump border czar Tom Homan defended the policy shift in February, claiming Central and South American gang activity in the nation's schools required there be "no safe haven for public safety threats and national security threats.
35% : " DeSantis, who claims he's created the national "blueprint" for mass deportations, signed the law in February that establishes prison sentences for undocumented immigrants who cross into Florida after illegally entering the U.S. and requires jails and sheriff's offices in the state's 67 counties to participate in the 287(g) program and facilitate arrests.

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