Tallahassee, FL – On Thursday, September 17, FAMU Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held a rally and vigil honoring the life of Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant in Ohio who took his own life after being forced by ICE to wear an ankle monitor. Nearly 50 students gathered in front of Lee Hall to demand an end to the terror from ICE that Haitian immigrants are facing and to demand that Florida A&M University’s administration revoke the 287(g) agreement that puts students' lives at risk.

This protest comes after the recent attacks on Haitians after the revocation of their Temporary Protected Status on July 2 by the Trump administration, putting the lives of over 350,000 Haitian immigrants in jeopardy. Bel, a neuroscience student at Ohio State, was one of many Haitians fitted with an ankle monitor that tracked his every move and created the perception that he was a criminal. It also stopped him from being able to participate in his daily activities that brought him joy, like soccer and ROTC, because he was not allowed to participate in them while wearing the monitor.

Florida A&M University is the only HBCU in the entire country to have signed a 287(g) agreement. This agreement requires the FAMU Police Department to have a number of officers participate in a task force to perform immigration enforcement or work collaboratively with ICE agents. In response, FAMU SDS launched its inaugural campaign to end the agreement.

Other groups in attendance included the Haitian Cultural Club, FAMU Dream Defenders, Tallahassee Immigrant Rights Alliance, Voices Poetry Group, Tallahassee SDS, and the Tallahassee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

Protesters pointed to the connection between 287(g) and the revoking of TPS status for Haitian immigrants. They also expressed concerns regarding immigration enforcement.

Jayla Jones, vice president of FAMU SDS, stated, “It is embarrassing to be an HBCU that was built upon generations of Black struggle and resistance fall into the trap of hunting its own people. Students should not have to worry about being profiled or surveilled, or potentially dying at the hands of ICE. This is where we come to learn, share our cultures, and be Black and proud. We must not be complacent within this system. ICE is not welcome here.”

A common sentiment among students is outrage about the legal ability of ICE to racially profile and discriminate against immigrant communities. The court decision by the Supreme Court, in Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security et al. v. Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, et al., allows ICE to detain people based on perceptions that individuals may be immigrants, such as skin color or language. Black Americans have been repeatedly racially profiled and detained by ICE, and that danger has now intensified as Haitian immigrants face more hatred from the GOP.

Considering ICE's long history of mistakenly identifying U.S. citizens for deportations and detention, uprooting the lives of thousands of people, and leaving devastating impacts on individuals who face these unlawful arrests, many students are fearful of what may happen to them.

SDS member Ora Brodie commented, “This could be you, we’re all Black. When ICE comes on this campus, they’re already racially profiling. They don’t care that we’re Black Americans. They just want to kill us or put us in jail.”

FAMU SDS is fighting to revoke the university’s 287(g) agreement and protect their HBCU from ICE and Trump’s attacks. To join, attend a weekly meeting every Thursday at 6pm on the first floor of the Coleman Library. To keep up with what SDS is doing, visit @famusdsofficial on Instagram.

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