German Mata and Jerilyn Davis are running for SGA President and VP, seeking to be a voice against cooperation between ICE and FIU.
Jorge Cardona | Staff Writer
The candidates in this year’s SGA elections will have to address important questions about student life at FIU, ranging from issues surrounding on-campus housing in the aftermath of the demolition of University Apartments, to the cooperation between FIU Police and ICE.
German Mata and his running mate, Jerilyn Davis, are centering their campaign around resisting ICE presence on campus and denouncing the 287(g) agreement signed by FIU Police.
Mata is a Cuban-American political science and pre-law student and current SGA Senator running for President. Davis, who is running for VP, is a Nigerian-American biology major looking to go into pre-med.
Mata and Davis expressed a strong pro-immigrant stance and promised to be a strong voice in SGA in favor of immigrant-background and international students at FIU.
“As a ticket, we’re running pretty much on a pro-immigrant, pro-international student platform. We’ve seen what’s going on currently at FIU, for example, the 287(g) agreement. We are against the involvement of ICE or legitimizing ICE as an agency on campus that could potentially be going after students,” said Mata.
Mata promised that among the first things he would do if elected is to openly and formally denounce the 287(g) agreement as President of SGA and address the student housing problem at FIU, promising to publicly brief students on the decisions made by the Board of Trustees.
Davis added that one of her priorities, if elected VP, will be to increase transparency in SGA.
“We want to form a relationship [with students] where we can be able to tell them and have them be aware of what is going on in the school and communicate in the most efficient way possible.”
She further added that she and Mata will work to create spaces for immigrant and international students to express themselves culturally in a safe environment, such as forums, cultural events, and expositions.
Both candidates expressed their belief that cooperation between FIU Police and ICE poses a danger to students and that the FIU administration should and must listen to students who oppose the agreement with ICE.
Mata finally added, “When you look at the Civil Rights Movement in the 50s and 60s, very few times when young people are fighting for change have they been wrong. I believe it’s essential for an administration to cater to students and listen to students. If most students are saying ‘we don’t want ICE on campus no matter what’, they should listen to that.”
About Post Author
