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This story was originally published at Prism.

Florida International University (FIU) is under fire from one of its own faculty members after news reports detailed that the school provided equipment to the Everglades immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” The disclosure intensified existing anger over FIU’s police partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ongoing labor disputes, fueling demands for transparency, higher pay, and accountability from administrators.

After Prism and NBC6 reported that FIU supplied an emergency operations trailer to the construction site at “Alligator Alcatraz,” university President Jeanette Nuñez confirmed in a recent NBC6 interview that the university did so at the state’s request, clarifying that the equipment is owned by the state’s Department of Emergency Management, the lead agency overseeing construction and operations of the facility.

“It is a state asset, let’s be clear,” Nuñez told anchor Jackie Nespral. “When the Department of Emergency Management requests a state asset, we have to provide it. We don’t opine, we don’t object. People want to make more out of it than what it was.”

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The president was not asked about the implications for the workers who had to carry out the task. Those workers expressed concern when given the order, according to an FIU staff member who previously spoke to Prism on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. FIU has not responded to Prism’s request for comment.

Faculty leaders say Nuñez’s explanation does little to ease concerns that the university — long touted as a haven for immigrant students — is complicit in immigration enforcement.

“FIUPD is ICE,” said Tania Cepero López, the president of the United Faculty of Florida (UFF-FIU) union, referring to the FIU Police Department. “The faculty are amazing, the students are wonderful, smart, and dedicated, and they deserve the best education in the world.”

The equipment controversy comes on top of outrage over FIU’s finalized 287(g) agreement, which deputizes campus police as ICE agents. Nuñez defended the decision in the NBC6 interview, arguing that the agreement gives FIU more control.

“If ICE wants to come on campus, regardless of the agreement, they will come,” she said. “So they do have access to come into our campus. The police chief took the position, and I supported him, that he wanted to be in control [of] the situation from the get-go.”

Faculty remain unconvinced. Internal emails obtained by Prism show that the faculty union began pressing the administration in June for guidance on how faculty should respond if ICE enters classrooms in the coming school year. Only on Aug. 22 did the university provide a formal response:........

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