Florida International University recently suspended two students for participating in a WhatsApp group chat in which members repeatedly used racist and violent language, according to the Miami Herald.
The group chat was started during the fall 2025 semester by Abel Carvajal, a third-year law student at FIU and then-secretary of Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party. (Carvajal has since resigned from that post.) Within three weeks, the chat was filled with racist and sexist slurs, descriptions of violently killing Black people, and musings about Hitler’s politics. According to the Miami Herald, the n-word was used more than 400 times and the chat was at one point renamed after what one member described as “Nazi heaven.” Interspersed throughout the group chat were discussions about promoting the Republican Party at FIU.
FIU has suspended Carvajal for an “affirmative act which aids, attempts, promotes, conceals, or facilitates” violations of the Student Code of Conduct. The university also suspended Dariel Gonzalez, who was the FIU College Republicans’ recruitment chairman, over “verbal or written abuse, threats, intimidation and/or coercion that objectively endangers the health, safety or well-being of others” and for driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana. Both students have been banned from campus and all university-sponsored events. They would also need to reapply for admission if they want to re-enroll at FIU after their suspension lifts in May 2028.
The two students have filed a federal lawsuit against FIU President Jeanette Nuñez, accusing her of violating their First Amendment right to free speech.
