FIU charges 'may lead to suspension or expulsion' for racist group chat members

Claire Heddles, Miami Herald on Mar 11, 2026

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MIAMI — Florida International University is accusing the members of a racist group chat among Miami campus Republicans of Student Code of Conduct violations that could lead to suspension or expulsion, the school’s president announced this week.

One member of the group chat — William Bejerano, who posted some of the most violent, racist content — was not a student at FIU and has been banned from campus. He “is subject to arrest without further warning should he come onto any FIU property,” FIU President Jeanette Nuñez wrote.

The fallout comes after the secretary of Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party started a group chat primarily for conservative students last fall — and within three weeks it was filled with racist slurs, a participant wrote dozens of ways of violently killing Black people and the chat was renamed after what one member described as “Nazi heaven.”

Nuñez said the school’s Office of Civil Rights and its Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity have reviewed “more than 1,200 pages of evidence” and “initiated charges” against students in the group chat based on violations of the school’s Code of Conduct and non-discrimination policy.

Those potential violations include “harassment, engaging in threats, and interfering with the rights of others.” Nuñez did not say how many students might face these charges. The school has declined to provide further information about its investigation, citing federal student privacy rights.

There were more than a dozen people in the WhatsApp group, according to chat logs obtained by the Miami Herald.

The Herald publicly named three of the FIU students involved in the chats because they held leadership positions on campus — including the county GOP Secretary Abel Carvajal, campus Turning Point USA chapter President Ian Valdes and then-College Republicans recruitment chairman Dariel Gonzalez.

The Herald also named Bejerano because he had publicly discussed seeking leadership on conservative causes at Miami Dade College. That school did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Their WhatsApp conversations have been widely denounced, with Nuñez calling it an “abhorrent and extremely disturbing private group chat” this week.

University Provost Elizabeth Béjar also addressed the group chat during a Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday, saying she was “disgusted” and defending why the school did not take immediate public action against students that were involved.

“We are beholden to the First Amendment. I’m particularly highlighting that because over the course of the last few days, I have been asked with questions and other members of the leadership team have said, ‘But at this institution, something happened, and immediately, the students were expelled and the university made an announcement,’” Béjar told a room full of professors Tuesday.

“That may be a private institution or multiple private institutions, but private institutions are not held to the same standard as a public institution that serves on behalf of the government,” she said.

The three campus conservative leaders in the chat have stepped down or been removed from various positions over the past week.

The FIU Turning Point USA chapter president stepped down from the role. TPUSA did not respond to a request for comment. The former College Republicans recruitment chairman had already left his role by the time the chats became public, and has since been removed from a volunteer position in Coral Gables. Carvajal, the creator of the chat, resigned from a role in Hialeah’s government, according to the city’s mayor.

But Carvajal has refused calls for his resignation from county party leadership. Miami-Dade GOP is planning to hold a full body meeting to discuss the matter next week, according to party chairman Kevin Cooper.