Under pressure from DeSantis, Florida police agencies ready to help ICE
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Law enforcement agencies across Florida are lining up to partner with federal immigration authorities after Gov. Ron DeSantis made clear he expects local police to get on board.
Why it matters: While most of Florida's biggest police agencies already cooperate with ICE, DeSantis hopes to achieve universal compliance and put the state on the front lines of President Trump's immigration crackdown.
- Critics say, and research supports, that local police agencies who collaborate in federal immigration enforcement risk losing the trust of the immigrant communities they serve.
How it works: DeSantis wants all agencies with 25 or more officers to partner in 287(g), a federal program that deputizes local officers to act on ICE's behalf at county jails.
- This can mean helping ICE identify undocumented people at local jails, or officers at those facilities being deputized to execute federal immigration warrants.
Threat level: The governor asked the legislature to empower him to suspend law enforcement officials who don't cooperate.
- He already has broad authority to do so, which he has repeatedly wielded against progressive prosecutors he argued weren't adequately enforcing the law.
Zoom in: About four dozen Florida agencies are already part of 287(g), including those that run jails in the St. Petersburg, Kissimmee, Sarasota and Lakeland metro areas.
- Several other major agencies, including sheriff's offices based in Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers, are listed as having pending applications to join the program.
In Gainesville, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office was an outlier until last week, when the agency sent the feds a letter of intent.
- Newly elected Sheriff Chad Scott, a Democrat, noted in a statement that his agency flags foreign-born people in its jail to ICE and complies with federal detention orders.
- The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office told Axios it has applied to join 287(g), which the agency incorrectly thought it was already part of, having joined another ICE program in 2018.
Friction point: Several agencies with pending 287(g) applications told WLRN they've been waiting a year or more to join the program.
- Some told the South Florida NPR station they have little vacant space in their jails to house detainees for ICE.
What they're saying: Asked if its 287(g) compliance could harm community relations, Scott said his agency "will continue to build strong partnerships within all cultural groups in our county."
- He added that the sheriff's office will work "to ensure that those we serve receive the most accurate service and information related to their concerns regarding the ever-changing state law."
The other side: Involving cops in ICE's work "erodes the trust between local communities and police departments," Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigrant Coalition told WLRN.
- "What we're gonna see is the further fusion of local policing — and state policing, but mostly local policing, for the most part — and federal immigration enforcement."
Axios' Martin Vassolo, Yacob Reyes and Sommer Brugal contributed to this report.