Florida’s law enforcement is gearing up to meet new levels of supportive alignment and integration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in combating illegal immigration, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other lawmakers elaborated on what the state’s partnership with the federal government would look like.
“Immigration, unequivocally, is a federal issue,” State Sen. Jay Collins told The Epoch Times during a phone interview on Feb. 13. “With that being said, at the state level, we have to prepare things in our state, you know, line things for the maximum efficacy in what we do.”
DeSantis celebrated the successful special session during a press conference on Feb. 14, declaring Florida to be the first state to put a legislative duty on law enforcement to participate in the federal government’s illegal immigration efforts and encouraged other states to follow suit.
Law enforcement agents would now be able to take illegal immigrants directly to ICE for processing and repatriation, he said, suggesting ICE agents could become embedded within local law enforcement jurisdictions like Sheriff’s offices.
Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, according to ICE, authorizes the federal agency to “delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under the agency’s direction and oversight.”
More than half of Florida’s county sheriff’s offices have already signed 287(g) agreements.
This alignment will take time, as DeSantis commented that the Trump administration is tasked with rebuilding ICE.
“Part of the problem that we’ve noticed with the feds is Biden decimated this agency,” the governor said. “And so all these programs where you would integrate local [law enforcement], they just totally fell by the wayside. So these guys are working really hard up there now, under the Trump administration, to stand this back up.”
The Sunshine State is welcoming this alignment after years of acting on the state level on immigration matters, passing its own e-verify laws to combat the hiring of illegal immigrants, increasing its law enforcement’s presence in the Caribbean and along the southern border, and transporting illegal immigrants to “sanctuary” jurisdictions like Martha’s Vineyard.
However, those actions, state lawmakers said, always deferred to the supremacy of the federal government, and never ended in active deportation by state-level authorities.
“We’re not setting ourselves up in the mini ICE,” state Sen. Randy Fine, co-sponsor of the illegal immigration legislation, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 13 in a phone interview.
“We’re setting ourselves up so we can deploy the full power of the state of Florida to assist the federal government, led by Donald Trump, to deport these criminal illegals,” he said, adding the bill respects the federal government’s supremacy.
DeSantis also mentioned the state’s inability to directly handle deportation, depending on cooperation at the federal level.
He and other lawmakers praised the fact they now had a president who prioritized cracking down on illegal immigration.
“Governor DeSantis doesn’t have to be out there by himself on an island,” Collins said of Trump’s return to the White House. ”He’s got a president who’s working arm and leading the way as well.”
