Gov. Ron DeSantis is questioning the federal government’s recruitment of Florida’s local and state police who are focused on enforcing immigration laws.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been recruiting officers with specialized training to work for the federal agency, ABC news reported Thursday.
“I know that there’s some sheriffs that have some strong feelings about it,” DeSantis said Friday during a news conference in Orlando, flanked by Florida Highway Patrol troopers and the members of the Florida Cabinet.
ICE is “dangling like a lot of bonus money and all this other stuff,” as the governor put it, to local and state officers who’ve received partial or full training in enforcing immigration laws and participating in 287(g) agreements.
“Why not recruit additional people to be supplementing that instead of just kind of displacing?” DeSantis said.
He bragged that Florida has made a stronger effort than any other state in deputizing state and local law enforcement officers to act on behalf of ICE. According to data released this week from that agency, approximately 320 of the nearly 900 agencies in the United States that have signed agreements with ICE are in Florida.
“That’s been a huge help to ICE right? Let’s just be clear, that’s been a huge benefit to those federal agencies. And so now, if you’re in a situation where those folks are being poached off of that mission, well it’s like, wait a minute, how is that? Why don’t you bring in new people to supplement a mission going forward?” DeSantis said.
The agency has offered willing officers up to a $50,000 bonus, paid over five years, ABC reported.
“I think we want to continue doing what we’re doing. But sheriffs losing deputies who are in this fight to just go wear a different jersey, basically, but still be in the fight, that doesn’t necessarily add to what we’re doing. It’s just moving someone over. And so I think there is frustration from that, and so, we’ll see,” DeSantis said.
Also in the ABC report, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri called ICE’s outreach “wrong.”
“We have partnered with ICE like no other state to help ICE do its job of illegal immigration enforcement,” Gualtieri told the news organization. “ICE actively trying to use our partnership to recruit our personnel is wrong and we have expressed our concern to ICE leadership.”
DeSantis said he told sheriffs it’s up to them to “fight for what you think is right” and that he’s “heard a lot of static coming out of our sheriff’s departments” about the recruitment letters.
Everglades detention center
The news conference, nearly an hour and a half in length, featured the governor reciting the state’s record on immigration enforcement, including talking extensively about the Everglades deportation center that’s garnered national attention.
The governor referenced news reports about the conditions inside the temporary facility. NBC reported “torturous conditions in cage-like units full of mosquitoes, where fluorescent lights shine bright on them at all times.”
“Phony narratives,” DeSantis called them but suggested: “Maybe they will have the intent, the effect, of deterring people from going there and choosing this option.”
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando, responded to the governor’s news conference in a written statement.
“Ron DeSantis and his hand-picked Cabinet didn’t come to Orlando to solve problems — they came to peddle a half-billion-dollar anti-immigrant grift. While everyday Floridians are struggling with the cost of living, DeSantis is using taxpayer dollars to fund a secretive detention camp, rip families apart, and divert our public safety officials away from real community needs,” she said in a written statement.
“They talk about enforcing the law while breaking it — hiding contracts, denying people due process, and using an appointed Attorney General who was just found in contempt of court. They intimidate local elected officials and ignore home rule, not based on laws but on political agendas. This isn’t leadership. It’s lawlessness.
“Floridians deserve better than political theater. Shut down the Everglades camp, restore transparency, and start putting people before politics.”
In addition to the Attorney General James Uthmeir, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, and Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson, DeSantis was joined by Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Director Dave Kerner, FHP Director Gary Howze II, and State Board of Immigration Enforcement Director Larry Keefe.
Republican leaders will gather in Orlando this weekend for the Florida Freedom Forum, a fundraiser for the Republican Party of Florida.
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