by Liv Caputo, Florida Phoenix
Florida’s Republican sheriffs want President Donald Trump to end mass deportations of undocumented immigrants who haven’t committed crimes, a striking shift from law enforcement in the nation’s most aggressive anti-undocumented immigration state.
“While Congress sits on their hands and does nothing about this, we are on the ground floor with this day in and day out — looking in the eyes of these folks that, yes, came here inappropriately. But some came here inappropriately only to do better for themselves and their family,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Monday during a State Immigration Enforcement Council meeting.
He plans to draft a letter to Trump, the U.S. House Speaker, and the Senate majority leader urging better guidelines over which undocumented immigrants should be targeted for deportation.
Judd’s comments are remarkable. A leading conservative, he’s also chair of the eight-sheriff council tapped by Republican leaders last year to shape hardline immigration policy. He’s also a favorite of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Although this is a drastic break with DeSantis — who for years has insisted that any migrant illegally in the country “needs to go”— Judd’s comments come days after the White House privately told Republicans to stop talking about mass deportations.
Judd added that a Florida Cabinet member had talked “about this kind of immigrant,” with Trump, who “was not anti-that conversation.”
At least six of the eight sheriffs on the council echoed Judd during Monday’s Microsoft Teams meeting. One said the state has cast “too wide of a net;” another urged Judd to write to Congress, and a third offered harsh criticisms of ICE tactics.
“I wholeheartedly agree that Congress, they need to get off their butts and they need to fix it,” Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell agreed. “We’re not out … just raiding business and homes, but, unfortunately, when ICE gets involved, you have the collaterals.”
ICE and Border Patrol have shot 14 people in their quest to ramp up mass deportations, the main platform Trump ran on ahead of his second presidential term. At least two U.S citizens, both in Minnesota, were killed.
Both agencies are under the Department of Homeland Security. Until a few weeks ago, it was run by Kristi Noem — embattled by allegations of slow-walking disaster funds, misusing deportation dollars, and having an affair with a “special adviser.”
The sheriffs agreed Monday that they would jointly draft and edit the letter to Trump and Congress, imploring the administration to stop deporting undocumented immigrants without a criminal record.
Instead, Judd suggested, they could look at civil fines, demand they learn English, or disallow them from living off the taxpayer dime.
The Legislature created the Florida Immigration Enforcement Council last year to advise the newly-founded State Board of Immigration on enforcing immigration laws. The board comprises DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet — Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
DeSantis, the Cabinet, Senate President Ben Albritton, and House Speaker Danny Perez appointed the eight sheriffs on the council.
The groups are part of a broader push by DeSantis to assert Florida as the top immigration enforcement state in the nation, as shown by its first-in-the nation “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center and status as the only state forcing all of its counties to partner with ICE.
“I don’t mean give [non-criminal immigrants] a free pass,” Judd said, listing potential smaller ways to punish undocumented immigrants, including making them put their kids in school.
“But we already know those people are doing that, and primarily going to Catholic Church … on Sunday. Those are the folks that we need in this country that we embrace,” he continued.
“We are a country of immigrants.”
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