Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw joined Gov. Ron DeSantis’ effort Thursday morning to publicly bash the Republican-led Legislature over its passage of an immigration bill the governor has labeled weak.
Bradshaw is not the only law enforcement elected official who has sided with DeSantis against the Legislature. Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey vouched for the governor Wednesday during his first public roundtable to condemn the bill, known as the TRUMP Act.
DeSantis has vowed to veto the legislation lawmakers passed Tuesday night.
“I trust the governor to do the right thing, to protect the people in the state,” Bradshaw said during the event at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Training Facility. “That’s what he’s always done since he got elected, and I’m hoping at the end of the day, the people in the Legislature will do the right thing also.”
A day earlier, Ivey said he had been working with the governor’s office to draft proposals tackling unauthorized immigration.
“While sheriffs don’t make laws, what I can tell you is that we’re ready to rock and roll when a piece of legislation is placed on this man’s desk that he is ready to sign,” Ivey said at the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
Throughout this week, DeSantis has held the roundtables, appeared on conservative talk shows, and posted on social media to slam Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez for ditching the governor’s proposals and making Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson Florida’s chief immigration officer.
However, not all sheriffs are dissing the TRUMP Act, Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell, who is president of the Florida Sheriffs Association, released a statement in support of the Legislature on Tuesday.
“The Florida Legislature has worked closely with us to ensure our concerns are heard so we have the tools we need to effectively and efficiently remove criminal aliens from our communities across the State of Florida, thus protecting Floridians and visitors of our great State,” Prummell wrote in the statement posted on X. “We are thankful for their support.”
Additionally, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri answered questions in favor of the bill from senators during a committee meeting Monday.
Addressing Democratic Sen. Daryl Rouson about whether he had concerns, Gualtieri said, “I like the bill. I support the bill. I think it’s good policy for the state of Florida.”
Chief immigration officer
Still, DeSantis insists that empowering Simpson as the top leader on immigration would sabotage cooperation between local and state law enforcement and federal agencies. The governor wants to appoint the chief immigration officer and wants that position under his office.
“But you have to do a ‘mother may I’ to the Commissioner of Agriculture about whether you can bring in the federal immigration authorities,” DeSantis said on Thursday. “How ridiculous is that?”
Under the TRUMP Act, the chief immigration officer would be the state’s official liaison between the federal government and state and local law enforcement responsible for coordinating enforcement of federal immigration laws.
“I can tell you this, governor, without a doubt, I ain’t asking permission to go get these bad guys from anywhere,” Bradshaw said. “We’re going to keep on doing what we’re doing to enforce those laws, to keep the people safe in this county.”
Perez and Albritton have defended the bill on X. Responding to criticism from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that the TRUMP Act would obstruct coordination efforts, the Senate president wrote that “under the governor’s bill, the ‘State Immigration Enforcement Coordinator’ would be an unelected bureaucrat at [the Department of Emergency Management.]”
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