Sheriffs Gear Up to Aid Immigration Enforcement

By Dara Kam, The News Service of Tallahassee

TALLAHASSEE — All of the state’s 67 counties have entered agreements with federal immigration authorities to detain undocumented immigrant criminals in jails, the Florida Sheriffs Association announced on Monday as the state rushes to assist President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

The agreements bring counties into compliance with part of a state law (SB 2-C) passed during a special legislative session this month aimed at boosting enforcement of illegal immigration. Under the agreements, sheriffs’ deputies with special training can process immigration “detainers” issued by federal authorities to keep inmates in jail. The inmates can be kept up to 48 hours before being picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The “warrant service officer” program is a key part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and focuses on undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes or been ordered to be deported by judges, according to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

Gualtieri has worked closely with Trump administration officials as they make changes to what is known as the “287(g)” program that allows local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts.

“Their priority is apprehending and deporting as quickly as possible those who are criminally illegal, public safety threats, national security threats, those who have been previously deported and come back again,” Gualtieri said Monday at a news conference in Winter Haven. “The most pressing need they have is people who are booked into our jails … so these people are not released back into our community to commit more crimes.”

Training for deputies to participate in the program, which Gualtieri said was halted throughout former President Joe Biden’s tenure, is expected to ramp up quickly.

“Implementing the process under which all jails will be able to hold these criminals is well underway, and we hope to have it fully operational within the next 15 to 30 days,” Gualtieri said. “This is a big deal because it means criminals like these, people who kill, people who steal, people who break into people’s houses, people who rape kids, will be deported directly from jail and not released back to the street. … It just makes sense, from the jail out of here, as opposed to, (from) the jail back to the street.”

As state and local efforts accelerate, sheriffs warned that the Trump administration needs to quickly increase the number of beds available for undocumented immigrants waiting to be processed and deported. Federal immigration authorities have about 2,000 beds in Florida “and they’re full,” Gualtieri said.

The Pinellas County sheriff said he is holding 150 undocumented immigrants on detainers at his jail, which has 3,000 inmates.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said bed capacity is the “number one” issue for federal immigration authorities. Florida sheriffs are conducting an inventory of available beds, but the anticipated ramp-up of county enforcement efforts could “overwhelm the current ability to house people in days,” according to Judd.

“There’s not capacity in the Florida sheriffs or the county jails to make any negligible difference,” Judd said. “We will overwhelm this system very rapidly and we intend to work very aggressively but that’s why we’re here making this statement today. They have to create capacity.”

Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell, who serves as president of the sheriffs association, said sheriffs are getting educated about “very, very complex” immigration laws as the federal government revamps enforcement programs.

“It’s all very fluid,” Prummell said. “We’re all trying to catch on and learn how this works. … There’s a lot of chaos up there in D.C. still, so sometimes the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing up there. So we’re trying to get a whole handle on what’s going on up there so we can start implementing policies, procedures and what we need to do to get the job done, to keep our citizens safe here.”

The new Florida immigration law also created a State Board of Immigration Enforcement, which is made up of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Attorney General James Uthmeier and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. Decisions made by the board must be unanimous. The board met for the first time last week and named as its executive director Larry Keefe, a former North Florida federal prosecutor who served as DeSantis’ “public safety czar.”

Lawmakers during the special session also approved a measure (SB 4-C) that makes it a state crime for undocumented immigrants to enter or attempt to enter Florida. People who violate the law face a mandatory nine-month jail sentence.

Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, told reporters Monday that the law is “overly broad and vague” and will “lead to rampant racial profiling” of people who are perceived to be immigrants.

“This law and the rhetoric surrounding it create an environment that will inevitably lead to racial and ethnic profiling of anyone perceived to be an immigrant based on the color of their skin, the accent in their voice, the neighborhoods they live in, or the restaurants and businesses they frequent,” Gross said.

But the sheriffs pushed back when asked if the new laws would result in racial profiling.

“We’re tired of hearing that crap. That’s BS,” Judd said.

Local and federal officials are targeting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes or those who have been ordered to leave the country, he argued.

“Take a deep breath. Save that crazy talk for somebody else. … We’ve got a plate full of illegal immigrants committing crimes and warrants to deport those that have flaunted the system, and all this crazy talk just scares people that don’t need to be scared. Just follow what the federal government tells you to do when they tell you to do it,” Judd said.