POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Undocumented immigrants with deportation orders who encounter Florida police, deputies and troopers will find themselves on the fast track to being deported under a renewed partnership between ICE and the state’s 67 county jails.
The partnership existed during the first Trump administration in some Florida counties, but sheriffs on Monday announced the final sign-ons. The partnership became a requirement under Florida’s recent special immigration session.
“It just makes sense,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a press conference Monday, announcing ICE had uploaded half of Florida’s 1.4 million deportation orders to the statewide crime-fighting database.
Gualtieri said the program withered under the Biden administration, which required a conviction before ICE would swoop in. That gave accused criminals the ability to walk free from jails – and potentially disappear.
He said he went from 400 deportation agreements per year under the Trump administration to just 14 under the first year of Biden’s presidency.
Now, the agency will take custody of a detainee within 48 hours after their criminal case wraps up, whether their sentence is finished or if the charges are dropped.
Gualtieri and other sheriffs emphasized the program would only target criminals, but he admitted something as minor as a traffic stop could trigger the process. He and other sheriffs said they had little time to go after law-abiding people, even if they are here illegally.
“If you’re here with your kids… paying your taxes, you’re not our priority,” he said.
Under Florida law, people who are victims or witnesses to crimes are exempt from being reported to ICE. The sheriffs on Monday called on crime victims to come forward without fear of being deported.
“The concern I have for many of my law-abiding clients are those who sometimes have a bad day, perhaps they were in a fight with their spouse, and the police were called,” Orlando immigration attorney Nayef Mubarak said. “Once you’re in ICE custody in the Florida State criminal charges are dismissed, it’s it doesn’t matter you’re now in the deportation process.”
Mubarak agreed with the general premise of the program and said there was little debate over deporting people with criminal records, but it was those grey area situations that made him pause.
“I have those with green cards asking me if it’s safe to go to the grocery store to fly domestically, and they’re lawful permanent residents,” he said. “So the way that it’s being focused on and very tough language about removing individuals even intimidates those who are law-abiding residents who have permission to be here.”
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