(The Center Square) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Friday that state law enforcement officers “have apprehended almost 3,000 illegal aliens,” with 500 of them having criminal records.
DeSantis also said at a news conference in Orlando that 600 of them have been processed through the detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades. The prison has drawn protests from Democrats concerned with what they term “human rights violations.”
The Highway Patrol will also create a new immigration enforcement section within the Bureau of Criminal Investigations.
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Wilton Simpson said his law enforcement branch is building a new interdiction station on U.S. 231 at the Alabama-Florida border. He said his agency’s law enforcement officers are acting as a “force multiplier” for local and federal partners involved in immigration enforcement efforts.
According to DeSantis, 1,800 Florida Highway Patrol officers as of Friday have received their training and credentials as immigration officers under the 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The second-term GOP governor also said that 100 troopers have been deputized as U.S. marshals, allowing them to carry out federal search warrants.
DeSantis said he has even considered adding Camp Blanding, the Florida National Guard’s primary training facility in north-central Florida, as a possible site to detain people illegally in the country.
The former presidential candidate said that all 67 of Florida’s county sheriffs’ offices are also participating in the 287(g) program.
“There’s no other state in the country that can match our efforts,” DeSantis said. “In fact, there’s no other state that is even in the ballpark of our efforts. I don’t think you’ve seen any state in the country work more closely with these federal agencies to fulfill a very key mission, a mandate from the American people after the 2024 election, to get this job done. So we’re showing that it can be done.
“So we can sit on our hands and watch the problems not get solved, or we can be part of the solution and help lead the efforts among the states to get the job done.”
DeSantis cited Operation Tidal Wave as one example of how cooperation between state, local and federal law enforcement agencies is helping enforce the nation’s immigration laws.
Operation Tidal Wave was executed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state and local law enforcement agencies in south Florida in April that arrested 1,120 people suspected of illegally entering the country, the most in the agency’s history in one state.
The 287(g) program is named after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996, 8 USC 1357, Section 287(g)(1), which authorizes ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration functions only under ICE’s direction and supervision.
Sworn state and local law enforcement officers have the ability under the 287(g) program to interrogate any suspects on immigration status. If they’re in violation of the country’s immigration laws, they can be further detained and processed.
“Everglades Alcatraz” is located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport owned by Miami-Dade County and is located roughly 60 miles east of Miami near Everglades National Park. It has a capacity to handle up to 1,000.
