Florida is leading Trump’s immigration crackdown

Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers in Florida passed a slew of immigration bills that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed less than an hour after they were sent to him. “Today, the Florida Legislature has passed the strongest legislation to combat illegal immigration of any state in the entire country,” DeSantis said. “We are ahead of the curve on ending the illegal immigration crisis.”

Florida—amid some legal challenges—is showing how Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda can be brought to, and enhanced, by states eager to aid the current administration.

It’s a move the White House wants. The Florida laws came into effect just a few weeks after President Donald Trump issued an executive order entitled, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” The order, among other actions, called on local law enforcement “to perform the functions of immigration officers in relation to the investigation, apprehension, or detention of aliens in the United States.” Immigration enforcement is in the purview of the federal government. Such a request asks sheriffs and officers to help join in.

Since the call from Trump, hundreds of local law enforcement agencies nationwide have stepped up to help US Immigration and Customs Enforcement with its detention and deportation agenda. The agencies are participating in what is known as the 287(g) program, which deputizes local police and jails with immigration enforcement powers.

Agencies can participate in different ways. Officers on patrol, for example, can notify ICE if they’ve encountered someone with an immigration warrant. County jails can also hold immigrants for ICE, or detention deputies can be granted the power to conduct their investigations on people they suspect could be living in the US without status.

For years, immigrant advocacy groups have accused the program of leading to racial profiling and decreasing trust in law enforcement. Under the Biden administration, fewer than 150 such agreements were in place in communities across the country, many of them remnants from Trump’s first term. 

But, in the last four months since Trump returned to the White House, the number of agreements has tripled, with 321 local agencies enrolling in 287(g) just this year. Notably, roughly half of those are from Florida, according to data on ICE’s website. Pending 287(g) agreements—for those waiting to join the program after review—are starker: 71 of the 107 law enforcement agencies hoping to work with ICE are from Florida.

This was part of DeSantis’ plan. One of the laws signed requires all county jails and the sheriff’s offices running those facilities to participate in the 287(g) program. Beyond this, dozens of other Florida law enforcement agencies—like police departments—have recently enrolled in 287(g), even though they are not required to do so by law. One likely reason for this, says Alana Greer, director of the Community Justice Project in Miami, could be that many of those agreements stem from local officials who fear retaliation from the DeSantis administration. “It’s this big fear campaign,” she says.

There is also confusion about what the law requires of police agencies, Greer said. Another bill this year to require all Florida law enforcement to engage with ICE, not just sheriffs, failed to pass. Greer pointed to a city in Miami-Dade County that has asked a judge to clarify whether their police department was now required to enroll in 287(g). 

Growing cooperation between ICE and police in Florida will affect the day-to-day lives of immigrant families. “It’s not just about [an immigrant asking]: ‘What happens if I have to have an interaction with a police officer in some sort of criminal context?’” Greer says. “Living your life and existing in this community is now an extreme risk to being able to come home and see your kids, being able to come home and see your family. It is incredibly frightening.”

State cooperation with federal immigration authorities can lead to “rippling harm” on the communities that police are meant to serve and protect, says Shayna Kessler, director of the Advancing Universal Representation Initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice. “It increases distrust in law enforcement. It increases fear in immigrant communities, it decreases the ability of immigrants to take care of their families, to support the economy, and to be strong and stable members of their communities.”

Among the other bills signed by DeSantis is SB 4-C, which would allow law enforcement to arrest and prosecute undocumented immigrants for being in the state without legal status. In April, immigrant advocacy groups challenged the law in federal court, citing that the law oversteps “the federal government’s well established exclusive immigration powers” and also violates the Commerce Clause, a federal provision that gives Congress power over commerce between states. A federal judge temporarily blocked the law from taking effect, and last week, extended her order after learning that Florida law enforcement were still making arrests under SB 4-C. 

The state has also created its own board of immigration enforcement led by DeSantis and his cabinet, which is charged with coordinating and cooperating state efforts with federal immigration authorities. The board oversees a new state council led by eight police chiefs and sheriffs that will advise the board on how to distribute $250 million in grants to local law enforcement to be used toward their partnerships with ICE.

The council meets regularly and at a recent virtual gathering on April 9, members continued to iron out the details of the grant program. They discussed how much money will be allocated to various agencies on the basis of their size, and what those funds can be used for. Some options that were discussed included additional beds in county jails, bonuses for officers participating in the 287(g) program, and further law enforcement training. 

At the council’s first meeting last month, members reviewed a PowerPoint presentation detailing the 287(g) program. It included examples of some immigrants recently detained in Florida, including a man from Mexico charged with 20 counts of child pornography and a man from Cuba charged with DUI manslaughter. “Under no circumstance should they be allowed back in our communities, and without maximizing cooperation between the county jail and ICE, that’s exactly what happens,” the PowerPoint reads.

When I described some of these criminal cases to Kessler, she pointed to research that found immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than their US-born counterparts. “Perpetuation of these scare tactics,” she says, “are pitting communities against each other.”