State officials discuss how FHP officers are now making immigration arrests
Larry Keefe, executive director of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, speaking in Tampa on May 12, 2025. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
Gov. Ron DeSantis and other government officials held a news conference in Tampa on Monday to discuss immigration arrests made last week by the Florida Highway Patrol, which for the first time has that authority.
The Legislature passed and DeSantis signed legislation in February that allows local and state law enforcement agencies to enter into what are known as 287 (g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to execute immigration enforcement inside Florida.
Master Sergeant Joshua Malloy with the Troop C Criminal Interdiction Unit of the Florida Highway Patrol said on Monday that troopers 'executed an operations enforcement operation' in Tampa last week that resulted in the apprehension of 30 undocumented immigrants in just over an hour.
'While this was the first operation featured on national news, it was part of a much larger effort where state troopers were working either independently or directly with the federal government to enforce federal and state laws,' Malloy added.
That 'national news' that Malloy referred to was how the FHP gave exclusive access to a Fox News reporter on a ride-around last week to report on the operation, which featured footage of an FHP officer running after a man on I-4 after 'his legal status was questioned,' according to the reporter.
'During this operation, three undocumented aliens fled from one of our traffic stops and ran across several lanes on I-4,' Malloy said — adding that, after the man was caught, he was transported to the Hillsborough County jail and 'charged with felony burglary amongst other charges.'
Working with ICE last month in a statewide operation labeled 'Operation Tidal Wave,' several Florida law enforcement agencies helped arrest more than 1,100 undocumented immigrants. That will now become the 'new normal,' according to Larry Keefe, executive director of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement.
'Florida was kind of like a pushy partner,' Keefe added at the press conference. 'We can do more. We have more capacity, more capability.' He displayed a 37-page document that he labelled the 'Florida blueprint' to achieve the mass deportations goal issued by the Donald Trump White House.
Dave Kerner, executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said that the FHP is 'the first in the nation to be delegated federal enforcement authority in the immigration space,' adding that 1,800 state troopers have been credentialed and delegated federal immigration enforcement authority.
'What that means is that if you see a state trooper, he or she has federal authority to detain, investigate, apprehend, and deport,' he said, adding that those troopers have been in some way involved in the arrests of more than 1,000 undocumented immigrants in Florida this year.
DeSantis said that approximately 70,000-80,000 undocumented immigrants have already appeared before immigration judges in Florida. He referred to a proposal under consideration that if approved by the federal government would allow Florida National Guard military judge advocates to serve as immigration judges, establishing temporary detention facilities and providing transportation.
Along with the FHP, Florida law enforcement agencies that have signed collaboration agreements with ICE include the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida State Guard, the Florida Department of Agricultural Law Enforcement, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, according to an announcement by DeSantis in February.
Meanwhile, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit last week of a decision by a federal judge in South Florida to block the law (SB 4-C) passed in February that bars undocumented people in the U.S. from entering the state.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida has suspended enforcement of the law but Uthmeier has said he won't tell state or local law enforcement officials to stop apprehending undocumented migrants, despite the fact that the judge has said she could hold him in contempt later this month. DeSantis has said he stands by Uthmeier's decision.
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