Latest news with #OperationTidalWave
USA Today
26-07-2025
- USA Today
He lived an immigrant's nightmare. One problem: He's a citizen, got his arrest on video
Caught on video: Federal ICE officials detained US citizen, others for hours after stopping landscaping crew, pulling them from van and tasing one. PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida ‒ Kenny Laynez's cellphone camera captured every undocumented immigrant's nightmare on video when he was arrested. One problem: He is a U.S. citizen. The video, shot May 2, showed Florida Highway Patrol officers and Border Patrol agents stopping the 18-year-old landscaper and his three coworkers ‒ one of them his mother ‒ as they drove past luxury buildings to a job. The camera captured officers dragging his coworkers out of their van by their necks and twisting Laynez's arms and pushing him face down to the pavement. The video also recorded an officer shooting one of Laynez's coworkers with a Taser, saying he had resisted arrest. 'I have rights. I was born and raised here," Laynez told the officers, according to a copy of the video shared by the Guatemalan-Maya Center of Lake Worth Beach. "You don't have any rights here. You are a 'Migo,' brother,' the officer said, referring to his ethnicity. He hurried the 18-year-old into a van. Laynez was released from a Riviera Beach federal facility six hours later, with the video still on his cellphone. His coworkers, including the one who was tased, were undocumented and weren't as fortunate. They were transferred to the Krome Detention Center in Miami. Laynez said they are free on bail but fear they will be arrested if they show up in court. Deportations accelerate: Shock and anger: Florida immigrant communities react to 'Operation Tidal Wave' The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, recently interviewed Laynez and made multiple attempts to contact FHP, ICE and Border Patrol for comment about the incident and the body-camera footage, as well as multiple requests for copies of the arrest reports. None of them responded. Laynez said he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction without violence simply to get the incident over with. He entered a pretrial diversion program on June 4. The state will drop the charges July 30 if he completes the program by then. "They treated us like dogs they picked up in the street," Layzez said. "They are just pulling over people and kidnapping people who are hard-working." "We are not criminals. We were just heading to work." Trump at 'Alligator Alcatraz': Facts on Florida Everglades immigration detention center ICE arrests spread fear among immigrants Videos like Laynez's showing federal agents arresting day laborers have left immigrant families across Palm Beach County and the rest of the country in fear. Even families in which some members are documented have laid low, sometimes not going to school or church. West Palm Beach attorney Jack Scarola has reviewed Laynez's footage and has talked with him about the incident. He said the footage shows how FHP and Border Patrol agents are under "extreme pressure" to meet daily arrest and deportation quotas and that the response has led to a "reckless disregard" of the rights of both undocumented and legal immigrants and even the rights of U.S. citizens. 'All of us should be not only offended, but outraged by that misconduct,' Scarola said. 'And if we fail to appropriately respond to that outrageous disregard of the civil rights of others, all of our civil rights are in serious jeopardy.' Stopped while heading to work Kenny Laynez was born in 2005 at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach to a Guatemalan single mother who is in the U.S. legally but is not a citizen. He attended Palm Beach Lakes High School and got a job at the landscaping company where his mother drove crews to work sites. Neither Laynez nor his mother works for the company any longer. Laynez said he and his mother met two coworkers on May 2 at a gas station and drove to a landscaping job near North Palm Beach. The coworkers, Esdras and Marroquin, are undocumented but neither had criminal records, Laynez said. The Post is withholding their last names to protect their families. Although his mother wasn't speeding, just after they crossed the bridge on Singer Island, they heard a police siren. An officer rolled down a tinted window and signaled to her to pull over. The officer asked where they were headed. Laynez said they were going to work and the officer took his mother's license and the truck's registration and insurance. The officer returned and said his mother's license was suspended, to all their surprise. Laynez said he asked the officer why he pulled them over. He didn't see how the officer could have known his mother's license was suspended by running the company truck's license plate. Laynez said the officer asked if they were "illegal." Laynez said they were not and asked what that had to do with the license. A van pulled up and more armed agents swarmed the truck. A female officer approached his window and ordered them in Spanish to shut off their phones. Laynez said that at that moment, he started recording with his phone instead: "I assumed something was going to happen.' The video of the raid What he captured on video begins with a question. "Who in here is illegal?' The officer asked in Spanish. "Whoever takes longer to answer will get more charges and spend more time in jail.' Esdras, who is seen clenching a towel in his hands, raised his hand. The male agent ordered them to open the door. Laynez grabbed onto the handle. 'Wait, hold up,' Laynez said. 'You don't have the right to do that.' 'I don't have a right?' the officer said with a laugh. He reached inside the car and popped the door open. The video shows an agent grabbing Marroquin by the hair and placing his neck in the crook of his arm. Another agent pulled Esdras, called Kevin by his coworkers, by the leg and tightened his hands around his neck. The video then shows Laynez stepping out of the car, but an officer who had ordered him to get on the ground pushes him from behind, twisting his arms and kneeling him to the pavement. Esdras stood rigidly as three officers tried to force him to the ground. They told him in English to lie down, while Laynez urged him in Spanish not to resist. 'Aye! What are you doing? That is not how you arrest people,' Laynez said. The video shows an officer pulling out a yellow Taser and firing twice into Esdras' stomach. Laynez saw his body and legs spasm before he slammed onto the pavement, crying. An agent pressed his knee on Laynez's back and forced him face down to the pavement. An officer later ordered Laynez to stand up, but he said he was too scared to move. 'I am not going to get up because you are going to do to me whatever you were doing to Esdras,' Laynez said. 'That is not how you arrest people." 'Be quiet,' an officer said, cutting him off and picking him up. 'I've got the right to talk,' Laynez said. 'I was born and raised here.' 'You have no rights here. You are a 'Migo,' brother," the officer said in a comment Laynez said sounded like racial profiling. Laynez's mother can be heard crying in the background. Video records officers laughing at immigration arrest Laynez's phone continued recording on the sidewalk and captured a conversation between the agents over the next four minutes. 'Once she got the proper spread on him, he was done,' the officer said. "You're funny, bro.' 'It was funny,' an agent said, laughing. 'It was,' another chimed in with laughter. Another agent said more people are resisting their immigration arrests. "They are starting to resist now," an agent said. "We're going to end up shooting someone." On the video, an agent recounted how Laynez said they didn't have the right to come in the door and says: 'I already told you to come out. If you don't come out, I'll pull you out.' 'God damn. Wow,' the officer cheered. 'Nice!' 'Just remember you can smell too with a $30,000 bonus,' another officer chimes in. It was not immediately clear to what bonus the officer referred. On the tape, an officer is heard saying that Laynez's coworker was resisting arrest, so he should be charged. 'He was being a d*** right now. That is why we tased,' an agent said. The phone recording stopped shortly after that exchange, its memory out of storage. The agents confirmed Laynez's mother had legal status and issued her a ticket for driving with a suspended license. Laynez said she told them he was a U.S. citizen and showed them a picture of his Social Security card. They still took Laynez into custody. Laynez said that before leaving, the officers held his mother's driver's license to her face and tore it in half. U.S. citizen spent six hours in detention facility: What he saw Once at the Riviera Beach facility, Laynez said he saw rows of men. Most spoke Spanish and wore construction clothes like his own. Two looked like they were his age, 17 or 18. Laynez said he appeared to be the only one inside the packed room who spoke English. He said the men told them they had been detained for hours without water or food. Laynez wanted to use the bathroom, but the only toilet available was out in the open, without any doors or covers. After almost four hours, the female officer who detained them took Laynez to a room and asked for his date of birth three times, even though he had already written it down for another officer. Finally, she came out with a ziplocked bag with his phone, wallet and headphones. In Spanish, she asked him to unlock it. Laynez said she told him she needed to see if he had filmed videos of the arrest. Laynez said he unlocked his phone, closed all his apps and locked it again. He said he declined to open it and set it down on the table. He said she told him they would wait in that room until he opened it. She asked again for his date of birth. Laynez said he trembled. That was his password. Laynez said the officer threatened to press charges if he didn't unlock his phone, but then a person who appeared to be a supervisor interrupted them. Laynez said the supervisor said Laynez wasn't supposed to be in that room because he is a U.S. citizen. The supervisor took Laynez's fingerprints and said it was only to leave a record that he had been in the facility. Then he told Laynez he couldn't leave without signing some paperwork and that he would have to show up in court. "What did I do?' Laynez said he asked while signing. "I didn't do anything. Why do I have to present myself in court?' The arrest report said Laynez was being charged with nonviolent police obstruction. In a copy of the report that Laynez provided to The Palm Beach Post, officers wrote that Esdras had resisted his arrest. Laynez is not mentioned. After six hours, Laynez said he walked out the door of the Riviera Beach building and ordered an Uber home. He had almost 100 missed calls from his mother. Laynez said the footage of the arrests haunts him, but he doesn't regret filming. "I would basically have nothing, no evidence,' Laynez said. 'And no one would believe what happened or how they escalated the situation. "There might be even more happening that is not being recorded."
New York Post
22-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Florida AG offers to deport your ex if they're illegal migrant: ‘Happy to assist'
Florida's top prosecutor is encouraging spurned exes to turn in their former partners who are in the state illegally — so he can deport them. 'We recently got a tip from someone whose abusive ex overstayed a tourism visa. He is now cued up for deportation,' Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier tweeted Tuesday. 'If your ex is in this country illegally, please feel free to reach out to our office. We'd be happy to assist,' he offered. Advertisement Social-media users jumped at the idea. 'This is expert level savage,' a person posted on X. 'I love it!' Another user quipped, 'How about Mother-In-Laws?' Advertisement 3 Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said you can report your ex to his office if they are in the country illegally. AP Someone added, 'This is exactly the kind of proactive support victims need. 'No one should have to live in fear thank you for standing up for safety and the rule of law.' One user said to 'expect an increase in the number of reports' to the AG's office after the announcement. Advertisement Florida, with GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis at the helm, has been among the states leading the support for President Trump's unprecedented deportation efforts since he returned to the White House for his second term in January. While ICE arrests have more than doubled nationwide in 2025, they've tripled in Florida, with 64 arrests per day statewide compared to 20 arrests in 2024, according to a New York Times analysis last month. 3 Netizens cracked jokes about the the AG's offer. 3 Migrants were deported by the United States to El Salvador under one Trump administration immigration crackdown. AP Advertisement That puts Florida second for daily ICE arrests only behind Texas, which averages about 142 per day. A state-wide, days-long operation in Florida in April dubbed Operation Tidal Wave — the largest of its kind in ICE's history — netted 1,120 criminal illegal migrants. Florida has also opened its controversial Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention facility in the middle of the Florida Everglades, which was built to help ICE reach its migrant deportation targets. Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court shot down a new Florida law that would bar illegal immigrants from entering the state after it filed an emergency appeal to have it upheld. The law, which makes it a misdemeanor offense to enter Florida as an illegal immigrant, was signed by DeSantis in February. Uthmeier argued that the law was necessary to protect Floridians from 'the deluge of illegal immigration,' in his appeal to the Supreme Court, which was supported by 17 other states.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE detains over 100 in one of Florida's largest immigration raids
More than 100 people were detained in one of Florida's largest single-day immigration raids at a Tallahassee construction site on May 29 in what was described as a panicked scene with some law enforcement wearing face coverings and camouflage. Homeland Security Investigations, which operates under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Florida Highway Patrol and other Florida and federal law enforcement agencies conducted the immigration raids at a student housing development site in the College Town neighborhood by Florida State University. Another construction site nearby was raided an hour earlier, worker Michael Martinez told the Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA TODAY Network. Officers reportedly checked every individual's identification and permits before releasing or arresting them. The Department of Homeland Security said on social media that authorities had "arrested more than 100 illegal aliens, some of which were previously deported and others with criminal backgrounds," calling it "a targeted enforcement operation." People detained in a bus told reporters at the scene they were from Mexico, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Honduras, while officials said others detained were from Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia. The raids come as President Donald Trump's administration touts its crackdown on migrants who enter the country illegally, expanding arrests nationwide while driving down border crossings. ICE agents have begun detaining people who show up for mandatory court appearances about their immigration cases. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have pushed the state to become the "toughest" on illegal immigration in the country this year, enacting laws and directing hundreds of millions of dollars to state and local law enforcement to expand the state's authority to detain and house undocumented immigrants to comply with Trump's mass deportation mandate. ICE and Florida law enforcement arrested 1,120 people in April during "Operation Tidal Wave," the largest joint immigration operation in Florida history. The operation lasted six days, from April 21 through April 26. In the last month, ICE raids have also rattled Nashville, where nearly 200 people were arrested in a weeklong operation, according to the Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. In northern Nevada, more than 50 were arrested in Reno, Carson City and Tahoe earlier in May and most have been deported, the Reno Gazette Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. Florida is currently appealing a federal judge's decision to temporarily block a new law creating state crimes for undocumented immigrants entering or re-entering Florida. The raid was likely the largest single illegal immigration sweep in Florida since DeSantis agreed to join in on Trump's aggressive mass deportation agenda. Here's what we know about the ICE raids in Tallahassee, Florida: Law enforcement officers detained more than 100 people at a construction site near the Florida State University campus. One detainee, 43-year-old Juan Carlos Hernandez, told the USA TODAY Network-Florida he didn't know where the group was being taken. Hernandez said he did not have a criminal record, and he said others on the bus had asylum cases. "I'm sad," he said. "It's not the time or the moment for us to leave." Many of the construction workers were in bright yellow shirts and jeans – work clothes. Some didn't have any money on them, Hernandez said, others were worried about their family members who they would be leaving behind. Some of those detained were handcuffed, while others were zip-tied. They were led into the back of white school buses with no air conditioning on a day where the feels-like temperature was 86 degrees. Pedro Arroliga, 30, held up his residency card and said he came from Nicaragua and has been a resident for two years. He said federal agents checked him inside the gate of the construction site and said he was OK to go, but then he was taken and put on the bus. Martinez, the worker from the other job site nearby, said agents came and raided his construction site about an hour earlier. People were fleeing and only a few got caught. 'It's just crazy how they're doing this,' Martinez said. Caity Salter, a recent Florida State University graduate, stood behind a fence with other FSU students watching the scene unfold. "Some of the people, the construction workers, (were in) zip ties and they were in a line ... and it was just very disturbing to see that," she said. Ray D'Amico, general superintendent for the plumbing contractor at the construction site, watched his employees, who were zip-tied and waiting to be processed by federal agents. Once word got out about the raid, he said, other construction sites in town stopped for the day and workers went home. Videos of laborers getting tackled to the ground by agents at 9 a.m. spread quickly, and by noon, many of Tallahassee's construction sites were silent. "This is infuriating. This is absolutely ridiculous," D'Amico said. To locate detainees who are 18 or older and in ICE custody for more than 48 hours, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website has an online detainee locator system. Click here for ICE inmate search According to ICE, you don't have to provide any information about yourself or create an account to use the system, but the system collects information including your internet domain, IP address and the internet address of the website from which you linked directly to the ODLS website. However, ICE says the information is not used to identify or track users and isn't used in immigration enforcement activities. Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY Network-Florida; Antonio Fins and Valentina Palm, Palm Beach Post This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ICE detains over 100 people in one of Florida's largest raids
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
With deportations on the rise, it's important immigrants, citizens alike know their rights
President Donald Trump has been known to shift his stance on issues from time to time, but his thoughts on immigration remain immutable. His first term focused on keeping migrants from entering the United States by building a wall that would span the 1,954-mile border between the Mexico-U.S. border. His second term has taken a more menacing tone as he pivots to an aggressive mass deportation campaign that has swept up young children with migrant parents and immigrants who legally live here. Florida has partnered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to coordinate arresting immigrants through an effort that Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt said is "a preview of what is to come around this country: large-scale operations that employ our state and local enforcement partners to get criminal illegal aliens off our street." The effort, dubbed "Operation Tidal Wave," led to the arrest of about 1,100 people from April 21-26, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis. "Operation Tidal Wave" targeted people in Miami-Dade and Broward counties and the cities of Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Stuart, Tallahassee and Fort Myers, according to records seen by the Miami Herald. All of them are areas with high immigrant populations. The total number of people deported by ICE has not been publicly shared, but data compiled by NBC News estimates the figure to be north of 40,000 as of April, which is just 4% of the one million people the White House has promised to move annually. The White House has set a goal of removing one million people annually. An estimated 10 million migrants live in the U.S. The data also shows that border crossings have plummeted, ICE arrests have doubled, and the number of people in detention is at an all-time high. Trump's deportation numbers still trail Biden's, who deported 271,484 immigrants last fiscal year, the most since 2014. Trump's deportations have caught national attention in part because of the lack of due process. In April, it was reported that three young children, ages 2, 4 and 7, who are all U.S. citizens, were removed from the country and sent to Honduras with their mother as she was deported. The most famous case so far involved Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal Salvadoran immigrant who was unlawfully deported back to El Salvador, where he was held at a supermax prison. It was learned on Friday that Garcia was returned to the U.S., where he now faces two human smuggling charges. The aggressive nature of these recent deportations make clear the importance of immigrants and U.S. citizens knowing their rights. The rights you are afforded will largely depend on where a confrontation with ICE occurs. Your home is one of the safest places to be because ICE can only enter your home if they have a valid judicial search warrant, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Knowing that information is important but won't be enough to get you through a potential confrontation. Here is how the ACLU advises people to respond. Don't open the door. Opening the door for an ICE agent is an opportunity for them to make an arrest. The ACLU urges people to ask the ICE officers to slide any warrants they may have underneath the door so you can review it. Verify that they have the correct warrant. This part is crucial: Check the warrant to see if it was issued by a court and signed by a judge. According to the ACLU, only a warrant officially issued and signed grants them permission to enter your home. A warrant issued and signed by the Department of Homeland Security or ICE does not give them the right to enter your home without permission. A judicial warrant is a warrant signed by a judge with "U.S. District Court" or a state court listed at the top. Other warrants, like a deportation warrant, do not allow entry without consent. If an ICE agent forces their way into your home, it is important that you do not act in a way that can be used against you later. You can reiterate that you do not consent to their entry, but you should not physically resist them, according to the ACLU. You should exercise your right to remain silent for the same reason. Tell the officers that you would like to speak with a lawyer. If they ask any questions, tell them that you would like to remain silent and wait to answer any questions until you can do so under legal counsel. In some cases, the ACLU says that ICE officers will attempt to have a person sign a form agreeing to be deported without due process. It is best not to sign any document until you have a lawyer present who can offer advice. A confrontation with ICE at work can be a little more complicated. Officers are allowed to be within the general public of a business without permission, but that doesn't give them the authority to detain, question or arrest anyone, according to the ACLU. If an ICE officer attempts to question you, do not answer them without a lawyer present. If they ask to search the property, bags or anyone's products, tell them that you do not consent and encourage your coworkers to do the same. Treat a traffic stop by ICE the same as any other. Turn on your emergency lights to acknowledge that you are being stopped, and then slowly pull over. Put your keys on the dashboard and place your hands in a visible location. Don't worry about searching for your license and registration until the officer makes contact and instructs you to do so. The Florida Immigrant Coalition says that you should not answer any questions about your immigration status or where you are from. If the officers appear agitated, tell them that you would like to use your right to remain silent and ask to speak with a lawyer. Do not consent to a search. Officers must have a judicial warrant to conduct a search unless they have reasonable suspicion. If ICE officers show up at your school, it's important to know the legal rights teachers and students have. Here's a breakdown of educator and student rights when it comes to ICE raids, according to a packet from the American Federation of Teachers: Immigration status does not affect whether a child can be enrolled in school. Every child has a constitutional right to a free public education, regardless of his or her immigration status or parents' immigration status. Schools cannot ask about a student's immigration status during enrollment. Public school districts have an obligation to enroll students regardless of their immigration status and without discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. Schools can ask for documentation to prove age and district residency for enrollment. But no student should be turned away for lack of documentation. Schools may not bar a student from enrolling because the student lacks a birth certificate or social Security number or has a record that indicates a foreign place of birth. Schools may not bar a student from enrolling because his or her parents or guardians lack a driver's license or state-issued ID. Some students qualify for protections under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 which provides exemptions from enrollment requirements. If ICE officers show up at your school, you have the right to refuse to answer their questions and tell them they have no right to be at your school without a warrant. Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), schools are prohibited, (without parental consent) from providing information from a student's file to federal immigration agents if the information would potentially expose a student's immigration status. Some schools have also interpreted the Plyer decision as prohibiting them from requiring students to provide Social Security cards or birth certificates as a condition of enrollment, test taking or participation in school activities. The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) says that ICE agents can be prohibited from going into private areas of an organization unless they have a judicial warrant or express permission. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created in 2003 under the Department of Homeland Security to protect the U.S. from cross-border crime and illegal immigration. ICE enforces the nation's complex Title 8 immigration laws inside the country and U.S. Customs and Border Protection handles it at the nation's borders. ICE has more than 20,000 law enforcement officers and an annual budget of about $8 billion. The Trump administration, however, deputized thousands more federal law enforcement officers to help with his goal of mass deportations, and many local law enforcement agencies have agreed to coordinate and cooperate with the efforts. That depends on who you ask. "ICE detains individuals as necessary, including to secure their presence for immigration proceedings and removal from the United States," the agency says on its website. "ICE also detains those who are subject to mandatory detention under U.S. immigration law and those a supervisor has determined are public safety or flight risks." The president, who declared a national border emergency on his first day in office and ordered the U.S. armed forces to repel "forms of invasion," has said his administration will prioritize deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal histories. However, there have been multiple instances reported of mistaken identities, random sweeps, U.S. citizens sent out of the country, and people detained and shipped to a prison in El Salvador without any criminal charges filed, trials, or ways to appeal. The most well-known is Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was picked up and to a prison in El Salvadore without due process and kept there despite orders from a federal court and the Supreme Court to bring him back. On April 16, a Georgia native with an ID and Social Security card on him was arrested in Florida's Panhandle under a blocked Florida immigration law. The family of Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez presented his birth certificate to a judge, who agreed it was valid but said she had no power over his release. Lopez-Gomez was finally released after 30 hours in prison. A federal judge in Texas ruled on April 25 that the Trump administration could not deport Venezuelan immigrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and ordered the release of a detained couple due to the lack of "any lawful basis." The National Immigration Resource Center recommends: Gather important documents for all family members showing how long each one has been in the United States. This can include birth certificates, U.S. income tax returns, utility bills, leases, school records, medical records or bank records. Put copies into a secure online folder or location you can access by phone. Identify your emergency contacts, memorize their phone numbers and make sure your contact can access all of your documents. Provide your child's school or daycare with an emergency contact to pick up your child in case you are detained. Tell your loved ones that if you are detained by ICE, they can try to use ICE's online detainee locator to find you with the date of birth and country of origin. That's at You, your family or emergency contacts can contact the local ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) office to initiate an ICE Case Review process. You can find your local ERO office here. Have supporting documents ready. Everyone living in the United States has certain rights and protections provided by the U.S. Constitution, whatever their residency status is, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. You have the right to remain silent. You don't have to discuss your immigration or citizenship status with police or immigration officers. Anything said to an officer can later be used against you in court. You have the right to say 'no' if an immigration officer asks if they can search you. Immigration officers do not have the right to search you or your belongings without your consent or probable cause. This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: What to do if ICE comes to your home or stops you in Florida
Axios
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Local cops are making Florida an immigration enforcement hot spot
Efforts to arrest and remove unauthorized immigrants appear most aggressive in Florida and other southern states with Democratic-leaning cities, according to an Axios analysis. Why it matters: Our review of removal orders, pending deportation cases and agreements between immigration officials and local law enforcement agencies sheds light on where the Trump administration is dispatching resources to support its mass deportation plan. The analysis shows local law enforcement agencies in Texas and Florida have been most cooperative with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in rounding up immigrants through deals known as 287 (g) agreements. There are 629 such agreements now in place across the country. About 43% of them are in Florida. Zoom in: Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off on the state's harshest immigration reform yet. The sweeping law directs local governments to partner with federal immigration efforts while broadening the reasons cops can detain immigrants and narrowing protections for undocumented crime victims and witnesses. Policies that impede immigration enforcement are now barred in Florida, and sheriffs must also share inmates' immigration status with ICE. Noncompliance can result in fines and suspension. The result: Recent raids in Florida by a coalition of agencies led to 1,120 arrests in an effort dubbed Operation Tidal Wave. Of the 42,000 removals of immigrants ordered in March, nearly 50% involved people in Texas, California, New York, Virginia and Florida, according to an analysis of data from the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). The big picture: The data analyzed by Axios and the locations of the agreements between federal and local authorities reflect a few simple truths about immigration enforcement across the U.S. There aren't nearly enough federal agents to meet President Trump's unprecedented deportation goal of deporting a million immigrants a year. In some places where the Trump administration faces a gap in resources, local law enforcement agencies are unable or unwilling to meet the feds' demands or expand beyond their usual enforcement duties. With the nation's borders essentially locked down, the administration has shifted much of its deportation operations to the nation's interior. National Sheriffs' Association executive director and CEO Jonathan Thompson said some sheriffs are concerned that their departments could undermine their communities' trust by working with ICE. The other side: Trump border czar Tom Homan, a former ICE director, told Axios he rejects the notion that working with immigration officials can undermine the community's trust in local authorities.
