All of the state’s 67 counties have entered agreements with federal immigration authorities to detain undocumented immigrant criminals in jails, the Florida Sheriffs Association announced on Monday as the state rushes to assist President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
The agreements bring counties into compliance with part of a state law (SB 2-C) passed during a special legislative session this month aimed at boosting enforcement of illegal immigration. Under the agreements, sheriffs’ deputies with special training can process immigration “detainers” issued by federal authorities to keep inmates in jail. The inmates can be kept up to 48 hours before being picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Five Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies have that special training, with more to be trained soon, says Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly. The local jail, he said, has so far accommodated 10 inmates within ICE detainers, and is processing such inmates about twice a week. The county is not paid to house those inmates on detainers.
But Staly, who was at the FSA meeting today, said he is working on an agreement with ICE to make 100 beds at the Flagler County jail, also known as the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility, available for ICE detentions of up to 72 hours per inmate, under a different program.
“My jail capacity is 404, and I’m running about 200, so we have actually offered ICE 100 beds in our jail,” Staly said, “and once the agreement is signed, ICE will pay the county I think $125 a night per ICE detainee, for up to 72 hours. So they have 72 hours to come get them under that scenario.” It’s possible that staffing would need to be ramped up, but not by much. Right now the jail is 100 percent staffed. Undocumented immigrants in that system are typically not individuals who go to internal classes, being there only three days, and don’t have to go outside the facility, so “the real impact is making sure they get fed their meals and they get their medical check, so it’s not a significant impact,” Staly said.
The sheriff sought to reassure the public–or correct misconceptions–about any kinds of sweeps, or of local deputies going on raids to round up undocumented immigrants. “That is the woke liberal message, and it’s not anywhere near the truth,” the sheriff said. “What ICE is focusing on, what my deputies will focus on, are illegal immigrants that are committing crimes, and the 1.4 million illegal immigrants that have had their full day in court and a federal judge has ordered them out of this country and they have snubbed their nose at the law and refused to leave.”
“We’re not going to schools, we’re not going to hospitals, we’re not going to churches, we’re not doing any of that stuff,” Staly said, nor are law-abiding migrants who are here without documents being harassed. Staly said the federal government needs to fix the system so people who want to be productive and law abiding can have their situations normalized. “That’s why we are focusing on those that commit crimes in our county,” he said. “They need to get out of this country, and those that have already been adjudicated and then said basically, screw you, I’m not leaving–No, you’re going to lave as soon as we find you.”
That’s what the “warrant service officer” program is focused on.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri has worked closely with Trump administration officials as they make changes to what is known as the “287(g)” program that allows local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts. (Flagler County’s jail has been a 287(g) jail for years, but the program was suspended the day Joe Biden took office, Staly said, which is why his deputies were already trained for it. It has now resumed.)
“Their priority is apprehending and deporting as quickly as possible those who are criminally illegal, public safety threats, national security threats, those who have been previously deported and come back again,” Gualtieri said Monday at a news conference in Winter Haven. “The most pressing need they have is people who are booked into our jails … so these people are not released back into our community to commit more crimes.”
Training for deputies to participate in the program, which Gualtieri said was also halted throughout former President Joe Biden’s tenure, is expected to ramp up quickly.
“Implementing the process under which all jails will be able to hold these criminals is well underway, and we hope to have it fully operational within the next 15 to 30 days,” Gualtieri said. “This is a big deal because it means criminals like these, people who kill, people who steal, people who break into people’s houses, people who rape kids, will be deported directly from jail and not released back to the street. … It just makes sense, from the jail out of here, as opposed to, (from) the jail back to the street.”
As state and local efforts accelerate, sheriffs warned that the Trump administration needs to quickly increase the number of beds available for undocumented immigrants waiting to be processed and deported. Federal immigration authorities have about 2,000 beds in Florida “and they’re full,” Gualtieri said.
The Pinellas County sheriff said he is holding 150 undocumented immigrants on detainers at his jail, which has 3,000 inmates.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said bed capacity is the “number one” issue for federal immigration authorities. Florida sheriffs are conducting an inventory of available beds, but the anticipated ramp-up of county enforcement efforts could “overwhelm the current ability to house people in days,” according to Judd.
“There’s not capacity in the Florida sheriffs or the county jails to make any negligible difference,” Judd said. (Flagler County is an exception in that regard.) “We will overwhelm this system very rapidly and we intend to work very aggressively but that’s why we’re here making this statement today. They have to create capacity.”
Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell, who serves as president of the sheriffs association, said sheriffs are getting educated about “very, very complex” immigration laws as the federal government revamps enforcement programs.
“It’s all very fluid,” Prummell said. “We’re all trying to catch on and learn how this works. … There’s a lot of chaos up there in D.C. still, so sometimes the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing up there. So we’re trying to get a whole handle on what’s going on up there so we can start implementing policies, procedures and what we need to do to get the job done, to keep our citizens safe here.”
The new Florida immigration law also created a State Board of Immigration Enforcement, which is made up of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Attorney General James Uthmeier and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. Decisions made by the board must be unanimous. The board met for the first time last week and named as its executive director Larry Keefe, a former North Florida federal prosecutor who served as DeSantis’ “public safety czar.”
Lawmakers during the special session also approved a measure (SB 4-C) that makes it a state crime for undocumented immigrants to enter or attempt to enter Florida. People who violate the law face a mandatory nine-month jail sentence. But it’s a misdemeanor, and as such the infraction must be proven and witnessed by a law enforcement officer, making arrest under those circumstances difficult.
Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, told reporters Monday that the law is “overly broad and vague” and will “lead to rampant racial profiling” of people who are perceived to be immigrants.
“This law and the rhetoric surrounding it create an environment that will inevitably lead to racial and ethnic profiling of anyone perceived to be an immigrant based on the color of their skin, the accent in their voice, the neighborhoods they live in, or the restaurants and businesses they frequent,” Gross said.
But the sheriffs pushed back when asked if the new laws would result in racial profiling.
“We’re tired of hearing that crap. That’s BS,” Judd said.
Local and federal officials are targeting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes or those who have been ordered to leave the country, he argued.
“Take a deep breath. Save that crazy talk for somebody else. … We’ve got a plate full of illegal immigrants committing crimes and warrants to deport those that have flaunted the system, and all this crazy talk just scares people that don’t need to be scared. Just follow what the federal government tells you to do when they tell you to do it,” Judd said.
–FlaglerLive and Dara Kam, News Service of Florida
