Workers building an apartment complex near the Florida State University campus were detained Thursday morning by agents from U.S. Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service, and Florida Highway Patrol.
After entering a construction site in Tallahassee, federal and state officials asked workers for identification and separated them into two categories, witnesses told the Phoenix.
Some were free to go; others were handcuffed and led onto white buses with metal-covered windows to be transported away from the worksite, escorted by the Highway Patrol. Officials on the scene declined to provide information about the operation.
Construction workers who’d been allowed to leave told the Phoenix that law enforcement officers had surrounded the site on West Gaines Street in FSU’s College Town before the raid began at about 9 a.m.
Agents surrounded dozens of workers in line for the bus.
An ICE public information officer in Tampa told the Phoenix Thursday afternoon: “U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation served multiple search warrants as part of an ongoing investigation in the Tallahassee region.”
A social media post from Homeland Security Investigations called it a “targeted enforcement operation.”
Homeland Security Investigations Tampa posted on social media that it arrested “more than 100 illegal aliens (some of which were previously deported and others with criminal backgrounds).” Those arrested are from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, and Honduras and other countries, the agency said.
Calls to the U.S. attorney and U.S. district court yielded no warrant information. The Leon County Sheriff’s office did not return a call asking whether the detainees were delivered to their detention facility.
Bystanders protesting the raid told agents they should be ashamed of themselves, criticized them for wearing masks, and told them they are all descendants of immigrants.
Standing with them were workers’ family members, trying to communicate with their loved one who had been detained, asking where they were being transported to.
A man who identified himself as the manager of the construction site told the Phoenix “there’s no information” about the raid.
Layne Griffith, 22, is a graduate student at FSU who just finished her master’s degree in oceanography. She was packing to leave her apartment in College Town at around 9 a.m. to travel home to Pinellas County when she became aware of a large presence of people in the area.
“So, the state trooper was kind of doing a perimeter check around the apartment buildings itself and I was curious to know what was going on, and I started to notice more of a police presence — people in camo outfits and people in masks and state troopers. I didn’t know what departments they were working for, I couldn’t tell from my apartment,” she said.
“But I started to see dozens of people at that point in handcuffs getting walked to the opposite side of the construction site and I saw them all lined up behind the prison bus and I stood out there for a while and there were more people showing up and being detained.”
Griffith said she saw law enforcement officers from a variety of agencies: the U.S. Marshals Service; the FBI; and “lots of state troopers.”
–Mitch Perry, Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
Jim says
“Homeland Security Investigations Tampa posted on social media that it arrested “more than 100 illegal aliens (some of which were previously deported and others with criminal backgrounds).””
I would love to know how many of these people actually have a criminal background and what that criminal background is. I’ve got no problem with rounding up true criminals (rape, murder, robbery, etc.). At the same time, I would think rounding up criminals (immigrant or not) would be a primary function of our police agencies in this country.
I wonder if any action at all will be taken against the company that employed these people. Or are we just interested in the immigrants breaking the law? After all, DJT is busy giving pardons left and right (mainly right) to people who did financial crimes (and can donate to him in exchange). In any case, the employer broke the law as well and I don’t expect that to be pursued.
It’ll be interesting to see if that apartment complex gets built any time soon. And let’s keep an eye on other projects in Florida. As more immigrants realize they are serious targets, they’ll disappear from their jobs. Fortunately, there are millions of Americans standing by to take those jobs so everything will be fine!
Al says
These raids need to continue with a notable addition. The contractor that hired the illegals should also be arrested and the company shut down. I constantly hear the cost of building will rise if we don’t use illegals but the cost is not reduced by having them . The only reduction is the profit of the contractor as he benefits from using lower wage workers.
I constantly hear who will mow the lawns, wash the dishes, make the beds, or pick the crops. These statements come from entitled people who only care about how much they can save on labor. Now let’s think about Americans and how these jobs could be better paying for them and thier futures.
On the run Tim says
I don’t have a problem with enforcing the law and people getting deported if they are not legally. The problem I have with this raid and others like it , is I don’t think the law is being followed. Can the cops just come up and start asking for your papers without any criminal activity? Why isn’t there any paperwork or information on it as well? This is how we all lose are freedom with secret police just locking people and all that
Deborah Coffey says
“Homeland Security Investigations Tampa posted on social media that it arrested “more than 100 illegal aliens (some of which were previously deported and others with criminal backgrounds).”
And, we are all expected to BELIEVE this? More than 100 are criminals? This is despicable, Americans. It’s another BIG LIE. And, one doubts these workers will ever get due process.
Skibum says
Sure, go ahead and arrest/deport all of the dark skinned workers who are the mainstay of our country’s building trades, industrial trades, agriculture industries, hotel and other guest services, etc. Americans are standing in line, clamoring for all of those low paying, hot in the sun, hard work jobs to replace these migrant workers who ARE working instead of being lazy and feeding off of the taxpayers by making fraudulent welfare and other assistance claims like many AMERICAN citizens do just to scam state and federal government agencies out of resources that real needy people rely on.
If ICE really, truly wanted to stop the problem of illegal migrant workers in the workforce here in FL and other states, you wouldn’t see photos like above with hundreds of detained dark skinned workers being rounded up. No, you would see photos and videos of the CEOs and other management officials being arrested and jailed for continuing to look the other way when they hire the migrant workers in order to pay them extremely low wages so those companies can make more profits! JAIL THOSE WHO ARE HIRING ILLEGALS, NOT THE WORKERS WHO ARE OUT IN THE HOT SUN EVERY DAY JUST TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING! Then the problem would cease to exist. But, of course, like all aspects of our broken immigration system, the republi-CONS would much rather politicize and ignore the ongoing problem rather than work with those across the isle and fix it.
t.o. Doug says
Those scum were trying to make an honest living in the hot Florida sun? Thank goodness we put a stop to that!
What Else Is New says
Thanks to Governor Ron Wanna Be Trump DeSantis for allowing this egregious inhumane game. It’s heartbreaking for those families when loved ones are arrested and deported with no constitutional rights.
Marek says
Involvement of the FHP is disgraceful.
Judith G. Michaud says
If people would do research, they would find President Obama deported 10, million illegals, all had due process and all WERE criminals. This process under the felon is illegal and many with proper legal status are being deported so the felon can look like he is doing a good job. This has to stop ! Sickening!
Sherry says
She said sarcastically: Just can’t wait to see all the really “great” jobs that are going to finally become available to “white” anglo saxon “immigrants” once Maga gets rid of “ALL” those people (scum really) of “wrong” colors! Why there are millions upon millions of people just lusting after those “high paying” jobs of roofing, gardening and cleaning toilets, right Maga? Time to put down those phones, roll up your sleeves and get to real work Americans!!!
Ed P says
Setting aside the above colorism accusations. Only because the majority of illegals came from the southern hemisphere why does it mean xenophobia of brown skinned people? They are who they are, period. They are brown skinned. The problem is not racist.
The suggested exploitation, ie having illegals do all the laborious construction, service industry jobs and hard labor jobs sounds demeaning and racist. How many Flagler live commentaries have pointed out who’s going to pick our crops, who’s going to work at the restaurants, or who’s going to cut our lawns and roof our homes. Really?
Most of these illegals will not qualify for asylum, even if it was 50%, then the number of people who will be deported in one way or another is quite possibly 10 million or more.
This is not a Republican nor Democratic policy, but rather a U.S. policy. The reality is there are millions of illegals who have over stayed visas, crossed our borders illegally and have been ordered to leave and yet they remain.
Instead of pointing fingers or using deflection and whataboutery, try honesty. ICE was created in 2002 out of necessity. If immigrants followed the LAWS, then the need for ICE would cease.
The left has not presented any workable solutions to this problem.
What would you suggest we do?
Atwp says
Deport illegal immigrants for working in the Florida Heat. Are they criminals, are they here illegally? If they are criminals something should be done about that. But this administration pardoned all of the capital destroyers. Some people were killed during the destruction. Trump said the criminals were treated unfairly. He bring white Africans to this country, are they illegals, probably but they are white. Will probably live in this country free or charge for the rest of their lives. By the way most of the capital destroyers were white men. Trump, Musk and Vannie Mae should be deported from this country into the middle of the ocean to be shark food.
Land of no turn signals says says
They snuck in and bypassed due process they should be deported without due process.
Billy B says
When are they going to all of the farms and hotels ? That would put this country to a standstill. Does anyone believe that maga supporters would take these jobs? Most maga supporters don’t want to work. They just want government handouts !!!
Sherry says
Thank you Judith. . . absolutely correct about President Obama’s policies.
Oh, and by the way. . . for all the Maga indoctrinated cult members who yammer incessantly about entering our country “Legally”. . . trump’s, (often masked, gestapo) ICE agents are now arresting many innocent people who came to the US under a “LEGAL” program! ICE is lying in wait and arresting them as they exit courthouses where they appeared as they were “LEGALLY” required to do! So much for coming to the US “LEGALLY”!
Can’t wait to hear your next Maga excuse for treating refugees so inhumanely! I certainly hope you all reap what you sow! Karma does have a way of coming around!
Skibum says
Ed P, I did propose a solution. Perhaps you missed it. Migrants from Latin America come to this country for a better life for themselves and their families. Many of them speak little or no English, so they naturally gravitate to low pay/low skill labor jobs where they don’t have to have constant communication or interaction with the public. We need unskilled laborers in this economy. The problem is not, nor has it been with migrants who have permission to be here. Those who are in this country illegally and working have been hired illegally by American employers who usually turn their heads, feign ignorance and allow the illegals to work to save the company money. My solution is for the feds to start putting the attention on the EMPLOYERS, not the workers. You can bet your bottom dollar that if the press and TV media were showing news coverage of company CEOs and managers being taken out in handcuffs and loaded onto buses instead of the poor migrant workers, we would soon see a HUGE change in how migrants are vetted and hired. The problem of illegal workers would dry up, we would still have legal migrant workers doing the agriculture labor and other traditional jobs that migrant laborers are doing now, and a big part of our immigration system would be fixed because illegals would stop streaming over the border if they knew they would not be able to find work in America unless they had legal status to be here.
Ed P says
FYI
It’s estimated that 75% to 83% of the individuals deported durning the Obama era did Not have due process, no chance to speak to anyone of authority to give them any reprieve. A standard operating procedure under many presidents.
It was not 10 but 3 million people.
Expedited removal has been used for decades. How did the libs miss that?
Source
Yahoo news Sunday May 4th 2025
Vox April 8 2014
Ray W, says
A number of FlaglerLive commenters on this message thread apparently misunderstand, or worse ignore, an important legal distinction between undocumented immigrants living in the country and undocumented immigrants entering the country.
Under federal law, simply living in the country without documentation is a civil infraction, not a criminal one. Crossing the border without documentation is a misdemeanor criminal offense, not a felony. That alone should tell you how the legislative branch of our federal government looks at the issue of immigration.
Thus, the many lawful immigrants who overstay their visas for whatever reason do not become criminals under federal law; instead, they face possible civil penalties. This classification of visa-overstaying immigrant comprises perhaps the bulk of those who live today in our country without lawful documentation.
Can it be argued that whenever a FlaglerLive commenter calls all undocumented immigrants criminally illegal, that the commenter is simply presenting himself or herself as less than completely informed individual.
Yes, some of the undocumented among us may become criminally illegal if prosecuted for the misdemeanor offense of crossing the border without documentation. The majority are not. Once again, a two-year-old who is brought into the country without documentation is not a criminal until a judge or a jury finds the formerly-infant-immigrant criminal. Until then, they are most appropriately deemed undocumented immigrants, not illegal immigrants.
The issue arose most recently in 2010 in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Arizona v. United States. Arizona had passed a state statute criminalizing the act of living in Arizona without possessing appropriate documentation. The challenge to the state legislation was that the state statute preempted federal law on the subject at issue. The Supreme Court held that a state cannot preempt a federal immigration statute and struck down relevant portions of the Arizona criminal statute, i.e., it held that the federal civil statute pertaining to the undocumented among us prevails over any state criminal statute.
Since an order of deportation issued by an immigration court is considered a civil penalty in and of itself, and since the federal statutes do not criminalize the act of living in the U.S. without documentation, I find it perplexing that so many commenters fool themselves into believing the lie that simply living here without documentation always makes such immigrants criminal.
This leads to a second issue. One of the FlaglerLive commenters on this thread wrote that “the left” has not presented any solutions to the issue of living here illegally.
This is for the memory-impaired among us. In 2024, a bi-partisan bill was presented in the Senate to fund the hiring of more immigration and border officers, to fund the hiring of more immigration judges, to fund the construction of more detention centers, and to fund the implementation of more deportation actions.
This means that “the left” just last year joined a few Republicans in presenting viable legislation to solve some of the immigration issues that plague our pestilential politics. The bill didn’t make it out of the Senate.
I, too, have repeatedly commented on the need for more enforcement at the border, more immigrant judges, more detention facilities.
I have repeatedly deplored the fact that, according to an immigration study conducted by the conservative-leaning Cato Institute, the first Trump administration released more than 300 convicted murderers into the countryside because we lacked sufficient detention space to house them all and because President Trump, on his first day in office in 2017, reversed an Obama executive order prioritizing the detention of violent criminals over the detention of immigrants who lacked criminal convictions. Yes, “the left” prioritized detaining violent convicted criminals in order to deport them first and Trump reversed that order. According to the Cato Institute, Trump reversed the Obama order so as to prioritize mass deportations over deportations of the criminally violent.
I thank the commenter once again for forcing me to improve upon yet another of his barely correct comments. Why he can’t be more intellectually honest remains beyond me, because he repeatedly shows he knows how to exercise the intellectual rigor necessary for him to be factually accurate.
Can the question be legitimately asked: What if the commenter were to try “honesty”, as he terms it, more often?
As for what would I do about the issue?
I cannot help but think of my paternal aunt’s remembrances as she talked of her life as a young farmer’s wife in the early 50s. She told me that three immigrant families moved onto the property in those early years. Not wanting the stigma of being known as employing undocumented immigrants, she and my uncle registered the families with local immigration authorities and started their paths to citizenship. In time, all family members became citizens. They worked the farm for some 30 years until my uncle suddenly died of an aneurism while working. My uncle’s nephew then took over farm operations in addition to those of his own farm. From this perspective, I belong to the camp of hope, not the gulag of fear.
I have repeatedly commented to FlaglerLive readers that the Bureau of Labor Services measures non-farm employment by counting the number of workers earning paychecks each month during a particular Friday of the month.
In the February Friday accounting date just before the pandemic truly hit home, BLS records reflected that some 143 million people were earning paychecks. By the end of the Biden administration, just under 160 million people were earning paychecks.
But the total number of native-born workers earning paychecks flatlined over that nearly 5-year term of years. So, the seventeen million additional paycheck earners could not have come from the ranks of the native-born; they had to have come from the ranks of the immigrant population.
A maxim of economic theory holds that economies rely not just on productivity growth due to technological efficiencies; it also relies on productivity growth due to increases in human potential. We needed our immigrants in their millions to fuel our recovery from the pandemic-throttled economy. And we still need them.
So, I say we introduce legislation that permits employers to sponsor quality hard-working undocumented immigrant employees for citizenship without penalty.
I say we introduce legislation that prioritizes the removal of the criminally convicted immigrants among us over the removal of the best of the immigrants among us.
I say we never leave it to presidents to decide who should be deported, because they are prone to basing their decisions on pestilential partisan political grounds.
I say leave it to Congress in their hundreds of voices to expand the definition of who we should accept, even if Congress, too, is imperfect. We already know which immigrants we should remove, and it isn’t the undocumented.
Then, leave it to the courts to handle the process of removal, if necessary, and to keep the decision-making process as far away as possible from the executive branch, because that branch is run by one individual. Should a pestilential member of faction ever gain control of the executive branch, the potential for damage is simply too great.
One problem, if not the problem, is that if enough gullibly stupid Americans want hard-working undocumented immigrants among us who haven’t committed crimes to be deported, then the more pestilential executive members of faction among us will try to prioritize the deportation of those hardest working of the millions of immigrants among us because they are the easiest to find and the easiest to remove.
Why do you think DOGE sought access to hundreds of millions of personal IRS records? It wasn’t for the Social Security numbers assigned to Americans; it was for ITINs records that undocumented immigrants file with the IRS to establish proof of good character should they ever qualify for citizenship. Get their ITIN records and you know where they live and where they work.
Ed P says
Ray W,
Reviewing the thread, only 1 person referenced “criminally illegal” immigrants.
Undocumented is simply more neutral of a label and does not carry the negative connotation of illegal. I’m not a legal authority like you but I believe the following rebuttal is more accurate than yours.
Individuals who enter the country without proper inspection, enter fraudulently, or remain in the country after their visa expires are considered to be engaging in illegal immigration.
Undocumented status is in fact a legal state, not a criminal one. It is not inherently a crime, but it does carry consequences, such as deportation.
Unauthorized immigrants are generally considered to be in violation of immigration laws. I never said they were felons. The level of illegal is not in my purview. Do not make it sound like they are J-walking.
The bipartisan bill you referenced was a joke and was not a workable solution to the open border debacle but rather a whitewash to throw sand in the voters eyes.
In summary, while the terms, undocumented or illegals, are used interchangeably, and liberal love parsing words and concepts, here’s the fact, both groups have violated US immigration laws.
Ps your comment on Doge simply means you have fallen into the pool of mind readers or conspiracy theorists. Oh Vey!
Skibum- like all libs, let’s make the hardworking citizens the criminals. Good idea.
Did you ever think some of these employers might be trying to help the immigrants you advocate for by employing them so they can survive? You solution is warped. But there are laws that do just what you say but are selectively enforced.
Shark says
To – ED P – Please get your facts straight and don’t rely on fox – fake – taco – entertainment for your information
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data from fiscal years 2009 to 2016, more than 3 million individuals were formally removed from the country during the Obama administration. Annually between 59% and 84% of these removals were so called ” summary removals” carried out through legal procedures such as “expedited removal” and “reinstatement of removal,” which do not involve a hearing before an immigration judge. On average, about 74% of removals during this period fell into these categories.
oliver thomas says
Its beyond my understanding how the MAGA masses cannot see the morphing of our country and principles by a demi-god bent on remaking us into his degraded image. In this case, masked ICE/Police officers? No comments, no details on why the arrests? Cases of innocents being caught up in this broad, blissfully ignorant, vendetta? All in tandem with Trumps revenge reeked on all officials, civil servants, judges, lawyers, businesses & state representative who dare cross his selfish will? “Country” allies who we fought beside over the decades to hold evil, hatred at bay replaced with a fondness for putin & kim yong ugh murderess dictators? What has happened to our soul America? God help us.
BillC says
Ed P says “The problem is not racist”.
“The first group of white South Africans granted refugee status by Donald Trump’s administration has arrived in the US as the US president declared the Afrikaners victims of a “genocide”. They were met at Dulles international airport by the US deputy secretary of state and deputy secretary of homeland security, with many given US flags to wave. ”
No, the problem is not racist, it’s just that the laws are racist.
Sherry says
Thank you so much for laying out the complexities of how legal immigration works, Ray W!
Unfortunately, so many indoctrinated Maga members prefer to perceive the world through the lawless imperialistic stance of trump and his propaganda peddler Fox. The actual lawful facts mean nothing to them! In their minds they are much like trump. . . to hell with facts, laws and ethics! “I” can NEVER be wrong! “Doubling Down” is the only way!
What will it finally take to bring them back to fact based, lawful reality? Consider the possibility that for some a strong intellect does not solve everything if they are so psychologically unhealthy that they have always gone through life fooling themselves, and possibly always will.
Ed P says
Hey Shark,
I referenced 2 sources. Fox was neither. Expedited deportation does not involve a hearing, agents are allowed to process paper work. The deportees are not adjudicated.
In response to all my “friends” who blame Fox for all the misinformation. Telling everyone to turn it off.
I agree that they are shills for Trump. No argument. Tucker is/was a nut. Agreed.
Can you admit the same about any of the left leaning media shows? I never asked anyone to turn off the View. Stop watching Jimmy Kimmel. Forget Rachael Maddow . What about Morning Joe? Do you believe cnn, msnbc , abc, nbc, cbs or any other outlets are any better than Fox? Every media has a lean. There isn’t a 100% reliable source. None.
Everyone needs to resist letting their sources tell them what to think.
Whataboutism or whataboutery is another foolish approach because it’s is a pejorative for the strategy of responding with a counter accusation instead of a rebuttal to the original topic. Feels a bit childish.
FlaglerLive says
You only referenced the two sources. Please provide links so readers can verify your claims, which are often off the mark once the information you yourself rely on is checked.