Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Florida has signed a sweeping new agreement with the federal government on Friday, allowing Florida Highway Patrol to engage in “street level enforcement” of federal immigration laws and arrest immigrants without a warrant.
A South Florida activist called it the beginning of a "brand new" era of collaboration between state and federal agencies that could lead to fear and "racial profiling in our communities."
The governor said the deputization of immigration enforcement to Florida Highway Patrol troopers could mean people pulled over for traffic violations would immediately be subjected to immigration enforcement actions and possibly deportation.
“What we’re doing here is really significant interior enforcement,” said DeSantis.
“You have people that are on our highway patrol keeping our streets safe, you have an illegal [immigrant] that’s driving drunk and gets pulled over – they’re now going to be trained to know – okay, [he] doesn’t have the ability to produce identification, acknowledges he’s in the country illegally, then you know what to do with ICE to protect the public,” said DeSantis.
The agreement claims to have authority for the new collaboration under the section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a section that allows the federal government to delegate aspects of immigration enforcement to local and state police departments.
As WLRN has reported, those agreements have previously only granted law enforcement the right to enforce immigration laws inside of county jails or state prisons.
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But the new agreement is much broader in scope than previous agreements reached with county sheriff’s offices, according to a review of past agreements in comparison to the new FHP agreement.
The new agreement allows state police the “power to interrogate” people on the street level to determine if that person is unlawfully in the United States, according to a copy received by WLRN. The new agreement also allows state police to make an “arrest without warrant” if the officer believes the person violated the law by being inside the US, among other powers. Past agreements have only allowed officers to issue warrants and engage in immigration enforcement inside detention facilities and state prisons.
Alana Greer, the director and co-founder of the Community Justice Project in Miami, told WLRN the agreement between FHP and ICE amounts to an entirely “brand new 287(g) model” that moves from county jails and state prisons and into the streets. The new agreement seems only comparable to “task forces” created between local and federal officials during the administration of George W. Bush, although the new authorities appear broader.
“Empowering officers in this climate to just interrogate at will is inevitably going to lead to racial profiling in our communities."Alana Greer, of the Community Justice Project
Earlier models of those agreements allowed local police to “patrol” for immigration violations, but those powers were revoked by the Obama Administration in 2009.
“It doesn’t have a new title or a new name yet, but it is concerning that there is this expansion of collaboration, of taking our local and state police and using them to do the federal government’s job at Floridians’ cost,” said Greer.
The Bush Administration 287(g) model of allowing local police to interrogate and apprehend people who are suspected of being in the US illegally was broadly alleged to result in racial profiling in practice.
Among the most controversial law enforcement agencies during the old 287(g) model era was Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Joe Arpaio was found by a federal court to have engaged in widespread racial discrimination in targeting Latino residents while enforcing federal immigration laws. Arpaio was later found guilty of violating several court orders related to that case, but he was pardoned by President Trump at the beginning of his first administration.
Greer warned the old issues with the program could be coming back in force.
“Empowering officers in this climate to just interrogate at will is inevitably going to lead to racial profiling in our communities,” she added.
The agreement specifies that FHP troopers would be "supervised and directed by ICE" at all times while undertaking immigration enforcement. Troopers would have to be in contact with ICE at the time, or they should contact ICE directly after the fact, reads the agreement.
DeSantis said in the press conference that Florida was the second state to have one of these agreements with the federal government, following a recent federal agreement with Texas.
However, the Texas agreement differs considerably from the FHP agreement. The Texas agreement, announced in late January, was between the Texas National Guard and Customs and Border Protection, not ICE. In Texas, the National Guard will be allowed to make arrests and potentially deport people themselves, a power civil rights groups expect to be fought in the courts. And notably, the Texas agreement requires no new training for the Texas National Guard, while Florida’s new deal will require extensive training of state police before it goes into effect.
“There is gonna be some ramp-up time before all these authorities are exercised,” said DeSantis.
Immigration enforcement presence at DMVs
The confluence of Friday’s agreement announcement and other factors could lead to a robust and permanent immigration enforcement presence at Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) offices across Miami-Dade, the most populous county in the state, and the home of a majority-immigrant population.
Newly elected Republican Tax Collector of Miami-Dade Dariel Fernandez announced in late January that FHP troopers will now be stationed at all nine DMV locations across the county, “to ensure these facilities continue to provide services in a safe environment for everyone.” The tax collector’s office controls DMV locations in the county on behalf of the state government.
Greer, of the Community Justice Project, said dispatching FHP officers with a newly created right to interrogate and arrest people for immigration issues to DMV offices will only contribute to “fear” of accessing basic services in the community, even for legal residents and citizens.
“It is incredibly concerning that so much of our local infrastructure and institutions would be taken over by this anti-immigrant agenda,” said Greer.
In a statement, the office of Tax Collector Fernandez told WLRN that dispatching FHP officers to DMV offices was "not related to the enforcement of immigration laws" and noted the the announcement took place before DeSantis announced the new role for FHP troopers.
The move was made in response to safety incidents that have taken place in the last few weeks, said the office.
"We believe these issues may have been exacerbated by the heightened tensions surrounding recent executive orders issued by President Trump which intend to put an end to illegal immigration and protect the national security of the United States by removing gangs, terrorists, and illegal criminals from this country," wrote Daiana Rocha, a public information officer for the office.
"We reiterate to the members of the public that driving is a privilege not a right, and customers who request services from the Driver License Offices must have the appropriate -permanent or temporary- authorization from immigration authorities to do so," she added.
The state police entering into a new and broader kind of 287(g) agreement is notable because Gov. DeSantis is seeking to require all law enforcement agencies to participate in “every program model” offered by ICE, if the agency has over 25 sworn officers. Under DeSantis’ proposal, which is caught up in a political tug-of-war in Tallahassee, at least ten percent of every law enforcement agency of that size would have to be trained by ICE to do immigration enforcement. That could mean beyond FHP, nearly every corner of the state would be forced to assist the feds in street level immigration enforcement.
“If North Miami Police are going to take over these roles, that means North Miami taxpayers are going to pay for the time, overtime, the gas, the detention fees, all of that,” said Greer, noting that there is no guarantee that the governor’s wishes will become law.
The Florida Highway Patrol has nearly 2,000 officers fanned across the state.
Dave Kerner, the Executive Director of Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said the statewide police force will immediately look to starting training its officers with ICE.
"We look forward to making use of these powerful new authorities to keep Florida safe," said Kerner. "History will show that this agreement will have served as a turning point in our battle to defend our homeland and to defend our state.”
Updated on February 11 at 2pm to include comment from the Miami-Dade Tax Collector's Office
