Acting as the newly created State Board of Immigration Enforcement, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet on Tuesday approved more than $87 million in immigration reimbursements for 56 local law enforcement agencies, most of it for radios and AI policing systems.
The unanimous vote sends money from a $250 million state grant to fight undocumented immigration. The Legislature approved both the money and the board last year as part of a broader crackdown on migrants living in Florida without authorization.
The largest boon goes to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office — more than $14.2 million. The office asked the state to cover roughly $7 million for AI-driven car cameras, $3 million for radios, and $1.3 million for Peregrine — an artificial intelligence policing software company. It consolidates information like dispatch, records, and plate readers into a single database.
The requests reflect a larger, pro-AI and radio trend in nearly every agency. Mobile and portable radios made up the largest portion of Tuesday’s grant approvals, more than $30.1 million of the total. The next highest figures were for Axon ($15.4 million) and Peregrine ($14.6 million).
Axon specializes in technology and artificial intelligence.
This comes amid a nationwide reckoning for both Florida and the U.S. government on immigration and artificial intelligence. While DeSantis and Trump have been in lockstep on forcing mass deportations, rapidly detaining undocumented immigrants, and passing new laws to limit these migrants’ access to education, the two are at odds on AI.
Trump wants a federal framework for AI that preempts state-level regulation. He’s allied himself with tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, and endorsed use by agencies like the Department of Defense of artificial intelligence in its overseas attacks.
DeSantis, meanwhile, is one of the only top Republicans to have warned against the “darkness and deceit” represented by unregulated AI. He attempted to force an “AI Bill of Rights” through the Legislature, but White House pressure killed the bill in the state House.
That didn’t stop DeSantis, however, from approving local requests for AI-based cameras, translation services, and software systems on Tuesday.
Since September, the board has approved more than 150 grant requests worth more than $147 million. But just $4.9 million has been disbursed so far, the state’s government accountability website shows. More than half of that figure belongs to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, which has brought in $2.1 million in state funding.
Other notable requests approved Tuesday include:
- Flagler County Sheriff’s Office: $883,000 for a helicopter spotlight; $37,000 for night vision.
- Collier County Sheriff’s Office: $600,000 for two mobile Skywatch towers; $349,000 for two full-body inmate scanners; $57,000 for a narcotics spectrometer.
- Bay County Sheriff’s Office: $300,000 for 120 taser bundles.
- Liberty County Sheriff’s Office: $45,000 for 15 riot gear uniforms.
- Auburndale Police Department: $40,000 for 50 body armor plates.
- Franklin County Sheriff’s Office: $35,000 for vehicle ballistic panels.
- St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office: $19,000 for E-bikes.
- Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office: $3,000 for three electric spotlights.
- Columbia County Sheriff’s Office: $2,800 for 25 suicide prevention mattresses.
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