CASSELBERRY, Fla. – Another Central Florida city signed a resolution to have their police officers train with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — but not without hesitation.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed for all local governments to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
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Casselberry city leaders met on Monday to discuss this, and the solution was to sign an agreement with ICE under its 287 (g) program.
According to ICE’s website, this agreement allows local officers to perform some immigration enforcement duties.
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However, City Commissioner Thomas Kirk raised concerns on working with the Federal Agency — after some ICE encounters made national headlines.
For example, earlier this month a 20-year-old man was held in a North Florida jail for 48 hours for allegedly being in the country illegally — even after his mother showed a judge her son’s birth certificate and the judge dismissed charges.
“I’ve seen what’s happened around in other states and other jurisdictions about the mistakes that’s been made and people that have been held and then found out ‘oops we made a boo-boo,’” Kirk said. “And I just don’t want to see Casselberry in the headlines for a ‘boo-boo.’”
Casselberry Police Chief Larry Krantz listened to the concerns from Kirk and said whatever arrest is made by his team will be because he verified the information from ICE. He also said he will ensure every interaction would be documented.
“Any actions that we were to take as a law enforcement agency in the city of Casselberry would be documented. We would ensure that we have proper documentation to articulate what it is that we did or did not do, what actions did we take if we took any — so that we have a historical record of what we did do,” Krantz said.
All in all, this agreement may be terminated at any time upon written notice, according to city documents — and this is something City Manager James Newlon emphasized.
Leaders agreed if the workload from ICE is too much for the police department, or if officers receive wrong information about warrants, the agreement will be terminated.
“If we are finding a bad experience over and over then we can use that to withdraw as well. We will have to monitor whether or not participating is in the best interest of the city,” Newlon said.
Meanwhile, other Central Florida cities have signed similar agreements to have their officers train with ICE, such as Indian Harbor Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Melbourne, Ocoee, Satellite Beach and Winter Springs.