MIRAMAR, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis participated in a news conference Thursday morning at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Miramar, where ICE officials announced some 1,100 arrests had so far been made in the state’s “Operation Tidal Wave.”
ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said that the 1,100 arrests were carried out over the last week and included “several violent gang members.” More than 65,000 such arrests were made nationwide during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term, she said.
“Operation Tidal Wave is truly a first-of-its-kind operation, utilizing 287(g) resources, integrating with the state and local law enforcement to assist in the day-to-day ICE mission. While this may be the first 287(g) operation of its kind, thanks to the governor, it’s not going to be the last,” Sheahan said. “President Trump, Secretary Noem and ICE are committed to these large-scale operations to be able to keep our community safe, because we will not stop until our American families and everyday Americans are safe in their own communities, because we have zero tolerance for criminal illegal aliens."
As President Donald Trump’s second term began, DeSantis pushed law-enforcement agencies and municipalities statewide to sign 287(g) agreements allowing their officers, deputies, agents, troopers or otherwise to be trained and approved by ICE to perform immigration enforcement duties. The Florida Highway Patrol was among the first Florida agencies that the governor has said are now able to ask anyone about their citizenship status solely on suspicion. All 67 Florida counties have since signed such agreements pertaining to their sheriff’s offices, according to DeSantis.
“I read a blurb that you have like 500 agencies, law enforcement agencies across the country, that now have these agreements with ICE, and about half of those are in Florida, state and local, which we’re really, really proud of,” DeSantis said. “We’re also, though, not just stopping with law enforcement. We’ve also done 287 agreements with regulatory agencies in Florida, our Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, the Florida Gaming Control Commission and the Florida Lottery all operate in what we would consider target-rich environments during their routine inspection and investigative duties. (...) So we think deputizing those officers in regulatory spaces is going to be another source to lead to these immigration enforcement efforts.”
A federal judge last month temporarily blocked a new Florida law that created state crimes for undocumented immigrants who enter or re-enter Florida, ruling that it violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and encroaches on what should be a federal responsibility.
DeSantis, addressing the ruling and questions about due process for accused illegal immigrants, claimed there are tens of thousands of people in Florida who have already been given final orders of removal from a judge and suggested “it’s nuts” that they would need to have “some O.J. Simpson-type trial.”
The governor further said the the U.S. Supreme Court “can end this charade,” calling on the Justices to reverse 2012’s U.S. v. Arizona decision, which decreed states may not implement their own immigration laws.
Further, DeSantis said that Florida has submitted plans to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to engage in everything from apprehension to detention, “even putting some of our people in the National Guard in line to serve as immigration judges.”
If Florida can get DHS to sign off on the plans, DeSantis said the state stands “ready, willing and able” to deputize judge advocates from the National Guard to serve as immigration judges, assist in “the transport piece” and “expand detention space very quickly” in the state.
“Just think about. I mean, you guys who are Florida-based, you know, when we have hurricanes, we end up setting up locations for tens of thousands of linemen, right? (We) do that very, very quickly, so we have the capacity to set it up quickly, but we’re not going to do that without the approval of the Department of Homeland Security,” he said.
Naming Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie and Gen. John Haas of the Florida State Guard as those with a “key role” in potentially scaling up Operation Tidal Wave and having it serve as a model for other states, State Board of Immigration Enforcement Executive Director Larry Keefe called the operation’s first week “a test run.”
“This is going to be a sustained, persistent effort and these (interagency) relationships that I’ve gone on and on about today prove themselves in the heat of battle and I’m so glad for that. But it’s just a warm up,” Keefe said. “The greatest obstacle that I perceive in this whole space right now is lawfare, or it is the weaponization of the judiciary, and it is things other than the mission itself, things unrelated to finding, sorting, detaining and deporting. That is the greatest obstacle to slow down momentum for those who want to obstruct this process."
This first week of Operation Tidal Wave lasted from April 21 to 26 and resulted in a total of 1,120 arrests of people allegedly from the following countries of origin, 63% of whom “had existing criminal arrests or convictions,” according to a news release shared after the media event:
- 437 from Guatemala
- 280 from Mexico
- 153 from Honduras
- 48 from Venezuela
- 24 from El Salvador
- 178 from elsewhere
Among those arrested were 378 people with final orders of removal issued by an immigration judge, the release states, adding they “are subject to immediate removal from the country” while the rest are allegedly awaiting due process “or pending travel arrangements for removal.”
Watch the news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here.