Nearly
25,000 immigration arrests made in Florida
Florida
will continue to use every available resource to identify dangerous
individuals, support federal immigration enforcement and keep our citizens
safe,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
By
Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor justthenews.com 5-29-26
Since
Florida launched its immigration enforcement effort, Operation Tidal Wave, in
February, nearly 25,000 arrests have been made statewide.
“Florida
will continue to use every available resource to identify dangerous
individuals, support federal immigration enforcement and keep our citizens
safe,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “No state has moved faster or done more to
combat illegal immigration than Florida, and we will continue to lead the
charge in protecting our communities.”
Operation
Tidal Wave was launched as Florida leads the country with the most 287(g) U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreements of any state, The Center Square reported.
The program is named
after a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996 and authorizes
ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to
perform specified immigration functions under its supervision.
The
Trump administration expanded the program to include three models: the Jail
Enforcement Model (JEM), Task Force Model (TFM) and Warrant Service Officer
(WSO) model, The Center Square reported.
Florida is the only state to have all of its sheriffs participating in 287(g),
with most participating in the TFM and or all three models. Nearly 200 police
departments, 12 state agencies and 15 state universities and colleges, as well
as county commissioner detention facilities and correctional facilities, are
participating in 287(g). No other state has as many agencies participating in
287(g), and primarily in the TFM, as Florida does, according to ICE data.
During
the first week of Operation Tidal Wave, Florida law enforcement arrested more
than 1,100 criminal illegal foreign nationals, a record for Florida. The only
state with more arrests in a single week is in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott’s
Operation Lone Star is underway. While these arrests are not solely through
287(g) partnerships, Texas law enforcement through OLS have made more than half
a million arrests over the last five years, The Center Square reported.
OLS is ongoing.
Key
287(g) partnership arrests were made in Florida through three recent
multi-agency immigration enforcement operations: Operation Sandhill Sentinel,
Operation LOCATE and Operation Criminal Return.
In
south Florida, Operation Sandhill Sentinel led to the arrest of 250 illegal
foreign nationals, including those with extensive criminal histories ranging
from domestic violence to drug offenses, DUI and assault, among other violent
crimes. Those arrested also had final orders of removal and repeat immigration
violations, ICE found.
The
Florida Highway Patrol (FDLE), Broward Sheriff’s Office, ICE, U.S. Border
Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, Florida National Guard and Florida
State Guard were involved in the operation.
Another
key
arrest earlier this month was of a Honduran national and known MS-13 gang
member illegally residing in Palm Beach County. A multi-agency operation led to
the arrest of Luis Merary Peralta-Sevilla, who illegally entered the country in
2013 in Texas. He was never deported until the second Trump administration,
which also designated MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organization. MS-13 members
are also being
prosecuted nationwide.
In
Operation Criminal Return, FDLE and ICE sought to identify criminal foreign
nationals who are registered sex offenders and sexual predators. In a 10-day
targeted operation they arrested 230 people statewide, including sexual
predators and sex offenders, convicted felons, a convicted drug trafficker, and
convicted murderers, according to FDLE and ICE.
In
Operation LOCATE, the FDLE partnered with Homeland Security in an
intelligence-led initiative focused on identifying and locating unaccompanied
alien children (UACs).
They
located more than 400 UACs statewide and outside of Florida, verifying their
safety and living conditions “while uncovering cases involving trafficking
concerns, missing children, and other high-risk situations,” the governor’s
office said.
UACs
are foreign national children under age 18 who arrive in the U.S. without their
parents or family members. They are primarily smuggled into the country and
once in the U.S., the federal government doesn’t deport them but sends them to
live with so-called sponsors. Florida has historically
received the most UACs behind Texas and California, The Center Square reported.
As
the border crisis worsened under the Biden administration, sponsors in 29
counties in Florida received more than 10,000 UACs, The Center Square reported.
In
response to reports of abuse and neglect of UACs in Florida, DeSantis called
for a state grand jury to launch an investigation. It found “horrible
atrocities inflicted on immigrant children in Florida” including allegations of
human trafficking and child abuse. It also found that the federal government
lost track of more than 20,000 children in Florida and performed no background
checks on the sponsors the UACs were sent to, among other issues, The Center
Square reported.
Last
year, the Trump administration launched
an initiative to conduct welfare checks on UACs after President Donald
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said more than 350,000 UACs were unaccounted for.
