Florida sheriffs are getting ready to ramp up immigration enforcement in the coming weeks.
On the heels of passage of Florida’s new sweeping immigration law, the Florida Sheriffs Association announced this week all of the state’s 67 county sheriffs signed 287(g) agreements with the federal government to cooperate with federal authorities to detain undocumented migrants for deportation.
These agreements allow federal authorities to train and deputize state and local law enforcement officers to carry out specified duties to enforce federal immigration law.
In a news conference Monday, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who was also recently appointed to the newly created State Immigration Enforcement Council, said Florida sheriffs would soon begin targeting tens of thousands of immigrants in the state illegally who are accused of committing felonies or already have a deportation order from a judge.
But Judd also acknowledged this enforcement would quickly run into a big problem – not enough space in the state’s 57 county jails and 10 county detention centers.
In total, those facilities only have about 2,000 available beds, he said. He added there are about 700,000 warrants out for migrants in the country illegally who have existing orders of deportation – many of whom are in Florida. They would be targeted first in the coming weeks.
“Make no mistake about it,’’ Judd told reporters. “There’s not capacity in the Florida sheriff’s or the county jails of this state to make any negligible difference. We’ve got to have the federal government create capacity. I think last week I had 30 beds.’’
Jails in other Central Florida counties like Orange and Seminole have limited capacity to handle a large influx of new arrestees.
“Due to ongoing capital improvement projects, bed space is limited in the Orange County Jail,’’ said jail spokeswoman Christina Grover.
At the Seminole County Jail, bed space fluctuates daily. On Tuesday, 963 inmates took up 1,396 available beds, according to Seminole County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Administrator Bob Kealing.
“Bed space for criminal suspect detainees we’ve determined to also have immigration holds would be dependent on their custody level, i.e. the seriousness of their offenses,’’ Kealing said. “We have always cooperated with our state and federal partners and will carry out their directives to the best of our ability, once we have received them.’’
In Flagler County, Sheriff Rick Staly said he has offered 100 beds to federal ICE agents and believes more bed space will become available. He said his jail has had a 287(g) agreement with federal immigration authorities since 2019.
“I think capacity is coming online,’’ Staly said. “I have five deputies that are still ICE warrant service officers. So we’re up and running. In fact we’ve already transferred 10 [inmates] to ICE and Border Patrol, and they took them to Baker County to be processed. So it is working.’’
But he added that limited jail space has forced him to prioritize where and who will be targeted.
“We’re not going to go to churches, schools, hospitals and do mass roundups,’’ Staly said. “We don’t have the staff to do that and we don’t have the capacity to do something like that.’’
Staly said his office will focus on immigrants who already have criminal records and those who have deportation orders and are still here.
But Judd said even focusing on migrants with deportation warrants “can overwhelm the current ability to house people in days. … We’ve got to have capacity and it has got to come from the federal government.’’
He added, “Don’t let us leave the illusion with you that we can handle all of these people. Because we will overwhelm this system very rapidly. And we intend to work very aggressively, but that’s why we’re here making this statement today. And the federal government knows this. They have to create capacity.’’
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