Earlier this month, Florida offered the Trump Administration a blueprint for state cooperation in its mass deportation efforts.
The 37-page Immigration Enforcement Operations Plan includes the rapid construction of detention facilities, the use of Florida National Guard Judge Advocate General's Corps officers as immigration judges, and deportation flights using Florida contractors.
"And so we have a plan on the table, if the feds approve, where we can take some of the military judge advocates, let them act as immigration judges," Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday at a press conference in Tampa. "We can do makeshift detention space, and then even do transportation."
DeSantis called it a "soup to nuts" plan and a "major force multiplier."
He said the state is "already leading the country way over and above what anyone else is doing. But this will show how it's done. It'll show these things, in fact ... can be done."
DeSantis underscored Florida's more than 1,800 Florida Highway Patrol troopers trained to enforce immigration law and legislation that requires local governments to cooperate.
That law is why there aren't complaints about local law enforcement opting not to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DeSantis said. "I think it's because we have legislation in place that basically says: If you don't do maximum participation with federal immigration authorities that can constitute a neglect of duty, which would trigger the governor's ability to suspend you from office.
"I think that's why you don't have as many complaints, because I think that there's a total disincentive for any law enforcement agency or a mayor to be flagrantly disregarding state immigration authority," he added. "If we didn't have that, don't think we'd have some of these liberal mayors hot-dogging you?"
The state immigration enforcement proposal relies on the FHP and local police officers and deputies, but it also gives key managerial responsibilities to the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
The plan also proposes a command structure led by the state tha "empowers coordinating officers to act without prior federal authorization."
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said immigration is a federal responsibility but that President Donald Trump and DeSantis "are more concerned with strong man politics than they are with the U.S. Constitution."
She added: "Florida is a very diverse state. We're highly reliant on immigration for our workforce, whether it is tourism, construction, agriculture. And the more we pursue these anti-immigrant laws, the harder it's going to be to have a vibrant workforce. And of course, it's going to continue to pull resources away from public safety, emergency management and our local coffers."
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