Almost 25,000 immigration arrests made in Florida

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

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.