A top Miami-Dade official announced this past week that Florida Highway Patrol troopers will be stationed at the county’s nine driver license offices after Gov. Ron DeSantis said troopers were being deputized to enforce federal immigration laws.
“In light of recent reports of minor safety disturbances in at least one of the county’s driver license offices, the Miami-Dade County Office of the Tax Collector is taking a proactive measure in collaboration with the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to safeguard the well-being of customers and employees alike,” county Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez said in a statement issued last Thursday by his office, which manages driver license's offices.
“FHP troopers will take appropriate actions against any individual(s) who threaten the safety of our facilities or cause disruptions in operations,” Fernandez added.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced an agreement between federal immigration authorities and the highway patrol this past Wednesday, giving the state agency the authority to enforce immigration laws when making arrests for traffic violations or other offenses.
If you have an illegal [immigrant] driving drunk, and they get pulled over, the [FHP] can take them to immigration, too,” DeSantis told reporters.
William “Bill” Smith Jr., who leads the highway patrol's union, said troopers will carry out the governor’s orders but warned that the agency is understaffed and underfunded, noting there are more than 100 vacancies.
“[Troopers] do what they are told, but we keep getting more and more and more assignments with no additional pay,” Smith, president of the Florida Highway Patrol chapter of Florida’s Police Benevolent Association, told WTVJ-TV in Miami.
During his first week in office, President Donald Trump signed 10 executive orders on immigration enforcement and issued a slew of edicts to carry out promises of mass deportations and border security.
Trump expanded arrest priorities to anyone in the country illegally, not just people with criminal convictions, public safety or national security threats and migrants stopped at the border.
Thirteen state attorneys general issued a Jan. 23 statement arguing the use of state and local police to enforce federal immigration laws is unconstitutional.
“It is well-established — through longstanding Supreme Court preceden — that the U.S. Constitution prevents the federal government from commandeering states to enforce federal laws,” they wrote. “While the federal government may use its own resources for federal immigration enforcement, the court ruled in Printz v. United States that the federal government cannot ‘impress into its service — and at no cost to itself — the police officers of the 50 states.’”
“As state attorneys general, we have a responsibility to enforce state laws — and we will continue to investigate and prosecute crimes, regardless of immigration status,” they added. “We will not be distracted by the president’s mass deportation agenda.”
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