Immigrants and advocates of immigrants in Florida on Tuesday denounced a partnership between local police departments statewide and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation strategy.
“When local police act like ICE, entire communities go silent. People stop calling 911, they stop reporting crimes, they pull their children out of school, they pull their children out of different programs,” Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told reporters during a virtual press conference.
ICE's 287(g) program is decades-old and has been revived and expanded under the Trump administration. It trains local law officers to interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential deportation.
The voluntary program — named for a section of the 1996 law that created it — currently applies only to those undocumented immigrants already jailed or imprisoned on charges. Each of Florida’s 67 county jails has signed on to the agreement.
Nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S., according to the latest Homeland Security Department estimates. Florida, with 590,000, has the third highest number of any state.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said the agreement with state and local law enforcement will help “fulfill the president’s mission to effectuate the largest deportation program in American history.”
The Florida Sheriffs Association, in a Feb. 24 statement, said the partnership will "ensure that Florida’s immigration laws are upheld and that our streets remain protected.”
READ MORE: South Florida agencies sign up for federal enforcement program to pursue undocumented immigrants
Critics counter that the program fosters fear and distrust of authorities in immigrant communities.
“A traffic stop shouldn’t mean deportation,” said Alfonso, , the U.S. citizen son of an undocumented parent. “No child should go to school wondering if their parents will be there when they return.”
Alfonso did not disclose his last name for fear of retribution against his mixed-status family.
Others during the news conference said the program hurts Florida’s immigrant-dependent businesses, including agriculture, hospitality, and tourism.
Another big concern of among immigrants and advocates: the program’s history of racial profiling.
Former President Bar ack Obama discontinued it amid concerns about racial profiling specifically of Hispanics.
Under the Obama administration, the U.S. Justice Department, following a 2011 civil rights investigation, found that deputies in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, had engaged in a pattern of racial profiling, unlawful stops and arrests of Latinos. The Department of Homeland Security later ended its agreement with the county.
At a press conference in late February, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd called racial profiling fears “total BS.”
READ MORE: Pinellas school officials urged to reaffirm they will not let immigration agents on campus
At Tuesday’s news conference, Alana Greer, director of the Miami-based Community Justice Project, said “cities that sign [287(g)] agreements open themselves up to lawsuits and millions in litigation and settlement costs.”
Said Juan Cuba, executive director of Sheriff Accountability Action, which monitors sheriff’s offices nationwide: “These agreements aren’t about catching criminals — they’re about making people so afraid they self-deport.”
The Associated Press and WMNF-88.5 FM public radio contributed to this story.
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