Message From Sheriff Chitwood On Changes To Immigration Law

Date Added: February 26, 2025 1:34 pm

For years, we’ve been crippled by a broken federal immigration system and zero solutions from Washington.

Sheriffs across the country have dealt with the effects. We’ve seen deadly fentanyl ripping through our communities, members of foreign crime rings and gangs victimizing our residents, and lives lost to criminals who should have never been roaming free in our country.

This week, I have gathered with my fellow sheriffs from all 67 Florida counties and with Gov. DeSantis to discuss the common-sense changes that are finally coming to immigration enforcement in our state.

These new laws and programs prove what a lot of Sheriffs like me have been saying for years: Immigration is a national issue that requires action from the federal government.

At a local level, we have done our part to the extent federal law allows. We have embedded Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in our narcotics task force operations for the past decade. We have proactively notified ICE when we identify a criminal we believe is in this country illegally.

But until now, under federal law, local law enforcement has not been authorized to play a direct role in enforcing immigration law.

Without a doubt, that’s changing under the current administrations of President Trump and Gov. DeSantis.

Key changes include:

The return of street task forces. VSO and all Sheriff’s Offices in Florida are joining revived federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) street task forces. These programs have not been available since they were discontinued by the federal government in 2012. Now, these task forces will facilitate training that allows deputies to conduct initial investigations to identify and arrest subjects who have active warrants for removal from the United States.

Jails in every Florida county (57 sheriff-run jails and 10 county-run facilities like Volusia County’s) have each signed on to a 287(g) agreement with ICE. This federal program, also discontinued in 2012, allows local jail personnel to receive training to process individuals detained for deportation once they are booked into the jail system. Rather than being released after posting bond for their criminal charges, these individuals can face a deportation process that begins immediately.

There are about 1.4 million removal warrants in the federal system at this time. Previously, local law enforcement did not have access to these warrants. Recently, about 700,000 of them were entered into the NCIC warrant database that all law enforcement can access. However, until local personnel are trained and deputized under the revived 287(g) program, only federal agents with immigration authority can make arrests on these warrants.

The subjects of these removal warrants are the highest priority for deportation, along with subjects who pose a danger to public safety or homeland security, members of criminal organizations, and individuals who were previously removed from the U.S. but have re-entered.

As described above, these new or revived enforcement initiatives are focused on criminal offenders who are dangers to society and individuals who already have warrants for removal from the U.S.

As stated this week by my outstanding colleagues Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, non-citizens who are living in the U.S. without legal status but are otherwise abiding by state and local laws are not the focus of immigration enforcement efforts from a local law enforcement perspective.

I’m encouraged by the commitment from our federal, state and local partners to get this common-sense job done in a common-sense way. It’s been a long time coming.

-Sheriff Mike Chitwood