Florida Sheriffs Say Mass Deportations Go Too Far, Call for Path to Citizenship

A council of Florida law enforcement leaders appointed to advise on the state’s hardline immigration policies is instead calling for a pathway for citizenship for certain immigrants who entered the country illegally.

At a quarterly meeting Monday of the Florida Immigration Enforcement Council, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said that, while he had no problem working with federal authorities to deport illegal immigrants with criminal records, he was concerned about stories from constituents about longtime residents who’d been brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and who had no other criminal record but were detained while checking in at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field offices.

“While Congress sits on their hands and does nothing about this, we are on the ground floor with this day in and day out, looking in the eyes of these folks that, yes, came here inappropriately,” Judd, who chairs the council, said at Monday’s meeting. “But some came here inappropriately only to do better for themselves and their family.”

The council—four sheriffs and four police chiefs—was created by the Florida Legislature to advise the State Board of Immigration, a panel of the governor and state cabinet. As such, the comments at Monday’s meeting generated headlines such as “Sheriffs rebel against Donald Trump’s, Gov. DeSantis’ mass deportation efforts.”

Judd held a press conference on Tuesday to clarify his position. He stressed that he fully supported the Trump administration and ICE, but he didn’t back down from his position that immigrants who entered the country illegally but otherwise lived as law-abiding, contributing members of society should have a path to citizenship.

“There needs to be evidence of positive assimilation, but those people that are enjoying the American dream and adding to it, we need to find a path for them,” Judd said.

Although all of the council members at Monday’s meeting said the majority of immigrants they hold under ICE detainers have accompanying criminal charges, they bemoaned what Judd called “collaterals,” the illegal immigrants with no criminal record who were swept up because they were, for example, passengers in a car during a traffic stop.

“I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri responded after Judd finished speaking on Monday, although he also noted that it was Congress’ job to change the law.

“We’re not out doing immigration enforcement, just raiding businesses and homes,” Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell said, “but unfortunately when ICE gets involved you have the collaterals, and that’s what’s happening. And I wholeheartedly agree that Congress needs to get off their butts and fix it.”

“It’s too wide a net,” Naples Police Chief Ciro Dominguez said. 

St. Cloud Police Chief Douglas Goerke also agreed with Judd’s comments.

At his press conference Tuesday, Judd called news headlines suggesting a split with the Trump or DeSantis administrations “absolutely false.” He said that the council’s job is simply to provide feedback and information to lawmakers based on their local-level view of immigration enforcement.

Judd said his proposed path for citizenship would potentially require, among many other things, paying civil fines for violating immigration law and learning to speak English.

“They should be fined, they should be held accountable,” Judd said at Tuesday’s press conference. “But if Congress will do their job and deal with this group, then it frees us up to focus on those who are committing crimes, those who are dangerous, those that are violent, those that are paying no attention. That’s what that conversation was about and will continue to be about.”

Nevertheless, the council’s comments raised eyebrows because they’re at odds with the zero-tolerance immigration policies of White House adviser Stephen Miller and the trollish rhetoric of the Department of Homeland Security.

Judd is a notably conservative sheriff and a longtime ally of Ron DeSantis, often appearing with the governor at press conferences to tout DeSantis’ criminal justice policies. In fact, Judd has been the subject of numerous critical Reason stories over the years for his office’s dubious “human trafficking” stings and his questionable statements, such as claiming on Fox & Friends that marijuana is “killing people everyday across the United States.”

And the comments are awkward because DeSantis has positioned Florida as one of the Trump administration’s strongest allies in its mass deportation campaign. DeSantis has made cooperating with federal immigration authorities mandatory for county and local officials, under threat of removal from office.

For example, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier recently sent a letter to the mayor of Tampa warning that DeSantis would remove the mayor from office unless the city rescinded a policy banning the Tampa Police Department from participating in broad immigration sweeps, such as construction site raids and traffic checkpoints. The city quickly rewrote its policy.

Uthmeier held a press conference Tuesday where he rejected the council’s recommendations.

“I don’t write the law—I enforce it,” Uthmeier said. “If people are here illegally, then they are breaking the law, and we are going to enforce it.”

According to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, as of February, 73 percent of the roughly 68,000 people held in ICE detention had no criminal record.

What Judd and his fellow law enforcement officials said shouldn’t be that surprising, though. Their comments demonstrate a longstanding nuance in Americans’ views on immigration. Although Americans tend to prefer strong border security—an issue that arguably won Donald Trump the White House a second time—polling also consistently shows strong favorable views of immigration and a preference for some sort of path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country.

And the more that people see what an indiscriminate mass deportation campaign looks like in practice, the more they find they have no stomach for deporting nannies and high school students.

A March NBC News poll of American voters reported that, “While 53% of voters approve of Trump’s handling of border security, 54% disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration.”

The poll also found that 60 percent of respondents said that immigration helps the U.S. more than it hurts.