State and local officials have made nearly 20,000 immigration-related arrests over the past several months.
That’s according to Governor Ron DeSantis, who provided an update on the state’s immigration enforcement efforts outside of Deportation Depot in Baker County Monday morning.
DeSantis said the state’s Operation Tidal Wave has yielded roughly 10,000 immigration-related arrests since last April, and when combined with local efforts, the number doubles to nearly 20,000 arrests.
FHP alone has accounted for more than 7,000 immigration-related arrests.
There have also been nearly 1,000 self deportations through the state’s self deportation program.
“So, those are really, really big numbers and there’s not another state in the country that is even close in terms of this level of participation,” DeSantis said.
The Governor claimed of the 10,000 arrests through the state’s operation, roughly 63 percent of the individuals had criminal histories.
“And it’s various crimes. You do have some violent, you have DUIs, you have gang, you have sex offense, some are fugitives from justice,” DeSantis said.
State Representative Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) noted that means nearly 4,000 people arrested by the state had no prior criminal record.
“The reality of it is a lot of folks that have been taken up and disappeared from our communities are our neighbors. They’re small business owners like the one that was operating a cafe shop on Main Street. They work in construction, they work in hospitality, they work in agriculture, and they’re helping contribute to our society,” said Nixon.
The Governor argued the state’s efforts are focused on illegal immigration overall, and not only on those who have come here and committed an additional crime.
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“To say that would be the case would be absurd. You’re giving people license to come into the country illegally until you commit a serious crime? No. We want to prevent the serious crimes from happening,” DeSantis said.
The Governor explained at Deportation Depot, the facility has directly contributed to 93 deportation flights involving nearly 3,000 detainees within the last four months alone.
“Our goal is we want people here as little as possible. The goal is not to create a long-term facility, and that’s not the function,” DeSantis said.
Since the beginning, the Governor has argued Deportation Depot and its Everglades-based counterpart, Alligator Alcatraz, only serve a temporary mission.
But when we asked how long he believes they’ll be necessary, the Governor indicated the ball is in the federal government’s court, and contingent on DHS expanding its own bed capacity in the state.
“If they have what they need, then we won’t have to do, but it’s clearly temporary. How temporary will depend on the pace that they have interns of doing the expansion,” DeSantis said.
But Nixon argued there doesn’t seem to be an off-ramp.
“We knew that there was never an end in sight with these facilities that he stood up,” Nixon said.
She argued the entire operation is a quote “grift”, noting many of the companies operating the facilities were awarded no-bid contracts and have histories of donations to the Governor and other Republicans’ campaigns.
But she noted whoever is elected Governor next could put an end to the state-run detention centers.
“And so I hope that we start electing people who care about people and not care about enriching their friends,” said Nixon.
The Governor said there are plans in the works for two additional detention centers, one in the Panhandle and another in Southwest Florida.
He said both are currently awaiting DHS approval.
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