Florida Sheriffs Urge ICE to Prioritize Criminals, Spare Hardworking Immigrants

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who chairs Florida's State Immigration Enforcement Council, called on federal officials March 16 to stop sweeping up law-abiding, hardworking immigrants in mass deportations and to concentrate enforcement firepower on those with criminal records. The virtual council meeting, held via Microsoft Teams, drew at least six of the council's eight members into agreement with Judd's position, marking a notable break with the hardline posture championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Judd argued that ICE isn't deporting those who are mentally ill or "have challenges" and is instead removing people who "are healthy and can work." "Those are the folks we need in this country that we embrace, because we are a country of immigrants," Judd said. "But we have allowed, what I call the criminal troublemaker, to just flood in this country and victimize people. And I think a path for the good folks with a good intention, for the right reason, is reasonable."

The council agreed to draft a letter to President Donald Trump and congressional leaders urging a focus on lawbreakers instead of hardworking immigrants in the country illegally. Judd's proposed terms for non-criminal immigrants were specific: "We're going to give you five years, and you've got to learn to speak English. You've got to pay a fine for coming into the country illegally, a civil fine," Judd said, adding they must not rely on taxpayer-funded programs and must keep their children enrolled in school.

Others on the council echoed Judd's views, including Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell, and the police chiefs of Kissimmee and St. Cloud. "We're not out doing immigration enforcement, just raiding businesses and homes," Prummell said, "but unfortunately, when ICE gets involved, you have the collaterals, and that's what's happening. And I wholeheartedly agree that Congress, they need to get off their butts, and they need to fix it."

Gualtieri put it plainly: "Going after this mom who's got three kids who just tried to make a living, who's been here for 15 years — the whole scenario you described — that isn't right, and they do need to fix it."

Judd, a staunch supporter of DeSantis's immigration enforcement push, said he spoke with a Cabinet member who spoke to Trump about "this kind of immigrant," and the president was "not anti that conversation." That signal from the White House was notable given that less than a year ago, at a council meeting, Judd had asked Trump to sign more executive orders to allow state law enforcement to expedite the removal of undocumented immigrants, including those who do not have removal orders or criminal records.

Not everyone at the table agreed. Attorney General James Uthmeier said hours earlier that everyone illegally in the country needs to be deported: "If people are here illegally, then they are breaking the law." The following day, Judd held a press conference to head off any suggestion that the council had turned against federal partners. Judd said: "I want to make it abundantly clear that we in Florida law enforcement wholeheartedly support and endorse ICE. We fully cooperate with them." But he again called for an end to deportations of undocumented immigrants who "add to society," saying: "Those people who are adding to the American dream, enjoying the American dream, that came here illegally but they're doing good and they're not a drag on society — in fact they're helping society — we need to find a path for them."

The council is part of a broader push by DeSantis to assert Florida as the top immigration enforcement state in the nation, as shown by its first-in-the-nation "Alligator Alcatraz" detention center in South Florida and its status as the only state forcing all of its counties to partner with ICE. DeSantis addressed Judd's comments at a press conference in Bradenton on March 19, saying: "This idea that unless you're an ax murderer, you should be able to stay — that is not consistent with our laws, and it's also not good policy."

The sheriffs' shift came as the White House privately told Republicans to stop talking about mass deportations and instead focus on violent unauthorized migrants — a messaging recalibration that may give Judd's proposed letter more traction in Washington than it would have found just months ago.