Florida leaders face federal bureaucracy roadblocks in illegal immigration crackdown

Florida state troopers and local law enforcement who are being called on to help with the federal government’s illegal immigration crackdown say they are facing difficulties getting access to records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Florida leaders say they are talking to the Department of Homeland Security to allow local law enforcement officials to access ICE’s database on immigration statuses.

“We’ve got to share data,” said Florida’s new immigration czar, Larry Keefe, during Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting with Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials.

Keefe said he is working through bureaucracy to gain access by asking the feds, “Show me the federal statute that says that you’re prohibited from doing this. Or is it simply a function of a policy in the (Joe) Biden administration?’”

Keefe called working with the federal government to share immigration records “a high priority.”

“Just about every meeting I’m in is, ‘Show me why a highway patrolman right now on the side of the highway does not have access to this information,’” he said. “It infuses everything that we’re doing to cut through norms, customs and various dysfunctional federal organizations.”

Last week, DeSantis announced that all 67 county Sheriffs in Florida signed agreements with the federal government to increase their authority to carry out immigration enforcement in partnership with ICE. The Florida Highway Patrol and other state agencies all have signed similar agreements. What’s next is reaching agreements with Florida Police Chiefs.

“We’re ahead of the curve on this. We didn’t want to wait. We didn’t want to let this drag on for many months,” DeSantis said Wednesday about working with President Donald Trump. “We wanted to be there in the fight right at the outset of the Trump administration.”

The Governor praised Keefe for his work. “I think you’ve made a lot of progress, and we just got to keep going,” DeSantis said.

Last month, DeSantis signed measures that give local law enforcement agencies $250 million to compensate for their role in fighting illegal immigration and create stricter laws for undocumented people.