Drew Dixon
In a move to bolster funding for jails handling more detainees of those being apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Florida legislators added more funding to a Senate appropriations measure.
The Appropriations Conference Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice late Thursday added a provision and specific funding appropriation to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement “to award grants to local jails that are under construction and have contracted with (ICE) to support immigration enforcement efforts.”
Jason Garcia, former reporter with the Orlando Sentinel and now independent journalist picked up on the funding addition to the Senate Appropriations bill (SB 2500) that’s estimated to be some $3 million. However, Senate documents released during the Budget Conference on Thursday did not specifically state the exact amount of funding.
But after the Budget Conference, Senate Committee on Appropriations Chair Sen. Ed Hooper, a Republican from Palm Harbor, confirmed the addition to the legislation amounted to $3 million.
Hooper said the money will be used to fund training for local corrections officers throughout the state on how to handle inmates being held on immigration charges.
Hooper said the funding is simply capitalizing on a long-standing mutual aid agreement between the state and local law enforcement agencies.
“That language has been around for some time,” Hooper said. “We have an agreement with the sheriff’s departments that if a deputy wants to have additional training, there’s a stipend if they’re willing to do that. We did not contemplate that some of those correctional officers may also like to have some of that training and may be eligible for a stipend.”
That will help local law enforcement pay for the increasing cost of staffing and incarcerating inmates who are believed to be illegal immigrants, who are rounded up by ICE agents in Florida and taken to local jails in Florida municipalities.
Florida is seeing more and more of those people facing immigration charges filling municipal jails. A report by the Sentinel in late May detailed the rising number of those alleged illegal immigrants being taken to the local lockups.
In Orange County alone, Public Safety Director Danny Banks cautioned in the Sentinel report that a surge of immigration detainees could push the county’s detention facilities to the limit.
“I’m fearful that it’s going to lead us to maxing out our jail space,” Banks said of an influx of ICE inmates coming from Orange and neighboring counties.
