More than 1,100 people in the country illegally were arrested during Operation Tidal Wave during the week of April 21-26, federal and state officials announced Thursday.
Surrounded by the governor and other state leaders, Madison Sheahan, the deputy director of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency – also known as ICE – applauded the results of the round-up.
“Together we were able to conduct over 1,100 arrests and remove several violent gang members from the communities here in Florida,’’ Sheahan said in Miami. She called the operation a “first of its kind,” which relied on so-called 287(g) agreements that allow the federal agency to delegate immigration enforcement duties to state and local law enforcement agencies.
Of the 1,120 arrested, two-thirds had criminal records, according to a statement from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office. About one-third had final orders of removal issued by an immigration judge. Sheahan lauded the federal-state cooperation, called the operation “historic’’ and said the arrests were the largest number in a single state in one week in ICE’s history.
Sheahan said more than 250 state and local law enforcement officers participated in the operation. Some were from the local sheriff’s offices in Central Florida: Orange, Brevard, Sumter and Volusia counties.
DeSantis said Thursday the operation was just the first of more to come.
“We’re ready, willing and able to take it to the next level,’’ DeSantis said. “We have submitted plans to DHS [Department of Homeland Security] to say if this is approved, we will go off to the races and we will be able to do from soup to nuts: From apprehension to detention, even putting some of our people in the National Guard in line to serve as immigration judges.’’
But some activists in Central Florida object to Orange County’s participation in what it calls “the deportation machine.’’ The group Immigrants Are Welcome Here, a coalition of immigrant rights, labor, and social justice organizations, led a march at the Orange County Jail on Thursday to protest the jail’s housing of inmates with ICE detainers from other counties. It costs taxpayers $145 a day to house an inmate at the jail, according to county officials, but the county is only reimbursed $88 by the federal government.
Ericka Gómez-Tejeda of the Central Florida Labor Council, Latin American Affairs, is one of the organizers of Thursday’s rally.
“We’re going to Orange County Jail because it is currently being used as an ICE detention center because of the 287(g) agreement that was signed,’’ Gómez-Tejeda said. “We are asking that they instead of using our tax dollars to fund deportations and Trump’s deportation machine, we want them to use the money for education, transportation, affordable housing, the real community needs.’’
Orange County Jail records show a huge spike in the number of inmates being held for ICE detention. In just the first four months of this year, there were 1,018 inmates being held on ICE detainers. That’s slightly more than the number of inmates with ICE detainers for all of 2024.
Gómez-Tejeda said the group was also pushing back against the state and federal government’s claim that most of the immigrants being arrested are dangerous criminals.
“The people who are being detained are being detained for minor traffic offenses that are changing their lives,’’ Gómez-Tejeda. “We’re not talking about the murderers and the rapists that the [Trump] administration keeps saying that’s who they’re detaining. They are detaining hard-working immigrants who are on their way to work and for some reason get pulled over for traffic violations. This is not helping to make our community safer. It’s actually taking people away from our economy. The people who are being brought to the jail are not the hard criminals that they’re supposed to be going after. It’s just everyday, hard-working families from the immigrant community.’’
But Sheahan said the Trump administration’s position is that crossing the border illegally – a civil infraction under federal immigration law – makes the person a criminal regardless if they have a criminal record.
“If you’re in this country illegally, you are a criminal,’’ Sheahan said. “You will be deported. You will have the opportunity to come back into this country through the correct immigration processes. We’re working those every single day. But our number one goal is to keep the American people safe from the criminals that are walking in this country that should have never been let through in the first place.’’
