Florida Immigrants Increasingly Fear Calling Police Amid ICE Crackdown: 'They're Traumatized by It All'

The expansion of local police cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Trump administration is increasingly exposing immigrants who report crimes or seek emergency assistance to detention and possible deportation, according to a report published by The Marshall Project.

The report centers on the case of Axel Sanchez Toledo, a Florida father who called 911 in December requesting a welfare check on his sick 4-year-old daughter. Deputies with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office initially spoke with him about the request before detaining him for ICE after determining he was undocumented, according to court records and body camera footage reviewed by the publication.

Sanchez Toledo fled and was subdued with a Taser before being arrested on a resisting arrest charge that prosecutors later dismissed. He remains in immigration detention awaiting possible deportation, as The Marshall Project reports.

The arrest was carried out by deputies participating in ICE's 287(g) Task Force program, which deputizes local officers to enforce federal immigration law. The Marshall Project reported that more than 1,100 law enforcement agencies nationwide have now signed such agreements, many encouraged by federal reimbursements and incentive payments.

Palm Beach County alone has received nearly $1 million in immigration-related funding since joining the program.

The investigation documented additional cases in which immigrants were detained after interacting with police as crime victims, witnesses, or people requesting assistance. Those cases included a father involved in a minor traffic accident while driving his son to school, a restaurant worker reporting information about a possible burglary, and a woman seeking help after a theft.

Advocates interviewed by The Marshall Project said the enforcement practices are discouraging immigrants from reporting crimes or cooperating with police investigations. "In the past, we would always say you need to call PBSO," Mariana Blanco of the Guatemalan-Maya Center told the outlet. "But now we're thinking twice about it."

The concerns raised by immigrant advocates contrast with research published last year by the Cato Institute, which found that immigrants historically reported violent crimes to police at higher rates than U.S.-born Americans. Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey between 2017 and 2023, the study concluded that immigrants were 44 percent less likely to be victims of violent crime and 29 percent more likely to personally report violent crimes to police.

The Cato analysis also found immigrants helped police solve approximately 5.1 million crimes during that period, contributing to nearly 457,000 arrests. The report warned, however, that expanded deportation efforts and closer cooperation between local police and ICE could reduce immigrants' willingness to report crimes in the future.

The Marshall Project reported that defense attorneys and immigrant advocates in Florida are already seeing that shift. Some immigrants now avoid contacting police entirely, even in emergencies, fearing detention or deportation. One attorney described the consequences bluntly: "They reached out for help, and the complete opposite happened."