ICE Expands Florida Partnerships, Adding Fish and Wildlife Commission to Immigration Efforts

Although federal immigration authorities drove most arrests during the early months of President Donald Trump's second administration, local police departments and state agencies have increasingly taken on that role, accounting for a growing share of immigration-related arrests in Florida.

In the Sunshine State, 347 state and local agencies have entered into partnerships with federal immigration authorities to assist in the administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

Partnerships between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are not new. In recent months, however, ICE has gained unlikely allies in Florida, including the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Florida Lottery.

The Associated Press reported on a case in March in which a Guatemalan couple was stopped by an officer with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The couple was walking their dog in a Bonita Springs neighborhood when they encountered the officer, who remained in his vehicle and asked to see the husband's identification.

According to the wife, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because she feared detention and did not want to jeopardize either of their pending asylum cases, the officer arrested her husband after claiming the couple's dog had bitten him, despite never leaving his vehicle.

"He told us he was issuing a ticket because the dog had bitten him, but that wasn't true because the officer never got out of the car," she said. "He started making calls, arrested him, and waited 40 minutes" until ICE agents arrived and took her husband into custody.

Partnerships between local law enforcement agencies and immigration authorities have contributed to a sharp increase in immigration-related arrests across Florida.

According to data from the University of California, Berkeley's Deportation Data Project obtained by The Associated Press, nearly 39,000 immigrants were arrested in Florida between Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, and March 11, an average of 93 arrests per day. Only Texas recorded more, averaging 239 daily arrests.

According to Vilerka Bilbao, an immigration attorney representing at least 23 clients detained by local police in the Jacksonville area, officers participating in ICE partnerships often look for minor violations as a pretext to stop and detain people.

Bilbao argued that law enforcement agencies are under pressure to demonstrate results amid Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' close alignment with the Trump administration's policies

The reasons for a stop can range from a broken taillight to tinted windows or, in the Guatemalan couple's case, walking a dog.

"There's a lot of officers who have been deputized, given immigration authority, and they are just looking for people," Bilbao said. "They are arresting anybody, they need to show the numbers to DeSantis and the federal government."

In the case of the man arrested while walking his dog, the Department of Homeland Security said he was taken into custody because he had two final orders of removal, the Associated Press reported.

The outlet noted that the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission declined to release arrest reports and body camera footage, saying ICE requires agencies participating in immigration enforcement operations to direct all inquiries to ICE and to DHS, its parent agency.

When contacted for comment, both ICE and DHS declined to provide the records. DHS said in a statement that it would not disclose law enforcement-sensitive information.