Immigration advocates gathered outside the National Sheriffs’ Association conference in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday to protest local law enforcement’s cooperation with Trump’s deportation program.
Sheriffs from all over the country have flown into South Florida for the conference, held at the Broward County Convention Center this week. On Monday, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony welcomed the sheriffs to the county, while FBI director Kash Patel and Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche held a discussion on how local law enforcement can work with the federal government.
On the street corner across from the convention center Tuesday morning, organizers from the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the National Council of Jewish Women, Sheriff Accountability Action and the ACLU criticized the sheriffs for entering 287(g) agreements, which allow local law enforcement to collaborate with ICE by acting as immigration enforcement. Critics say the agreements will weaken the trust between immigrants and law enforcement and lower the reporting of crime.
Florida has positioned itself as one of the biggest enforcers of President Donald Trump’s deportation program and leads the country in the number of local agencies entering 287(g) agreements. Every county sheriff department in Florida has an agreement, including Broward and Palm Beach County, as well as local cities like Hollywood and West Palm Beach. The agreements take the form of different models, some of which apply only to jails, requiring sheriff cooperation. But many sheriff departments and cities have also entered “Task Force” models, which give officers the right to enforce immigration law during routine police work, like traffic stops. Last week, Miami commissioners also voted to enter a Task Force agreement despite heavy backlash from the public.
“These entities that are supposedly in charge of protecting and serving us are now being pitted against us by our state policies,” Ana Maria Hernandez, an organizer with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told reporters. “Our elected officials support 287(g) agreements in the name of public safety, but we know that that’s false.”
South Florida has become a focus of the clash between state and local officials. Home to many of the state’s immigrants, its sheriffs have faced pressure to cooperate with immigration enforcement despite concerns about trust in the communities they serve. Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony received a warning letter from Attorney General James Uthmeier after he said at a meeting that he would not conduct immigration raids and that enforcement was not a priority for him.
The 287(g) agreements clash with South Florida’s identity as a place for immigrants, Darien Gomez, an organizer with the ACLU, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“It’s an interesting situation because you have a strong immigrant community that has basically built South Florida into what it is in all three South Florida counties,” Gomez said. “There’s a strong foundation of that in our culture, in our economy … the agenda the state government has, to basically collaborate and promote mass deportations, is at odds with that.”
State leaders are also now planning an “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center at a Miami-Dade County-owned airfield in the middle of the Everglades, which Uthmeier touted as “the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.” On Tuesday, advocates condemned the decision, pointing to concerning conditions at existing detention centers like Krome in Miami.
The ACLU is already suing ICE over its treatment of a man at the Baker County Detention Center, Gomez said.
Tuesday’s gathering at the sheriffs’ conference was small and peaceful, with some cars honking support. It did not appear to attract the attention of conference attendees, but included remarks from Sheriff Alyshia Dyer from Washtenaw County in Michigan, where Ann Arbor is located.
Dyer has not entered into a 287(g) agreement, nor have many of Michigan’s sheriffs.
Asked about the pressure faced by Florida sheriffs to comply with the state, she said, “I empathize.”
“Trying to force sheriffs to do something, especially when we have enough on our plate, you’re trying to add extra things now when we’re already strapped for resources,” Dyer added. “I just think it’s not good government and not good democracy.”
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