On Feb. 13, Florida legislators passed a memorial to the DHS secretary “to provide guidance, training opportunities, and any other necessary directives to ensure cooperation,” guaranteeing that local law enforcement agencies would collaborate with the deportation of undocumented immigrants. 

A memorial is not a law, but rather a measure that expresses the legislature’s consensus in urging another executive agency or legislative body to take action on a matter. The governor does not sign a memorial after it passes both chambers of the legislature. But, separately, Gov. Ron DeSantis directed Florida law enforcement agencies to enter into similar agreements with DHS. These are negotiated between DHS and local authorities.   

In the past two months, Florida county sheriffs' offices, municipal police departments and now state university police departments have either signed MOAs or are planning to do so. As of April 16, ICE has signed 207 agreements with law enforcement agencies across the state. According to the American Immigration Council, ICE now has 456 such agreements nationwide, up from just 135 in December.

A “force multiplier”

On the campaign trail and since taking office, Trump promised to carry out mass deportations. He has ordered hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with temporary legal status to leave the country by the end of April. ICE is going to university campuses and schools, houses of worship, hospitals, jails and other places previously protected from raids under former President Joe Biden. 

The Trump administration is also targeting individual immigrants, including legal residents, like Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, currently detained in Louisiana; international students with study permits, like Rümeysa Öztürk, the Turkish PhD student and former Fulbright scholar who had been studying at Tufts University, arrested for co-writing an op-ed critical of the Gaza War; tourists have been detained.  

Local law enforcement trained under ICE will be able to participate in those types of operations, according to the memoranda, including interrogating those suspected of being undocumented; serving detention warrants on behalf of ICE; maintaining custody of detained undocumented people; transporting them to ICE facilities; and detaining individuals without a warrant if ICE has probable cause.

Oakland Deputy Police Chief Michael Bryant said local law enforcement personnel would not be authorized to act alone and would only assist with an ICE agent present. 

“ It's probably a force multiplier for ICE,” Bryant told VoxPopuli. “[ICE] could just send one person to each city, but that city would be equipped with people that would have the knowledge to back them up if they needed it.”

Orlando immigration attorney Daliah Lugo-Auffant said she anticipates more immigration cases and deportations in municipalities that signed these agreements. She foresees more cases of racial profiling stemming from the agreements because of the “viciously anti-immigrant” political climate. She added that organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union will take up the fight against racial profiling in such immigration cases.

In the past, some municipalities ended up terminating these MOAs, Lugo-Auffant said because minorities were targeted by agencies, like Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s department in Maricopa County, Arizona. His department stopped Latinos for traffic infractions more often than other groups.

“[Law enforcement agencies] were doing things like setting up checkpoints in what they knew to be a Latino neighborhood,” she said. 

Tracking data  

Law enforcement agencies must keep accurate data on the activities they perform under ICE. While Bryant said local officers would not initiate any investigation into suspected undocumented immigrants, the MOA states that local authorities must provide “specific tracking data requested by ICE” to assist an investigation. 

Bryant said ICE will provide access to DHS databases, but the MOA also states that officers participating in the training must qualify for federal security clearances.

Bryant said police can determine if someone is likely undocumented before the MOA gives them access to ICE data. For instance, if someone is driving without a license, an officer has to search for U.S. identification data that an undocumented person would not have, he explained.

Police are supposed to take those suspected of being undocumented to a jail, said Bryant, while corrections departments are responsible for contacting ICE. Florida statute now requires correctional facilities and sheriffs' departments to alert federal agencies about undocumented inmates. 

“[County law enforcement] always had the opportunity to contact ICE; I just don't think that was done as much as they're trying to do it now,” he said. 

Student visas reinstated

Local police chiefs are responsible for submitting officers for ICE training and approval, but the MOA doesn’t specify how many officers from each city must participate. The 40-hour training is available online. 

Bryant said Oakland’s police department committed four of its 20-person force — all supervisors — to keep officers in the field. The Winter Garden Police Department committed 12 officers — six officers and six supervisors — or 12 percent of its force for training, according to Public Information Officer Capt. Scott Allen. 

The Ocoee Police Department committed only one officer, out of its 97-member force, according to Public Information Officer Adam Shadoff.

Police officials said they didn’t expect to incur any additional costs from the agreement, although law enforcement agencies are expected to cover any extra costs, according to the MOA. 

In February, Orange County Sheriff John Mina signed the memorandum (the Orange County Board of Commissioners did not have to approve it) that committed 100 deputies out of 1,784, or about 6 percent, according to an email from the sheriff’s office. 

Inside Higher Ed recently reported that at least 10 state university police departments in Florida — including the University of Central Florida, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida — signed agreements with ICE. 

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Meanwhile, 15 UCF international students had their student visas revoked by ICE in the past month, one of whom was detained by ICE, WKMG/ClickOrlando reported. The UCF student detained is the second university student known to have been detained in Florida by the federal agency after UF student Feliz Zapata Velásquez, who was later released before self-deporting to Colombia, the Miami New Times reported. 

“From UCF’s perspective, we are a public university that receives state and federal funding and are therefore obligated to comply with all state and federal laws,” UCF Police Department Public Information Officer Amanda Sellers said in an email.

At least 18 international students at Florida International University and eight at UF had their visas revoked by the Trump administration as of April 18, according to The Miami Herald. They are among the hundreds of students nationwide who have had their visas canceled, with the only known connection being a past encounter with law enforcement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that visas will be revoked for foreign students engaging in political activity, referring to university students targeted for deportation because of their pro-Palestinian views.  

Several lawsuits filed against ICE argued that many students who lost their visas were never charged with a crime, let alone convicted; some had their visas canceled after traffic infractions; and most students with cancelled visas were not involved in political activity, the Miami Herald reported. On Friday, the Trump administration reversed the visa cancellations after several judges ruled that it was illegal to use the federal database that universities utilize to track foreign students in the U.S. for mass visa terminations, according to Politico. ICE is working on a new policy for canceling student visas that will not rely solely on background checks that flag minor offenses and dismissed cases, according to the Department of Justice.

"Complying with the law"

DeSantis has made it clear that not working with ICE is not an option. In March, when the Fort Myers City Council initially failed to pass its MOA, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent the city council a letter, warning of consequences if members did not comply. The governor also threatened to suspend the elected officials. The following day, the city council held an emergency meeting and unanimously passed the MOA.  

“Forcing local law enforcement to collaborate with ICE undermines community trust, reduces public safety, and puts both non-citizens and those with legal status at greater risk of detention and deportation, particularly in the current political climate,” said Laudi Campo, Florida state director for the Hispanic Federation, which provides legal assistance for the Latino community. 

But there’s no such reluctance in West Orange County where municipalities appear committed to following state directives. 

Bryant said the Oakland Police Department is unconcerned about signing the MOA because he doesn’t expect his force to be called upon to assist ICE.

“We don’t think we have an immigration problem,” Bryant said. “We’re just too small, and we pretty much know every citizen in this town.”

Williams, Winter Garden’s city manager, said in an email that his city is on board with the partnership. Williams presented the agreement as part of the city manager’s report without a vote by the commission because “it’s a matter of complying with law.” 

“I’m 1000% ok with it,” Williams wrote. “If a person is here legally and not breaking the law, they have nothing to worry about.” 

In an emailed statement to VoxPopuli, Ocoee Police Chief Vincent Ogburn said his department’s “primary focus is ensuring the safety and security of our community.”

Windermere town council members Anthony Davit, Mandy David and Tom Stroup did not respond to emailed requests for comment about their thoughts on the town's as yet unsigned MOA.  

Oakland’s Bryant said he expects the federal government may withhold or restrict funding for any municipality that refuses to pass the memorandum.

“ If I had to guess, [the federal government] would start by not giving us grants,” he said. “If we had something else that was funded with federal money, they would restrict that from us.”