ICE, Florida law enforcement arrest nearly 800 undocumented immigrants in massive operation

By Justin Schecker

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    ORLANDO (WESH) — Over the weekend, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the arrest of nearly 800 undocumented immigrants in just four days as part of a “first of its kind” partnership with Florida law enforcement agencies.

“Operation Tidal Wave is an example of FL and DHS partnering to deliver big results on immigration enforcement and deportations,” Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X.

Photos of Operation Tidal Wave shared by ICE on X show an FDLE officer and State Trooper assisting federal agents.

“The ICE agents in the interior, they’re removing public safety threats and national security threats every day,” White House Border Czar Tom Homan said Monday.

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A spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Thomas Kennedy is critical of state agencies helping ICE with immigration enforcement.

“This is just going to exacerbate worker shortages,” Kennedy said. “It’s going to make our communities less safe, because people are going to be afraid to report crime, because they think police is going to show up at their doors to deport them. It makes (our state) a less welcoming and less friendly place.”

Kennedy told WESH 2 he’s heard of raids happening in Tampa and Homestead that targeted “both homes and construction sites, workplaces.”

As President Trump approaches 100 days in office, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning defended the removal of U.S.-born children with their undocumented mother on a deportation flight to Honduras.

“So the mother, the parents, make that choice,” Secretary Rubio said. “I imagine those three U.S. citizen children have fathers here in the United States. They can stay with their father. That’s up to their family to decide where the children go. Children go with their parents. Parents decide where their children go. The U.S. deported their mothers who were illegally in America.”

The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration is having a ripple effect on the largest county jail in Central Florida.

From Jan. 1 through mid-April, Orange County Corrections reports that it booked 800 people with an ICE detainer. 259 of those inmates were not facing any local criminal charges.

As of Monday morning, a jail spokesperson said it had 203 inmates with ICE detainers. 25 of them are not charged locally with a crime.

During the Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting last Tuesday, jail chief Louis Quiñones explained inmates with immigration warrants can be held up to 72 hours under the agreement with ICE, but the majority are being transferred within 24 to 48 hours to other federal detention facilities like the one in Miami.

“Yesterday alone they brought in 20 inmates that had no local charges and we’re projecting to get 20 for the next five days,” Quiñones told the commissioners on April 22.

“So, what that suggests to me is that ICE is very active within Central Florida,” Mayor Jerry Demings said.

In addition to the county jail’s Warrant Service Officer agreement, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Orlando Police Departments have entered 287(g) Task Force Model agreements with ICE.

Trump on Monday was expected to sign two more executive orders on immigration. One of them directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security to publish a list of so-called “sanctuary cities” that are not complying with federal immigration enforcement.

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