Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony made it clear that his deputies won’t be expanding their role in immigration enforcement despite Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s new law, which aims to bolster cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.
“I didn’t sign up to be ICE. My patch doesn’t say ICE. My patch is Broward County,” Tony said during a press conference at the Broward Sheriff’s Office headquarters on Thursday.
Governor DeSantis, speaking at the Homestead Air Reserve Base last Wednesday, announced that all 67 Florida sheriffs had signed agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the 287(g) program.
“I am proud to say that all 67 Florida sheriffs, representing our 67 counties, each one of those sheriffs has executed this 287(g) Task Force model agreement with the Department of Homeland Security,” he said during a joint news conference with the Department of Homeland Security.
The law enables local law enforcement to act as immigration agents under three models: the Jail Enforcement Model, the Warrant Service Officer Model, and the Task Force Model. Former St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson, now a Senior Counselor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, underscored the significance of the move, highlighting a dramatic rise in arrests—over 20,000 undocumented immigrants detained last month alone, marking a 627% increase under the Trump administration’s directives.
In the last week, Florida also announced harsher penalties for crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
South Florida police focused on policing
However, in Broward and Palm Beach counties, the new law may have little practical impact. Tony and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said their departments are already complying with key parts of the law by notifying ICE about undocumented immigrants held in county jails and cooperating during federal raids—without dedicating deputies to proactive immigration enforcement.
“There’s no organized sweeps with us going on as far as just people that are here illegally,” Bradshaw told Sun Sentinel. He emphasized that the focus remains on those who have committed additional crimes beyond illegal entry. “You don’t need to be afraid. If you’re not a bad guy, you haven’t committed a crime or you’re not one of the people that’s here illegally that’s a convicted murderer, there’s no problem,” he said, describing outreach efforts to Hispanic communities to dispel fears.
Tony was equally firm. Asked if he would create a new force of task officers to work directly with ICE, as allowed under the new law, he responded bluntly: “The answer is: absolutely not.” He argued that such efforts would strain resources and erode trust within immigrant communities, making it less likely that residents would report crimes or cooperate with police investigations.
While DeSantis described the law as leading to “street-level enforcement operations,” the reality in South Florida appears more restrained. In large counties like Broward and Palm Beach, where immigrant communities represent significant portions of the population—especially from Caribbean and Latin American countries—the focus will remain on serious criminal offenses rather than immigration status.
