14 hrs ago ©2025 The News Service of Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that more state agencies have reached agreements for officers to be trained and participate in immigration-enforcement efforts with the federal government. After DeSantis and the Legislature last week approved an immigration-enforcement plan, he signed memorandums of understanding that involve the Florida State Guard, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DeSantis said the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which is under Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, has also signed an agreement. A similar deal was signed last week with the Florida Highway Patrol. Larry Keefe, who was named Monday as executive director of the new State Board of Immigration Enforcement, said the goal is to allow law enforcement to “go out there, put their hands on people, arrest and detain them and deport them, so we get illegal aliens out of the state of Florida and out of this country on airplanes.” The board, made up of DeSantis and state Cabinet members, was created as part of special-session legislation that also included toughening penalties for crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, requiring the death penalty for undocumented immigrants who commit first-degree murder or rape children and making it a state crime for undocumented immigrants to enter Florida.
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