Governor DeSantis lays out his plans for Florida’s proposed Sanctuary Cities ban
Bottom Line:Last week a Senate bill aimed at eliminating the prospect of “sanctuary cities or counties” cleared its Senate committee on a 4-2 vote. Now Governor DeSantis is outlining his plan in advocacy of this proposal in advance of the upcoming state session.
Currently only 29 of Florida’s 67 counties have full agreements with ICE in place ensuring that any undocumented person apprehended by local law enforcement is processed by ICE. In South Florida only Monroe County has an agreement with ICE. You’ll often hear from local governments that they’re not “sanctuary counties or cities” but that’s only somewhat true. There’s jurisdiction with any crime that’s committed. Just as every bank robbery is a federal offense, every illegal immigrant is a federal offense. No local government has any authority on the matter. The game that’s often played at the local level in Florida with non-complicit local governments, is that they’ll respond to any ICE detainer requests that come about – thereby proclaiming that they’re not “sanctuary counties or cities” but they often won’t contact/work with federal authorities proactively when undocumented people are detained. That’s not right. The local body has no jurisdiction and is violating federal law by not bubbling it up to the proper authorities. That’s what this proposal would square up in Florida.
Do it or the state will step in and do it for you and have the potential to hold the local officials to account for the dereliction of duty and violations of federal law. This is a no brainer that shouldn’t even be a conversation but alas. So back to DeSantis. In addition to being a strong advocate for this bill, he announced plans for FDLE to enter into a full agreement with ICE. He also stated that the 4,500 criminal aliens currently in the Florida prison system will be processed under this agreement turning all of them over to ICE for deportation upon completion of their sentences. Seems like common sense but then again, I believe in the Bill of Rights, Constitution and rule of law. It’s remarkable how many people in government don’t.