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The newly formed Florida Sheriffs Association announced on Monday that every county jail in the state has signed an agreement to notify ICE when an undocumented criminal is arrested and booked.
According to the association, this is to ensure compliance with Florida's new partnership with ICE through the 287(g) Program.
As part of this effort, every county is working with ICE to make sure there are ICE-deputized sheriffs’ deputies and correctional officers in all 67 county jails.
"We currently have about150 people in the Pinellas County Jail, and remember, there are 66 other jails in Florida of people who are charged with crimes, who are in the country illegally and for whom we have received ICE detainers," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.
The Florida Sheriffs Association says it's spoken with ICE, which emphasized that its top priority is in jails, ensuring that undocumented criminals are deported rather than released back into the community.
"Just walk across the border or you could run across the border or you could skip across the border, but now they need to turn around and go the other way," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
Sheriff Bill Prummell with the Charlotte County Sheriff's office said, "This allows us to train our deputies within our jails. They get special certifications and they can serve warrant detainers that ICE issues out to those criminal illegals that come into our jails."
Sheriff Gualtieri emphasized that undocumented immigrants need to go.
"There are no room for discussions about the 1.4 million people in our county today with active final deportation orders issued by a judge who also issues a warrant for their removal and these people simply flick their finger at the court and they haven't left," he said.
The sheriffs association is asking for President Trump's help when it comes to capacity in jails, and the group says there are currently 2,000 ICE beds in Florida that are all full.
MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/politics/florida-jails-report-ice-undocumented-immigratn-criminals/67-644e538a-7f03-41b8-9cf8-233617a8e1c8