5 OctOber 23-29, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | FLORIDA SHOW-ME-YOUR- PAPERS PATROL? FHP leads the state in immigration busts. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN T he Florida State Board of Immigration Enforce- ment released new fig- ures for arrests and encounters with suspected illegal immigrants, offering a snapshot of which state law enforcement agencies are encountering and de- taining migrants across the state. Since August 1, dozens of Florida law en- forcement agencies have encountered more than 5,200 suspected illegal immigrants, ac- cording to Florida’s Suspected Unauthorized Alien Encounters dashboard. Of those en- counters with law enforcement, 1,373 people were arrested on local and state charges, and 2,852 people were arrested on federal immi- gration charges by state agencies. The dashboard indicates that 2,273 people have been arrested under the 287(g) program, which grants local and state police federal immigration powers. That raises the question of how state agencies are making immigra- tion-related arrests if 287(g) authority wasn’t used — or whether they’re simply calling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to take over. The majority of these encounters and ar- rests, the dashboard reveals, have occurred on state highways. Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) officers account for the highest num- ber of encounters with suspected undocu- mented immigrants, reporting 2,844 cases. Nearly 90 percent of arrests made by FHP were related to federal immigration viola- tions. (The dashboard is missing some of the participating 287(g) state agencies listed on the ICE website.) Interestingly, though FHP leads the way for immigration arrests, its officers do not wear body cameras. Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis an- nounced a partnership between the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and ICE under 287(g), au- thorizing FHP troopers to ques- tion people about their immigration status during traf- fic stops and de- tain suspected illegal immi- grants. Dozens of municipalities and sheriff’s offices across Florida have signed 287(g) agreements to support President Don- ald Trump’s immigration crackdown. “What you’re really seeing is just the wea- ponization and almost singular focus of at least state-level agencies for immigration en- forcement,” Thomas Kennedy, immigration activist and policy analyst for the Florida Im- migrant Coalition, tells New Times. “Like the Florida Highway Patrol, for example, they re- ally just become ‘Show Me Your Papers Pa- trol.’ They’re just operating on highways and in communities, just basically looking for ways to pull people over to ask them for their immigration status.” More than 1,500 of those arrested were from Mexico, while 1,300 were Guatemalan natives. On Tuesday, October 14, the dash- board showed that 21 U.S. citizens were also arrested and charged, and nine other U.S. citi- zens had encounters with law enforcement but were not arrested. But after New Times asked why U.S. citizens were being arrested, those figures vanished from the dashboard. New Times emailed the Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement, DeSan- tis’ office, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) for an explana- tion. While we did not receive a response, the dashboard figures for U.S. citizen en- counters and arrests changed significantly by the time of this reporting. The dashboard now shows there have been only two re- ported encounters with U.S. citizens, and only one citizen was arrested on local or state charges. State agencies report that they encountered 104 people whose country of citizenship is unknown. “It is incredibly disturbing that this data includes people listed as U.S. citizens,” Alana Greer, an attorney and cofounder of the Com- munity Justice Project, tells New Times. “We know that programs like 287(g) and other forms of mass immigration enforcement rou- tinely ensnares U.S. citizens and others with lawful status, and it’s an indicator of how faulty the broader set of data that these agen- cies are relying on to do enforcement and the inevitable results have been time and time again, racial profiling, and violations of con- stitutional rights, and that should concern ev- eryone, regardless of their immigration status, as the system continues to expand.” Immigration advocates have warned that the 287(g) model has resulted in more in- stances of racial profiling. In July, Immigra- tion attorney Magdalena Cuprys said a FHP officer told her that anyone “who appears Hispanic” must be sent to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after her client, a Honduran man with a pending asylum case, was stopped by FHP at a truck weigh station. He was detained and later held at the CBP fa- cility in Dania Beach. In April, Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested near Tallahassee for allegedly being in the country illegally and detained for more than 24 hours after FHP pulled over the car he was riding in for speeding. Similarly, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested and held at a CBP station for six hours, despite telling FHP officers during a traffic stop that he “was born and raised right here.” While the Trump administration has vowed to deport only the “worst of the worst,” only 25 of the 4225 arrests in Florida have gang affiliations, according to the dash- board. Officers have also reported 90 encoun- ters with minors. Twenty minors have been arrested on federal immigration charges. [email protected] Florida Highway Patrol has immigration enforcement powers under a 287(g) partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Photo via X/@GovRonDeSantis | METRO | THE MAJORITY OF THESE ENCOUNTERS AND ARRESTS HAVE OCCURRED ON STATE HIGHWAYS.
