Florida’s immigration enforcement council, made up of top Republican sheriffs and police chiefs, voted Tuesday to remind more than 100 local law enforcement agencies to report their immigration arrests.
But a representative of one of those agencies sits on the council.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, despite having 40 designated immigration officers, has failed to report any immigration-related arrests or encounters over the past year, the council’s data show. Sheriff T.K. Waters — a favorite of Gov. Ron DeSantis who sits on the board — said his office didn’t know it was out of compliance until hours before Tuesday’s board meeting.
“It’s a reporting snafu,” Waters told the Phoenix, detailing how his office is responsible for thousands of immigration arrests since February 2025, including 885 with ICE detainers. “My patrol team thought the [paperwork] was also a report to ICE, but it was only being sent to Tallahassee.”
Waters said deputies mistakenly believed checking an “ICE” box on detainee paperwork fulfilled Florida’s monthly reporting requirement.
He wasn’t alone.
More than 60% of Florida law enforcement agencies partnering with ICE have either failed to report immigration arrests or simply haven’t arrested anyone with an ICE detainer, according to council data.
Naples Police Chief Ciro Dominguez, another member of the council, said his agency is part of the latter group.
“We haven’t run across anyone with an active warrant or detainer,” said Dominguez, appointed to the board by Attorney General James Uthmeier.
Another 163 agencies, meanwhile, have reported at least one immigration arrest or encounter since February 2025, when DeSantis signed a sweeping immigration law requiring all Florida law enforcement agencies to assist federal immigration authorities.
Agencies that partner with ICE must submit monthly reports detailing immigration arrests and encounters. The law also created the State Immigration Enforcement Council, an eight-member panel of four sheriffs and four police chiefs hand-picked by the governor, Cabinet, and legislative leaders to help shape the state’s hard-line immigration policies.
During Tuesday’s meeting, council members sharply criticized agencies that have yet to comply, insisting it’s a “no-brainer” and there’s “no excuse” for failing to report immigration arrests more than a year after the law took effect.
The council unanimously voted to send letters reminding agencies of their reporting obligations.
“You’re either doing it or you’re not,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said, adding that whatever “sympathy” he had during the law’s rollout has run its course.
“They’re just not reporting when they should be reporting,” Gualtieri said. “Something should be said to get compliance.”
“I don’t think there’s any excuse anymore about not reporting,” Fort Walton Beach Police Chief Robert Bage agreed.
Anthony Coker, executive director of Florida’s State Board of Immigration Enforcement, warned that agencies that continue to flout the reporting requirement could lose access to future state grants. He pointed to a $250 million grant program created to help local law enforcement agencies support immigration enforcement.
So far, the state has approved $148 million for 114 agencies, although only about $13 million has been disbursed.
