The Brief State and federal officials say more than 1,100 illegal immigrants were arrested during Operation Tidal Wave. It's the largest immigration operation in Florida's history. Gov.
Ron DeSantis and other officials say more large-scale enforcement is coming. Gov. Ron DeSantis and federal officials announced the results of the largest immigration operation ever conducted in Florida at a Thursday news conference.
Dubbed Operation Tidal Wave, officials say state and federal law enforcement teamed up to arrest more than 1,100 illegal immigrants in a one-week period. Immigration enforcement in Florida The backstory: Immigration has been a top priority for DeSantis since President Donald Trump returned to office in January. In February, the Florida Legislature passed what the governor called the toughest anti-illegal immigration legislation in the country after multiple special sessions in Tallahassee.
Pictured: Governor Ron DeSantis alongside State House Speaker Danny Perez (left) and Florida's Senate President Ben Albritton (right). Since then, state and local law enforcement agencies have entered into partnerships with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to strengthen immigration enforcement in Florida. Earlier this week, however, a federal judge told attorneys for the state that she planned to issue a preliminary injunction against a statute that makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented migrants to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials.
RELATED: Federal judge orders local law enforcement to stop enforcing new immigration law Operation Tidal Wave What they're saying: During Thursday's news conference in Miramar, officials said some of the 1,100 illegal immigrants arrested during Operation Tidal Wave had criminal histories. "They have not complied with those removal orders and that's a very, very high priority for our state efforts to continue to identify those individuals and make sure that they're returned to their country of origin," said DeSantis. The governor says with up to 80,000 in Florida already facing final removal orders, the state needs more space to house them once they're captured.
Right now, there are only three centers that can process them, with none in the Bay Area. He's also asking DHS for the right to use National Guardsmen as judges for those who are facing final orders. "They've had a lot of process, they've been ordered to be removed," the goveror said, "they have not complied with those removal orders and that's a very, very high priority for our state."
DeSantis also emphasized the increased immigration enforcement during Trump's second term in the White House. "It sends the message going forward: the United States of America is serious about enforcing its immigration laws," DeSantis said. State Board of Immigration Enforcement Executive Director Larry Keefe echoed that message, signaling continued large-scale immigration enforcement.
"It's not just going to be a succession of surges and operations and press conferences. This is going to be a sustained, persistent effort," Keefe said. Who can arrest illegal immigrants?
Dig deeper: A Miami federal judge just found that only federal agents are allowed to arrest an immigrant who comes to Florida knowing they're undocumented. Under a new state law, that is a misdemeanor. She's threatening to hold the attorney general in contempt for saying he can't stop local law enforcement from making those arrests.
"You can't have effective immigration enforcement if you have elaborate procedures that you have to go through," said DeSantis. "It is not punishment to be removed from this country." In Operation Tidal Wave, 250 members of local law enforcement worked with ICE to identify suspects and arrest them.
In the Tampa Bay area, deputies from Hillsborough, Hernando and Pinellas County helped the operation. The other side: Critics of recent immigration enforcement operations argue that there's been a lack of due process when deporting immigrants. Law enforcement has also been accused of engaging in racial profiling and targeting immigrants with no prior criminal records.
Federal officials answered questions about those criticisms during Thursday's news conference. "If you enter this country illegally, you are a criminal," ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said. "You will be deported, you will have the opportunity to be able to come back into this country through the correct immigration processes.
We're working through those every single day, but our number-one goal is to keep the American people safe from the criminals who are walking in this country who never should have been let through in the first place." U.S. Customs and Border Protection Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Dinise also explained what law enforcement is looking for while on patrol. "We run the license plate, that license plate comes back to an illegal alien," Dinise said.
"We have the name of the individual registered to that vehicle, we get their [date of birth] from there, and we run it through our immigration systems. So we know when we pull that person over, the registered owner of that vehicle, which gives us reasonable suspicion to stop that vehicle, is an illegal alien." Follow FOX 13 on YouTube The Source: This story was written with information from a news conference in Miramar, Florida, on May 1, 2025, along with previous FOX 13 News and FOX News Digital reports.
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