U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Florida law enforcement agencies announced over the weekend that they made nearly 800 arrests in a multiday immigration enforcement operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ICE touted \u201cOperation Tidal Wave\u201d as a \u201chighly successful operation,\u201d pointing to a unique partnership between local and federal authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn a first-of-its-kind partnership between state and federal partners, ICE Miami and Florida law enforcement arrested nearly 800 illegal aliens this week during the first four days of #OperationTidalWave \u2014 a massive, multi-agency, immigration enforcement crackdown,\u201d ICE wrote in a post on its X account along with photos from the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R) also praised the joint effort<\/u><\/a> in a post on the social platform Saturday, calling it \u201can example of FL and [the Department of Homeland Security] partnering to deliver big results on immigration enforcement and deportations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFlorida is leading the nation in active cooperation with the Trump administration for immigration enforcement and deportation operations!\u201d DeSantis added in a separate X post<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The operation leans on ICE\u2019s 287(g) program<\/u><\/a>, which enables ICE to deputize local law enforcement agencies to help enforce federal immigration law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICE, in its post on X, encouraged other local law enforcement to consider partnering with the agency in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The agency has in the past faced vocal resistance from leaders of some cities who have sought to welcome migrants and criticized the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The operation comes as the White House steps up immigration enforcement efforts across the country, fulfilling a key campaign promise by President Trump while stoking pushback over multiple deportation cases in which critics have questioned the due process afforded to removal targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons touted the partnership with local officials in Florida over the past week, telling ABC News<\/u><\/a>, \u201cI think the main reason why this operation is significant is because it\u2019s the first of its kind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s one that not only we\u2019ve been doing what we have, but we have surged all our federal partners together along with Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement [and] Removal Operations, which are all the enforcement arms of ICE, but we\u2019re also using all our 287(g) partners in the state of Florida. We\u2019re using state, local and county law enforcement agencies to assist us in our operations,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo this is one of the first large-scale missions we\u2019ve done like this ever,\u201d Lyons added. \u201cWe brought a \u2018whole the government\u2019 approach with cooperative jurisdictions that want to help ICE secure communities in neighborhoods and remove public safety threats from our neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n