A year after Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida pledged to make his state one of the toughest in the nation on immigration enforcement, he has largely succeeded: More immigration arrests were made in Florida in 2025 than any state but Texas, and there have been few signs of the crackdown easing.
Yet the enforcement machine that the Republican governor hastily built to support the federal crackdown he welcomed is starting to show cracks, weighed down by a crush of detainees crowding some jails and a set of growing concerns, even among some law enforcement officials, about aggressive enforcement tactics in a midterm election year.
At a meeting of the State Immigration Enforcement Council last week, several Republican sheriffs expressed concern about unauthorized immigrants who have not committed any crimes being detained and deported.
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The comments from the elected sheriffs signaled a shift in tone among a small but influential group of Florida Republicans who have helped carry out President Trump’s and Mr. DeSantis’s immigration policies.
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Elsewhere in the country, immigration arrests have fallen as federal law enforcement agencies have moved away from militarized raids that have resulted in violent clashes with protesters, including the fatal shootings of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January.
House Republicans acknowledged at a meeting in Doral, Fla., this month that the immigration crackdown had alienated some voters. Party officials have advised lawmakers to refrain from discussing “mass deportations” ahead of the midterms. And at his confirmation hearing last week, Markwayne Mullin, the new homeland security secretary, committed to working with senators in both parties to address their concerns about Mr. Trump’s immigration policy.
But in Florida, immigration arrests have continued at an aggressive pace up to now. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Miami, which covers all of Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, has reported almost 10,000 arrests so far this year, more than any other ICE field office.
The state has not seen large militarized raids, in part because the DeSantis administration required state and county law enforcement agencies to sign formal cooperation agreements with federal authorities. That led to about 20,000 immigration arrests made by state and local agencies in 2025, Mr. DeSantis said in January. The Florida Highway Patrol had made just over half of those arrests.
The sheriffs who raised concerns at the recent meeting were quick to say they backed Mr. Trump, Mr. DeSantis and the deportations of unauthorized immigrants who commit crimes. But they also floated the idea of asking Congress to consider providing those who are not criminals with a path to legalize their immigration status — an idea that Mr. DeSantis promptly rejected.
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