Republican sheriffs appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to an immigration committee made a noteworthy break with the hardline policies pushed by the governor and President Donald Trump, openly declaring their opposition to mass deportations of undocumented immigrants without criminal records.
Trump’s immigration crackdown has sparked nationwide protests and multiple court challenges opposing ICE’s enforcement tactics, accusations about conflicts of interests, and especially two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The president announced last week that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was “moving” to a new position and he was nominating Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to take her place, days after Noem was the target of a bipartisan evisceration in Senate and House Committee hearings, as members from both sides of the aisle lambasted her leadership of the agency.
Recent polling shows public opinion has significantly soured on the Trump administration’s immigration policies, even among Republicans — and the county sheriffs on Florida’s State Immigration Enforcement Council seem to be included in that group.
According to a report by Liv Caputo at the Florida Phoenix, the council meeting Monday on Microsoft Teams featured sharp critiques from the sheriffs — a unexpected development when viewed in light of what this council is and how it was formed.
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