Local law enforcement has picked up 26 people for ICE so far this year

Local law enforcement in Leon County, Florida, detained 26 people for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in early 2026.

The detentions are part of 287(g) agreements, which allow local police to enforce federal immigration laws.

Most individuals were arrested for offenses ranging from traffic violations to felonies, while some had no apparent other charges.

Since the start of the year, state and local law enforcement officers working under agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have picked up more than two dozen people in Leon County who appear bound for deportation.

Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 25, some 26 individuals were arrested or detained during various encounters with the Tallahassee Police Department, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Highway Patrol and held for ICE, according to court records and an LCSO spokesperson.

All of them were suspected of being in the United States illegally, taken to the Leon County Detention Facility and later handed over to the custody of ICE, usually within a matter of days.

According to court records, most of the individuals were arrested on charges that ranged from traffic offenses and misdemeanors to felonies, including one man who was wanted for alleged child molestation.

Several men who were picked up during a single traffic stop didn’t appear to have any traffic or criminal charges.

Court records were not immediately available in all of the cases. However, immigration records show some of them were whisked off to far-flung detention facilities across the country.

The individuals ended up in the hands of ICE through controversial 287(g) agreements between the federal agency and state and local law enforcement agencies.

The agreements, named for a provision in a 1996 federal immigration law, allow ICE to partner with local law enforcement agencies to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Controversy over Trump's harsh policies and ICE's aggressive tactics has only intensified following the shootings in January of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The chaos and violence sparked ongoing protests across the country, including in Tallahassee.

A spokesperson for ICE said the Department of Homeland Security conducts law enforcement activities every day across the country to keep Americans safe and that "it should not come as news" that ICE is making arrests of "illegal aliens" across Florida.

"President Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem are using every tool available to get illegal aliens out of American communities and out of our country," the spokesperson said in an email. "We are applying the law as written. If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.”

The Sheriff’s Office, in a response to questions from the Democrat, said deputies do not proactively patrol for people who may be in the country illegally.

“Deputies received training that they are required by state statute to document encounters, during their regular law enforcement duties, with individuals who they suspect are in the United States unlawfully,” LCSO said.

How do ICE holds work? Examples from Tallahassee and Leon County

After getting a request for assistance from the Grady County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia, members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force tracked down a man Jan. 22 at his Blair Stone Road apartment who was wanted on an out-of-state warrant for allegedly molesting a 7-year-old child.

A Leon County sheriff’s deputy approached Edgar Lopez, 41, outside and ordered him to put his hands up, but he ran in his apartment and tried to escape from a rear exit before he was tackled and apprehended, according to the arrest report.

Lopez was taken into custody on the warrant and a charge of resisting arrest without violence. He was booked at the Leon County jail and given to ICE on Feb. 11, according to court records.

On Feb. 9, a state trooper and certified ICE task force officer took a 24-year-old man into custody after his side mirror struck another driver’s side mirror while he was reportedly weaving in and out of traffic on Interstate 10 in Leon County.

The suspect vehicle kept going but stopped a few miles later. The driver in the crash had a Guatemala consular ID card but no passport or valid driver’s license. The trooper contacted a corporal with ICE, who interviewed the man in Spanish.

“ICE subsequently confirmed (he) was unlawfully present in the United States and advised that an ICE detainer would be lodged in addition to the local charges,” the arrest report says. He was taken to the county jail and transferred to ICE the next day.

On Feb. 7, three men, two from Peru and one from Mexico, were taken into custody after their car was clocked by a Leon County sheriff’s deputy going 28 mph in a 45 mph zone near Capital Circle Southwest and Gum Road.

The men couldn’t produce papers showing they were in the country legally. All three were taken to the county jail on ICE holds and handed over to immigration authorities two days later. None of them appeared to have been charged with any other crime or traffic offense, according to court records.

One of the passengers was taken to the Port Isabel Service Detention Center in Texas, while another was taken to the Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, Nevada, according to ICE's Online Detainee Locater System.

Nearly 30 LCSO deputies certified as immigration officers

The Sheriff’s Office, in responses provided by spokeswoman Shonda Knight, said that when people are brought into the detention facility on state charges, immigration warrants are not served until the state matters are resolved through bond or other means.

“Once the state charges are resolved and the immigration warrant is served, the individual must be released or transferred to ICE within 48 hours,” LCSO said. "Individuals who are booked on immigration detainers/warrants only (with no state charges), must be released or transferred to ICE within 48 hours from their booking into LCDF.”

Under Florida law, sheriffs with a county detention facility must enter into written agreements with ICE to participate in its enforcement efforts as part of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.

The Sheriff’s Office, which agreed to enforce immigration violations as part of its routine duties, has 22 deputies, six sergeants and one lieutenant have been certified as designated immigration officers. None of them serve as ICE task force members, who have broader powers.

LCSO told the Democrat that deputy sheriffs who are not designated immigration officers can’t detain someone solely for an ICE administrative warrant or immigration investigation.

“A deputy sheriff who is certified as a designated immigration officer has limited detention authority to conduct immigration investigations when probable cause does not exist on state charge(s),” the Sheriff’s Office said.

The spokesperson for ICE said that under Trump, 287(g) agreements increased 957%, from 135 agreements to 1,427 in 40 states. In Florida, local law enforcement agencies working with ICE have made 40,000 arrests.

In January, Gov. Ron DeSantis said 20,000 people living in Florida were detained and transferred to federal immigration custody last year.

More than 10,000 people were detained in Florida in Operation Tidal Wave, a state-run initiative led by law enforcement agencies, and the rest were arrested by local law enforcement, DeSantis said at a press conference in Sanderson.

Across the country, 700,000 people have been removed, according to ICE.

'If they don't have the proper documentation, they're gone'

Elise Gann, chief financial officer for LCSO, told county commissioners during a Jan. 27 meeting that a total of 87 individuals had been taken to the county jail on immigration detainers, though she didn’t give a specific time frame.

Commissioners voted 6-1 to accept $500,000 in state grant money to reimburse LCSO for certain ICE-related costs, including overtime, training, detention beds and transportation between local, state and federal detention facilities.

Gann told commissioners the Sheriff’s Office was required to enforce laws outlined in Florida statutes related to ICE whether the grant was accepted or not. If not, she said, LCSO would have to cover the costs itself.

Only two residents spoke out against ICE during the County Commission meeting. More than two dozen came to a City Commission meeting Oct. 22 to call for an end to the 387(g) agreement with TPD.

City commissioners voted 3-2 against a motion to rescind the agreement. A Change.org petition calling on the city to cancel the agreement had just over 900 signatures as of Feb. 25.

The ICE spokesperson echoed Trump talking points that the agency is targeting "criminal illegal aliens," including murderers, rapists, pedophiles and gang members, and that 70% of ICE arrests involve people charged with or convicted of a crime.

However, a CATO Institute report published Nov. 25 showed that 73% of the people booked into ICE custody from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15 had no criminal convictions. The Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think tank also found only 5% had violent criminal convictions.

Public records show some of the people who were arrested or detained and turned over to ICE have established ties to Tallahassee, including homes and mortgages.

Neil Rambana, a Tallahassee immigration lawyer, said it’s important to address violent criminals and people with serious criminal histories. But he said local law enforcement agencies in some places are targeting people because of their skin color.

“They’re pulling over people because they’re a certain shade,” he said. “And then from there, there’s no escaping it. They’re going to be placed in immigration hold and then from there, if they don’t have the proper documentation, they’re gone.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at [email protected] or 850-599-2180.