The state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is going to be helping with immigration enforcement.
Nearly 90% of the agency’s sworn law enforcement officers — who are generally tasked with search and rescue operations and enforcing boating safety and animal conservation laws — are now certified to assist the federal government, the commission said.
They join officers from several other state agencies that are backing the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts as Gov. Ron DeSantis aims to put Florida at the forefront of immigration enforcement.
Local law enforcement officers must complete a 40-hour training course on immigration law, civil rights and liability issues to be credentialedby U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants who are in the country illegally. The number of Florida officers authorized to work with ICEthrough the 287(g) program is likely to be in the thousands.
A spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission declined to answer questions about how this change will impact officers’ day-to-day responsibilities or whether there would be fewer officers monitoring boats on the water. It instead gave Times reporters a general public statement.
“These specially trained officers are prepared to assist in identifying and processing individuals who are in the country unlawfully, strengthening public safety and enhancing cooperation between local and federal agencies,” the agency said.
Immigration advocates say 287(g) agreements do the opposite.
“They hinder public safety because it erodes trust between local law enforcement and communities,”said Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson for Florida Immigrant Coalition. “People are afraid to report crime, whether it is domestic abuse or a burglary or a boating accident.”
This isn’t the first time Fish and Wildlife has been involved in immigration operations. In 2024, DeSantis deployed the agency’s officers to the Texas border to conduct water- and land-based patrols, reflecting the agency’s growing role beyond environmental enforcement.
The commission has already faced scrutiny for struggling to meet its core responsibilities. Katie Tupin, who runs charter boat tours in Sarasota Bay nearly daily, said there are “absolutely not” enough officers patrolling the waterfor poachers or boaters destroying seagrass, or to respond to boating crashes.
Tupin said she heard that Fish and Wildlife officers “busted” a group of poachers near Anna Maria Island a few weeks ago, but said that overall, the officers’ presence in Sarasota Bay and surrounding areas seems to have decreased over the last few years.
“I know they’re busy, but a few times, a lot of boats got away with a lot of animals,” Tupin said. “If someone had been right there, it would have made a big difference.”
ICE is intensifying recruitment for immigration enforcement, with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem waiving age limits so anyone 18 or older can apply.
In late July, ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan prompted ire from some Florida officials when she sent recruitment emails to local ICE-certified law enforcement officers offering a $50,000 bonus over five years for those who join the federal agency.
“That’s biting the hand that is feeding you,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Juddsaid in a video statement. “It’s not the fact that they did it, it was the way they did it and that they used our professional data that we sent them.”
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri shared similar words.
“We have partnered with ICE like no other state to help ICE do its job of illegal immigration enforcement,” he said in an email statement. “ICE actively trying to use our partnership to recruit our personnel is wrong and we have expressed our concern to ICE leadership.”
