Florida law enforcement and federal officials are partnering on a program offering immigrants state funds if they agree to self-deport.
The program, first reported on by the Washington Examiner, highlights how Florida has deeply integrated its law enforcement apparatus with federal immigration priorities under Governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally.
Under the initiative, which has been operational for several weeks, state law enforcement, including the state Highway Patrol, take those accused of being in the country illegally to federal Border Patrol stations. There, they are offered state funds for a self-deportation flight.
“We give them that one last chance — and you can quote me on this — to do the right thing, and that is self-deport,” Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told the outlet. “And if they do that, then we, the state of Florida, will help them get from Florida back to their home country by purchasing that low-cost, one-way flight.”
Officials said the program was a cost-effective way to process immigration cases and allow immigrants to avoid remaining in detention for what could be months amid backlogs to see an immigration judge.
The federal government operates a similar program, using the CBP Home app and $1000 paid incentives to encourage people to self-deport.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called the program “inherently coercive,” noting that those who refuse could end up in the state’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility, where migrants have complained of inhumane conditions and civil rights groups say detainees are denied access to legal counsel.
“This program raises MAJOR due process concerns,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote on X. “People are being forced to make a decision to leave behind their families, jobs, houses, and lives in the United States in a matter of hours — at the threat of being detained in conditions all know are bad.”
Governor DeSantis has encouraged state and local police agencies, ranging from the Highway Patrol to state university police departments, to join the federal 287(g) program, which deputizes state and local police departments to carry out immigration enforcement.
Florida residents say the incorporation of local police into federal immigration has caused Latino communities to fear driving on the roads, and to cease displaying flags or playing Spanish-language music while driving.
Critics like the ACLU claim that such state-federal immigration collaborations are a “license to abuse” and encourage law enforcement to profile people they suspect to be unlawful immigrants because of their skin color or language.
A report from the group analyzed the more than 140 local law enforcement agencies in the program as of 2022 and found that at least 59 percent of the sheriffs in the program have a record of “anti-immigrant, xenophobic rhetoric” and 65 percent have shown a “pattern of racial profiling and other civil rights violations, including excessive use of force.”
