Homestead to Deputize Its Police for Immigration Enforcement

The City of Homestead — home to a large population of migrant farmworkers — has approved a plan to give its police officers the authority to assist federal agents in enforcing immigration laws.

On Wednesday, the city council approved a resolution authorizing Homestead to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through a federal program known as the 287(g) task force model. This program allows police officers to stop, question, and detain people suspected of violating immigration laws.

Under the agreement, Homestead police officers will undergo mandatory ICE-provided training to interrogate people about their immigration status and arrest them without a warrant.

Homestead is the latest Miami-Dade municipality to support Trump's mass deportation efforts and give its officers immigration enforcement powers, joining Doral, Coral Gables, Hialeah, West Miami, and Miami Springs, according to the Miami Herald. Since February, dozens of police departments across Florida have also signed the 287(g) agreement.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, nearly 68 percent of Homestead's population is Hispanic or Latino. As of 2020, an estimated 13,000 immigrants – most of them undocumented – worked in the agricultural fields surrounding the city.

While officials in the City of Homestead have said that their decision to partner with ICE was "prompted by Florida Statutes," state law only mandates that law enforcement agencies operating detention facilities, including county jails, participate in the 287(g) program. There is no such requirement for cities.

In a statement to New Times, Mario Knapp, chief of Homestead police, said that the partnership between Homestead and ICE is "aligned with Section 908.104, Florida Statutes, which requires local law enforcement agencies to support the enforcement of federal immigration laws to the fullest extent permitted by law." [Note: the law actually says that state and local law enforcement agencies "shall use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law."]

"We will implement this agreement in a manner that is consistent with our values, ensuring that our approach remains fair, focused, and centered on protecting all residents of Homestead," Knapp said.

Last month, the city of South Miami asked a state judge to weigh in on whether the city is required to enroll in the ICE program. 

In a lawsuit against Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Attorney General James Uthemeier, the city argued that court intervention is needed because police departments are under political pressure from DeSantis and his administration to join the program.

In recent weeks, DeSantis has threatened to suspend local officials if they don't sign on to help federal immigration authorities.

After the Fort Myers City Council failed to approve the 287(g) task force model agreement, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier warned Fort Myers officials that they could be violating a Florida law prohibiting "sanctuary cities," a term commonly used to describe municipalities that limit collaboration with federal immigration authorities.

Uthmeier demanded "immediate corrective action" from the city, which swiftly reversed course and agreed to partner with ICE.

Immigrant rights advocates have raised concerns that the 287(g) program could lead to racially biased and unlawful policing.

In 2011 and 2012, U.S. Department of Justice investigations found that police in Arizona and North Carolina targeted Latino neighborhoods and conducted "sweeps" that led to Latino drivers being stopped and arrested more frequently than non-Latino drivers.

In 2012, the Obama administration discontinued the 287(g) task force model due to concerns that it led to racial profiling and discrimination against Hispanic communities.

Although President Donald Trump didn't reinstate the program during his first term, he relaunched it in February. The Florida Highway Patrol was the first law enforcement agency in the nation to join the renewed initiative.