{"id":63910,"date":"2026-03-18T22:16:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63910"},"modified":"2026-03-18T22:17:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:17:00","slug":"is-sheriff-grady-judd-woke-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/18\/is-sheriff-grady-judd-woke-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Sheriff Grady Judd woke now?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Grady Woke in Winter Haven, Florida on March 17, 2026.
Credit:\u00a0Polk County Sheriff’s Office\/Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Sheriff Grady Judd\u2019s recent comments have certainly sparked a lot of conversation across Polk County this week. The “woke” label is being tossed around because of his remarks during a State Immigration Enforcement Council<\/strong> meeting on Monday, March 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the breakdown of what actually happened and why it\u2019s causing such a stir:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “Path Forward” Comments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Judd, acting as the council chair, argued that immigration enforcement should focus on criminals rather than law-abiding undocumented immigrants who are “doing good” and contributing to the community.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The Proposal:<\/strong> He suggested that Congress should create a legal “path forward” for those who have no criminal history, work hard, pay fines for their initial illegal entry, and learn English.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Reasoning:<\/strong> Judd framed this as a “common sense” approach, noting that law enforcement is currently “overrun” and needs to prioritize the “millions of problem people” (those committing crimes) rather than “scooping up” mothers or long-term residents who aren’t a drain on society.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The Clarification<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    After headlines suggested he was rebelling against federal and state leadership, Judd held a press conference yesterday (March 17) to “set the record straight”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Still Supportive of ICE:<\/strong> He emphasized that he “wholeheartedly supports and endorses ICE” and remains in alignment with the Governor and the President.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Not “Amnesty”:<\/strong> He explicitly denied using the word “amnesty,” insisting that people should still be held accountable for violating civil federal law through fines and strict requirements.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The “Subject Matter Expert” Role:<\/strong> He argued that as a sheriff on the ground, his job is to provide honest feedback to Tallahassee, and the feedback is that a “one size fits all” approach to mass deportation isn’t the most effective use of resources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Local Reaction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      The shift is notable because, as recently as last year, Judd was calling for even faster removal of undocumented immigrants regardless of criminal record.<\/sup> While some immigrant advocacy groups have reacted positively to his “common sense” pivot, critics on the right are the ones using the “woke” label, seeing any talk of a “pathway” as a softening of his previous hardline stance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      It\u2019s a rare moment where Judd is finding himself at odds with the rhetoric of some of Florida’s top Republican leaders, even while he insists they are still on the same team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Sheriff Grady Judd\u2019s recent comments have certainly sparked a lot of conversation across Polk County this week. The “woke” label is being tossed around because of his remarks during a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wMy0xOC1hdC01LjA5LjU2LVBNLndlYnA_Zml0PTc4MCUyQzQ0MSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IklzIFNoZXJpZmYgR3JhZHkgSnVkZCB3b2tlIG5vdz8iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.jpMJAfUb_OM-mj24qvT3TJJOT9Ljy0hCtnq7rDBDXSoMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14120],"class_list":["post-63910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-is-sheriff-grady-judd-woke-now"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63912,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63910\/revisions\/63912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}