{"id":64007,"date":"2026-03-22T16:22:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64007"},"modified":"2026-03-22T16:23:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:23:00","slug":"this-month-a-notable-division-has-emerged-between-floridas-top-executive-leadership-and-a-prominent-group-of-local-law-enforcement-officials-regarding-mass-deportation-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/22\/this-month-a-notable-division-has-emerged-between-floridas-top-executive-leadership-and-a-prominent-group-of-local-law-enforcement-officials-regarding-mass-deportation-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"This month, a notable division has emerged between Florida\u2019s top executive leadership and a prominent group of local law enforcement officials regarding mass deportation policies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"443c3c\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #443c3c;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"310\" height=\"201\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" src=\"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/judd-1.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60114 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/judd-1.webp 310w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/judd-1-300x195.webp 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <strong>State Immigration Enforcement Council<\/strong>, led by Polk County Sheriff <strong>Grady Judd<\/strong>, recently signaled a significant shift in stance. During a meeting on March 16, 2026, the council\u2014composed of several Florida sheriffs and police chiefs\u2014discussed drafting a letter to federal leaders, including President Trump and Congressional leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Sheriffs&#8217; Stance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sheriff Judd and other council members have expressed concern that current federal enforcement is &#8220;casting too wide a net.&#8221; Their primary arguments include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Prioritizing Criminals:<\/strong> They are pushing to focus limited resources on &#8220;criminal troublemakers&#8221; rather than undocumented immigrants who have no criminal records and are &#8220;adding to the American dream.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Alternative Accountability:<\/strong> Judd suggested that for non-criminal undocumented immigrants, a &#8220;path forward&#8221; should be established involving civil fines, English language requirements, and economic self-sufficiency.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Resource Allocation:<\/strong> Sheriffs emphasized that law enforcement\u2019s primary job is public safety, and they are concerned about the &#8220;collateral&#8221; impact when ICE operations sweep up healthy, working individuals without criminal histories.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The State\u2019s Rejection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1581\" height=\"1054\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1581px) 100vw, 1581px\" src=\"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/desantis-1.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31581\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Governor <strong>Ron DeSantis<\/strong> and top administration officials have firmly rejected this proposed &#8220;course correction.&#8221; On March 19, 2026, the Governor pushed back against the council&#8217;s plan, arguing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Incoherence of Policy:<\/strong> DeSantis stated that allowing undocumented migrants to stay until they commit a violent crime is &#8220;incoherent&#8221; and inconsistent with his administration&#8217;s hardline stance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Duty to Enforce:<\/strong> Attorney General <strong>James Uthmeier<\/strong> (who recently transitioned into a leading legal role for the state) and other spokespeople for the Attorney General&#8217;s office have doubled down, stating that if people are in the country illegally, they are breaking the law, and Florida will continue to enforce it regardless of non-criminal status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Context in Lakeland and Polk County<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This debate is particularly relevant in the <strong>Polk County area<\/strong>, as Sheriff Judd has long been a staunch ally of the Governor\u2019s immigration policies. His recent comments represent a rare public break on the implementation of these &#8220;mass deportation&#8221; efforts. While Judd maintains he is not &#8220;anti-Trump&#8221; or &#8220;anti-DeSantis,&#8221; he is calling on Congress to &#8220;get off their butts&#8221; and fix the legal framework so that local law enforcement isn&#8217;t stuck in the middle of these enforcement dilemmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The State Immigration Enforcement Council, led by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, recently signaled a significant shift in stance. During a meeting on March 16, 2026, the council\u2014composed of several&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"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":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTJcL2p1ZGQtMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0zMTAlMkMyMDEmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJUaGlzIG1vbnRoLCBhIG5vdGFibGUgZGl2aXNpb24gaGFzIGVtZXJnZWQgYmV0d2VlbiBGbG9yaWRhXHUyMDE5cyB0b3AgZXhlY3V0aXZlIGxlYWRlcnNoaXAgYW5kIGEgcHJvbWluZW50IGdyb3VwIG9mIGxvY2FsIGxhdyBlbmZvcmNlbWVudCBvZmZpY2lhbHMgcmVnYXJkaW5nIG1hc3MgZGVwb3J0YXRpb24gcG9saWNpZXMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.2iqvkPxQPR0HVXVUe9SfVnMCqAO3bDUz6zny99ZRzn4MQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14156,13750],"class_list":["post-64007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-a-notable-division-has-emerged-between-floridas-top-executive-leadership-and-a-prominent-group-of-local-law-enforcement-officials-regarding-mass-deportation-policies","tag-this-month"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64007","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=64007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64008,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64007\/revisions\/64008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}