U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, along with state law enforcement officials, arrested about 780 immigrants in Florida in an operation this week, according to ICE data obtained by The New York Times.
The operation began on Monday and targeted undocumented immigrants with final deportation orders, according to an ICE official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the operation. The officers picked up more than 275 migrants with final removal orders, the data showed.
ABC News and Fox News earlier reported news of the arrests, which took place over four days.
It was the latest move by the Trump administration to seek to accelerate deportations of undocumented immigrants, which have so far been well below the administration’s goals.
Since President Trump took office, ICE officials have worked with various federal agencies to conduct raids across the United States. The effort this week in Florida was the first to be conducted as part of a formal arrangement with state law enforcement known as a 287(g) agreement, according to the official.
The Trump administration has sought to recruit local authorities to help in immigration operations in an effort to speed deportations. The administration has resumed collateral arrests during such operations, which allows officers to pick up migrants who were not initially targeted but were around an individual who was sought by ICE.
Generally, people must have received an order of removal from an immigration judge before they are deported, a process that can take weeks or stretch into years. But since the start of 2024, 70 percent of these removal orders were issued to someone who did not attend their hearing before a judge, according to a Times analysis of court records.
“It’s going to break up families,” said Tessa Petit, the executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said of the arrests this week. “And that is not the welcoming state that Florida has been for immigrants for decades.”
Given the scale of the operation, Ms. Petit said, there is a chance that many of those arrested were in the country on some sort of legal status and did not possess criminal records.
The raids represented the biggest escalation of immigration enforcement in Florida since Mr. Trump took office, Ms. Petit said, adding that they were much more reflective of the president’s mass deportation promises.
ICE operations in communities take an extensive amount of research and surveillance. They also require many officers, which is why the Trump administration has pulled in several other law enforcement agencies.
Trump administration officials have increasingly turned to warning undocumented immigrants to leave the country.
“President Trump and I have a clear message to those in our country illegally: LEAVE NOW,” said Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in a statement on Monday. “If you do not self-deport, we will hunt you down, arrest you and deport you.”
Orlando Mayorquín, Albert Sun and Miriam Jordan contributed reporting.
