Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is pressing the Trump administration to allow some Florida National Guardsmen to be immigration judges.
During a press conference on Thursday, DeSantis joined officials from the Department of Homeland Security to tout Operation Tidal Wave. The Florida initiative worked with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to target illegal immigrants in the Sunshine State, leading to over 1,100 arrests, the governor said.
DeSantis announced he wanted to further facilitate Operation Tidal Wave by giving the state’s National Guard the power to serve as immigration judges. He has already submitted a request to DHS asking for expanded authority.
“We have both a National Guard and a State Guard who are used to responding to different types of contingencies,” he said. “We’re ready, willing, and able to take it to the next level.”
“We have submitted plans to DHS to say, you know, if this is approved, we will go off to the races, and we will be able to do really, from soup to nuts, from apprehension to detention, even putting people in the National Guard in line to serve as immigration judges to process this — we can do it,” the governor continued.
DeSantis clarified that the appointees would not be federal judges, who the president appoints under Article III of the Constitution. Instead, the DeSantis administration would deputize officers known as Judge Advocate Generals already existing in the Florida National Guard to serve as immigration judges.
JAGs traditionally provide legal assistance services such as estate planning to Florida Army and Air National Guard Service members. JAG officers only need authoritative approval from the federal government to serve in the position, a state official told Florida’s Voice.
He also addressed concerns that the deportations could violate due process rights. The Trump administration has suffered legal setbacks in its attempts to remove some illegal immigrants over accusations that it has trampled constitutional rights. The illegal immigrants Florida is targeting, the governor claimed, are people who have already been issued orders by courts to be removed from the country.
“You hear a lot about due process,” DeSantis said Thursday morning. “We have tens of thousands of illegal aliens in Florida, at a minimum, that have already been issued final orders of removal … they have not complied with those removal orders, and that’s a very, very high priority for our state efforts to continue to identify those individuals and make sure that they return to their country of origin.”
The governor said that Florida’s Operation Tidal Wave is the largest immigration enforcement operation the country has seen “in quite some time.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced last weekend that it had worked with Florida officials to detain nearly 800 illegal immigrants in Florida.
“This [operation] has been the first of its kind throughout the United States,” he said. “What it also does is send the message going forward that the United States of America is serious about enforcing its immigration laws.”
“Our folks have worked hand in hand with DHS to really make a difference for the people of Florida and for the people of the United States of America. Because I think when you’re dealing with people, millions and millions of people here illegally, these folks who have huge, huge problems and their background, with their conduct, and really put our communities at risk — it’s important that the laws are enforced,” he continued.
Florida’s Operation Tidal Wave coincides with the Trump administration’s nationwide push to deport illegal immigrants. Earlier this week, one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers, White House Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, expressed confidence that one million illegal immigrants would be deported by the end of 2025. Roughly 139,000 illegal immigrants have been deported since Inauguration Day, per the White House.
Florida’s leading role in facilitating the Trump administration’s deportation agenda comes after DeSantis battled with Republicans in the state legislature over how to target illegal immigration.
The governor’s initial calls for a special session to tackle the issue earlier this year were scorned by state House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican, who called them “premature.” DeSantis later threatened to veto a bill drawn up by GOP leaders to address illegal immigration, leading lawmakers to work more closely with the governor to develop a second proposal. That proposal was signed into law with DeSantis’s approval in February, creating, among other things, a State Board of Immigration Enforcement.
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In recent weeks, the DeSantis administration has stoked some controversy for its handling of illegal immigrants, including through the passage of a law that makes it a misdemeanor for them to enter Florida while evading immigration officials. Earlier this week, a federal judge slammed Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier after he told local police to disregard her court order pausing the law.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said a court hearing has been scheduled for May 29 to discuss any contempt sanctions against the attorney general.
