Florida Leads the Nation in ICE Detainer Arrests as Local Police Take a Growing Role, New Data Show

Florida now has the highest rate in the country of immigration arrests involving ICE detainers, the requests that ask local jails to hold people for federal immigration authorities after they are booked on other charges, according to a new analysis of federal records. The state's annualized rate reached 125 detainer-related arrests per 100,000 residents through Aug. 5, up from 28 during the last year of the Biden administration, a roughly fivefold increase that shows how heavily the federal deportation push in Florida now runs through local sheriffs and police departments.

The analysis, published Oct. 6 by the Prison Policy Initiative and first reported in Florida by the Tampa Bay Times, used Immigration and Customs Enforcement records obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley. The Prison Policy Initiative is a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that advocates for prisoners' rights and supports limits on local cooperation with ICE, but its figures are drawn from ICE's own arrest data.

What the data show

ICE arrest records sort arrests into categories based on how a person came into federal custody. The analysis tracked three: arrests involving an ICE detainer lodged at a local jail, arrests at a law enforcement location such as a jail without a detainer, and so-called community arrests made at homes, workplaces and in neighborhoods.

Statewide, the fastest growth in 2026 came in arrests at law enforcement locations without a detainer, whose annualized rate doubled compared with 2025, according to the analysis. Community arrests rose 53% and arrests involving detainers rose 31% over the same comparison.

Florida also ranks fourth in the nation for its overall annualized ICE arrest rate, at 226 per 100,000 residents. Only Texas, Wyoming and Arizona ranked higher:

Wanda Bertram, a communications strategist at the Prison Policy Initiative, told the Tampa Bay Times that the Florida numbers mirror a national pattern. "It is clearer than ever that the Trump administration is reliant on local police departments to do its work detaining and deporting immigrants en masse," Bertram said. She added that in parts of the country where communities have been less cooperative than Florida, ICE arrests, especially those assisted by local law enforcement, have not risen as much in 2026.

A closer look at Tampa Bay

The analysis broke out figures for Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, which together recorded 633 ICE arrests from Jan. 20 through Aug. 5. Of those, 288 involved ICE detainers, 158 took place at law enforcement locations without a detainer and 187 were community arrests, which can occur with or without local police assistance.

Hillsborough accounted for most of the regional total, with 474 arrests, followed by Pinellas with 137 and Pasco with 22. Researchers noted that a small number of ICE arrests lacked county information and were left out of the regional count. Arrests by local law enforcement in the Tampa Bay area have doubled since the Biden administration, according to the Times.

The data behind the analysis

The Deportation Data Project obtains anonymized ICE records through Freedom of Information Act requests and publishes them for researchers and journalists. Its most recent release, posted in late August, covers ICE encounters, detainer requests, arrests, detention book-ins and removals through early August 2026, and reaches back to October 2022. Analysts using the data have noted that about 5% of arrest records do not show where the arrest was made, one reason state and county totals are approximate.

Florida's own numbers point in the same direction. State and local law enforcement agencies in Florida have made about 27,000 immigration arrests since Aug. 1, 2025, according to state data cited by the Tampa Bay Times, and more than half came through partnerships with ICE.

How Florida built its cooperation with ICE

Much of that cooperation runs through the federal 287(g) program, which lets ICE delegate certain immigration enforcement powers to state and local officers. ICE offers three models: the Jail Enforcement Model, which trains correctional staff to identify and process people in custody; the Warrant Service Officer model, which lets local officers serve ICE administrative warrants in jails; and the Task Force Model, which gives officers authority to question and detain people suspected of immigration violations during their regular duties.

As of Oct. 9, ICE listed 2,654 agreements nationwide across 38 states and two U.S. territories, including 1,902 Task Force Model agreements. Florida has more participating agencies than any other state, according to news analyses of ICE's list earlier this year, and a state law passed in February 2025 required every county jail to sign a 287(g) agreement, putting all 67 counties under the program. ICE's own website lists Florida among the states that have passed laws requiring agencies to seek the agreements.

The state also launched Operation Tidal Wave in April 2025, a joint operation with the Department of Homeland Security that relies on 287(g) partners. On Jan. 5, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the operation had produced more than 10,000 arrests, with the governor citing more than 10,400 over eight months. The largest groups by country of origin were from Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras, according to the governor's release.

Money from Tallahassee

Florida is also paying local agencies to take part. On Sept. 29, DeSantis and the State Board of Immigration Enforcement approved about $88 million in grant requests and amendments for dozens of law enforcement agencies and detention sites, the sixth round of funding from a $250 million state program. The approved amounts included:

• $9.29 million for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, mostly for hardware and software, up from an existing grant of $96,000.
• $5.47 million for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, largely for equipment, investigative software and certified immigration officer positions.
• $437,000 for the Hernando County Sheriff's Office for equipment and officer bonuses.
• $200,000 for the Polk County Sheriff's Office for transportation.
• $11,250 for detention beds at Pasco County Corrections.

The Pinellas Sheriff's Office told the Times its efforts are primarily in the jail, while deputies also take part in the task force program and enforce immigration law as a collateral part of their regular duties. The office has faced scrutiny over the county jail releasing and rebooking immigrants to avoid exceeding a 72-hour detention limit on detainers. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said his office received federal authorization in December to hold people for longer than 72 hours, and that the earlier rebookings were ICE's decision.

What it means for Floridians

For immigrant families, the shift means that an encounter with a local deputy or police officer, including a traffic stop or a booking on a minor charge, is increasingly likely to lead to ICE custody. Supporters of the state's approach, including DeSantis, argue it removes people who are in the country illegally and have criminal records. Critics, including the Prison Policy Initiative, say it turns local police into an arm of federal deportation efforts and erodes trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement.

The analysis comes as the Trump administration is again pushing for 3,000 immigration arrests a day nationwide, as CNN reported last week, and as White House border czar Tom Homan told a Doral audience this month that ICE made nearly 200,000 arrests in four months.

What's next

The grants approved Sept. 29 now go through a legislative review period before they can be formally issued. ICE updates its list of 287(g) agreements regularly, and the next Deportation Data Project release, if the records continue to flow, would show whether Florida's pace held through the late summer and fall.