More than 150 migrants, including citizens from Mexico and Central America, were detained after a three-day joint operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Florida authorities, immigration authorities reported Tuesday.
The operation involved the Border Patrol and the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) as part of ‘287(g) agreements’, which allow local authorities to collaborate in immigration activities, ICE said on its social media.
ICE operation in Florida 2026
“152 illegal criminal aliens caught in a three-day ICE operation in Florida. We deported 23 on the second day alone, working with our 287(g) partners, such as the Florida Highway Patrol and other state and local law enforcement agencies,” the release stated.
ICE released photographs of four detainees, including a Mexican national guilty of fraud, a Guatemalan national suspected of cruelty to a child, a Honduran national who served eight years in prison for an assault with a weapon, and another migrant from Honduras charged with domestic violence.
The agency said the operation was to “get criminals like these out of neighborhoods,” although it did not specify which cities were involved.
The operation comes hours after it was revealed that the Florida government spent $573 million in immigration operations from an emergency fund in the last three years, according to a report from the administration of Governor Ron DeSantis sent to the local Congress and leaked to the press.
DeSantis, who last week claimed that “no other state has done more than Florida” to promote immigration operations, has forced all local authorities to sign 287(g) agreements to cooperate with ICE in arresting migrants.
He also recalled that this has led to the arrest of 20,000 migrants in the last nine months in Florida, where he is pushing for new legislation to further restrict migration, such as prohibiting undocumented immigrants from sending remittances.
Filed under: Operation ICE Florida 2026
With information from EFE
