Donalds says he will remove local officials who refuse to work with ICE

Immigration admin August 31, 2026 0 Comments

Donalds says he will remove local officials who refuse to work with ICE

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is doubling down on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hard-line immigration policies as he campaigns to succeed him, warning that local officials who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement should be removed from office.

Speaking Saturday at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Miami-Dade Republican Party headquarters in Doral, Donalds said he would oust local officials who refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement — a stance that would uphold DeSantis’ strict immigration approach, which has empowered Florida law enforcement agencies to carry out immigration arrests and led to the now-closed Alligator Alcatraz.

“If you’re a local official and you are not going to cooperate with federal law enforcement, then yes, you need to be removed from office,” he said.

Under DeSantis, Florida has the highest number of arrests under 287(g) agreements, a program that enables local law enforcement and governments to perform certain immigration enforcement activities typically handled by federal authorities.

When local officials have pushed back against signing an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, James Uthmeier, DeSantis appointed attorney general, has warned that the governor could remove them from office.

Donalds, who has supported President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrant communities, said as governor, his administration “will cooperate through 287(g), and we will follow the law.”

“There aren’t going to be sanctuary jurisdictions in Florida,” he said.

The DeSantis administration declared illegal immigration an emergency in the Sunshine State in 2023 and spent more than $1 billion to build and operate Alligator Alcatraz, an immigration detention center in the middle of the Everglades. It closed in June after DeSantis said it had fulfilled its goal of providing temporary, needed space to hold immigrants apprehended by federal immigration officials.

Donalds’ comments come amid ongoing debates in the City of Miami, where immigration advocates have pushed for the city’s Democratic Mayor, Eileen Higgins, and the Miami City Commission to end an agreement partnering local police with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

READ MORE: Miami’s Democratic mayor attacked in ads by immigration-advocacy group

And in Doral, where the nation’s largest Venezuelan-American community is experiencing an increase in immigration raids, Rafael Pineyro, the only Venezuelan-American on the City Council, has pushed back against the immigration crackdown.

Pineyro, a Republican, has called immigration enforcement officials’ focus on not just criminals but also families in the community with pending immigration cases “tragic.”

READ MORE: ‘A tragic moment’: Immigration crackdown intensifies in Doral, home to thousands of Venezuelans

David Jolly, the Democratic candidate for governor, thinks 287(g) agreements should be suspended and that DeSantis’ mandate that local agencies must sign on is a problem.

Jolly said local law enforcement knows how best to keep their communities safe and should not be mandated to these agreements that strip resources away from things like child sex crimes.

“Until we see the reforms, show us your badge, show us your face, show us the judicial warrant. I do think [the agreements] should be suspended,” Jolly said at his primary election night watch party in Miami Lakes. “Once those reforms are in place, I trust local law enforcement.”

Immigration is a key concern in South Florida, as hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Venezuelans have lost their Temporary Protected Status, a humanitarian program that allowed them to work and prevented deportation.

Donalds told reporters Saturday that the humanitarian program was meant to be temporary. He blamed Democrats for the fallout, saying “they took a temporary program and made it permanent,” though a House bill to extend TPS for Haitians that passed in April included the support of 10 Republicans, including Miami’s Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar.

When asked by reporters what his message was to the Venezuelan-American voters who feel their lives were upended by immigration raids, Donalds said, “if you’re Venezuelan and you’re here on TPS, Temporary Protected Status, it has always been a temporary program. That’s number one.”

“Number two, the president of the United States and Secretary of State Marco Rubio did the right thing by getting rid of the Maduro regime, which was, frankly, a narco-terrorist regime that was actually destroying the way of life and the safety in Venezuela.”

Some of Donalds’ Republican colleagues in Congress believe that the Trump administration’s strict approach to immigration could have some negative effects for Republicans in the upcoming November elections.

Salazar, who is up for reelection, has become a critic of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which has seen Cubans deported to Mexico and to countries in Africa.

Salazar has remained a supporter of Trump, but has warned the administration that its immigration approach might cost the Republicans the midterm elections.