Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, ICE Deputy Director hold news conference announcing results of Operation Tidal Wave

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis alongside Deputy Director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Madison Sheahan held a news conference in Miramar Thursday morning praising law enforcement for the results of what executives say is the largest immigration operation in the state s history According to federal leaders more than arrests have been made during Operation Tidal Wave a week-long joint operation between federal state and local law enforcement targeting individuals from countries like Guatemala Mexico Venezuela Honduras and El Salvador While on patrol in Jupiter Florida dividing line patrol agents and highway patrol troopers arrested Alejandro Flores He s an illegal alien from Mexico announced Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Dinise of the Miami Sector of U S Demarcation Patrol Flores is an aggravated felon with criminal convictions for alien smuggling This is the largest immigration enforcement operation that we ve seen in quite specific time throughout the entire country noted Florida Gov Ron DeSantis However there have been reports of U S citizens who have been robbed of due process The notion that somehow this is America and that therefore we re supposed to have an open frontier We re not supposed to enforce immigration laws We re supposed to just sit on our hands So let s just be clear who are you fighting for We re fighting for the citizens of Florida revealed Gov Ron DeSantis Court reports say there are about new court immigration cases filed in alone One percent of those cases are based on alleged criminal activity Look I ll stand by the fact that if you re in this country illegally you are a criminal You will be deported You will have the opportunity to come back into this country through the correct immigration processes explained ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan Local state and federal officers say they hope those numbers will only increase What has happened here this past week that we re here talking about in current times is a warm-up revealed State Board Immigration Enforcement Executive Director Larry Keefe What matters now is how we put together our plan or finalize our plan for execution on what is going to be a constant persistent pressure and effort in this process There are reportedly individuals being held in ICE detention as of last week The court backlog in the present day is cases still waiting to go before a judge Since President Trump s inauguration several South Florida institutions including Florida International University have disclosed partnerships with federal immigration representatives to crack down on undocumented immigrants in the state