Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that an ongoing multi-agency operation in the Florida Panhandle has yielded over 200 arrests of undocumented migrants, with more expected by the end of the day.
45 Florida Highway Patrol officers worked with 20 federal authorities—from agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement—to target over 200 migrants in the state illegally.
They've worked across Bay, Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, and Walton counties, as well as the eastern Panhandle.
"It's like a revolving door," DeSantis said at a Panama City press conference Friday, revealing that 37 of the migrants had previously been issued final orders of removal, while 8 had been deported before illegally reentering the country.
One person had been deported four times, DeSantis said.
"We will not tolerate lawlessness in the state of Florida," he added.
Following the operation's announcement, DeSantis also revealed that Tallahassee International Airport had its first deportation flight earlier this week, carrying 20 undocumented immigrants.
DeSantis' celebration of rounding up and deporting unauthorized migrants came hours after a South Florida federal judge temporarily blocked the state's main detention center from further construction or receiving more detainees in the next 60 days.
Judge Kathleen Williams also ordered that the facility, called Alligator Alcatraz, be deconstructed in the following days, siding with pro-environmental plaintiffs and against the state in a lawsuit filed early last month.
Florida officials—including DeSantis—have vowed to appeal, while insisting that her ruling was "preordained" and not unexpected.
The state's newest detention facility ("Deportation Depot" in Baker County) is still set to accommodate up to 2,000 people.
