Florida’s ICE Operation Tidal Wave: Arrests, 287(g), and Funding

Operation Tidal Wave is a joint federal-state immigration enforcement initiative in Florida, launched in April 2025, that pairs ICE with state and local agencies to arrest people in the country illegally, with a stated focus on those who have criminal records or outstanding removal orders. By January 2026 it had produced more than 10,400 arrests, and by May 2026 Florida officials put the cumulative figure across all related enforcement efforts at nearly 25,000.¹²

What the Operation Is

The first sweep ran April 21–26, 2025, and produced 1,120 arrests statewide. ICE called it the largest number of criminal alien arrests in a single state in one week in the agency’s history. Of those arrested that week, ICE said 63 percent had prior criminal arrests or convictions and 378 had final orders of removal.³

The coalition is unusually broad. On the federal side: ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, DEA, ATF, and the U.S. Marshals Service. On the state side: the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida National Guard, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management, along with sheriff’s offices from more than a dozen counties including Hillsborough, Orange, Pinellas, Brevard, and Volusia.³⁴

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons described the combination of federal surge resources and statewide partners as “first of its kind,” calling state and local officers a “force multiplier” acting as the “eyes and ears” of ICE during their regular duties.⁵

How State and Local Officers Got Immigration Authority

The legal foundation is Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which lets ICE delegate certain immigration enforcement functions to state and local officers under federal supervision. Trained officers can question people about their immigration status, issue detainers, make immigration arrests, and start removal processing.⁶

Florida is the only state in which every sheriff’s office participates. Nearly 200 police departments, 12 state agencies, and 15 state universities and colleges also hold 287(g) agreements. Nationally, Lyons said 428 new 287(g) agreements had been signed under the current administration, a 371 percent increase.⁷⁵ Governor Ron DeSantis directed five state agencies to sign memoranda with ICE in February 2025, including FDLE, the Florida Highway Patrol, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida State Guard, and the Department of Agricultural Law Enforcement.⁶

How Many Have Been Arrested, and Who

By January 5, 2026, roughly eight months in, the governor’s office reported more than 10,400 arrests under the Operation Tidal Wave banner. Guatemala and Mexico accounted for most of them (3,435 and 3,331 respectively), followed by Honduras (1,353), El Salvador (312), Venezuela (312), and other nations (1,249).⁸

By May 2026, the cumulative figure across all coordinated federal-state operations reached nearly 25,000, according to the governor’s office.² The Florida Highway Patrol reported separately that since March 2025 its officers had apprehended more than 9,000 people in the country illegally, over 1,600 of whom had prior criminal histories.⁹

ICE has emphasized gang and violent-crime affiliations among those arrested, naming MS-13, Tren de Aragua, Brown Pride Aztecas, Barrio Azteca, Sureños (Sur-13), and the 18th Street Gang among the groups represented in the first-week arrests.³ A March 2026 enforcement action in Key Largo under the same banner resulted in 15 arrests that the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department said involved “extensive criminal histories,” including home invasion with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery, cocaine possession, burglary, and felon in possession of a firearm.⁹

Advocates dispute that characterization. Reports out of the first sweep indicated that Florida Highway Patrol deputies pulled over landscaping trucks and questioned all occupants about their immigration status, and that detainees included people with no criminal record or outstanding removal order.¹⁰

Related Operations Under the Same Umbrella

Several specialized initiatives have run under, or alongside, Operation Tidal Wave.

Operation Criminal Return, a 10-day ICE-FDLE effort launched October 25, 2025, targeted convicted sex offenders, violent criminals, and drug traffickers, producing 230 arrests, of which more than 150 were identified as sex offenders. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem publicly called the initiative “Operation Dirtbag.”¹¹¹²

Operation Sandhill Sentinel, a South Florida push involving the Florida Highway Patrol, the Broward Sheriff’s Office, and DHS, produced 250 arrests in Broward County. WLRN reported in June 2026 that agencies had not released specific dates, locations, or names of those arrested despite announcing the results at a public press conference.¹³

Operation LOCATE is a joint FDLE-DHS effort to find more than 400 unaccompanied migrant children placed with sponsors in Florida after recent border surges. FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass said investigators were conducting welfare checks on children who may no longer be with their original sponsors; DeSantis said the goal was to uncover trafficking networks and address missing-children cases.²

The Money Behind It

The Florida Legislature set up a $250 million fund in 2025 to reimburse local agencies for immigration enforcement costs — overtime, equipment, detention. Disbursements were slow at first: by February 2026, only about $72,000 had actually reached agencies, with $53 million in new and amended awards pending approval at that time.¹⁴ By June 2026, another $90 million in grants for local law enforcement was under consideration.¹⁵

Community Impact

The April 2025 sweep drew sharp reactions in immigrant communities. The Tallahassee Democrat reported that families in targeted areas were afraid to drive to work, attend medical appointments, or send children to school. Latino community events were canceled in some areas, businesses closed, and advocates said residents became reluctant to report crimes or cooperate with police. State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat from Orlando, said the operation “breaks trust between our communities and law enforcement” and would carry “major economic consequences.”¹⁰

Local costs became an issue in Orange County. ICE detainer activity surged: 1,018 inmates were held on ICE detainers at the Orange County Jail in the first four months of 2025, exceeding the total for all of 2024. Critics said the county’s cost to house an inmate ran $145 to $180 a day, while federal reimbursement was $88.¹⁶ In April 2026 the Orange County Commission voted unanimously to amend its agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service, removing ICE as a direct party, capping the hold time for detainees without criminal charges at 48 hours, and raising the federal reimbursement rate to $125 per day.¹⁷

Legal Challenges

The expansion of 287(g) authority has drawn litigation. In August 2025, the ACLU, the ACLU of Florida, the Community Justice Project, and the National Immigrant Justice Center filed M.A. v. Guthrie, a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s operation of an immigration detention facility in the Everglades that critics called “Alligator Alcatraz.” The suit alleged an unlawful expansion of 287(g) authority and said detainees were held without charge, denied bond hearings, excluded from the federal detainee locator system, and denied access to lawyers.¹⁸ A court order on August 21, 2025, halted transfers to the facility, and it was closed in June 2026.¹⁹

The ACLU’s February 2026 report, Deputized for Disaster, identified Florida as having devoted more resources to 287(g) than any other state, involving not just traditional law enforcement but also state regulatory agencies and university police. The report said participating agencies “risk lawsuits and an enormous loss of public trust.”¹⁹

Where It Stands Now

DeSantis has framed the initiative as Florida serving as “the tip of the spear” in state-level immigration enforcement and as a model for other states.³¹ Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said the interior enforcement operations were meant to “remove public safety threats to national security threats every day.”²⁰ Lyons said similar partnerships were expected to expand nationwide. As of mid-2026, Operation Tidal Wave and its related enforcement efforts remain active, and the State Immigration Enforcement Council continues to meet and approve grant distributions to local agencies.¹⁵

1
Florida Governor’s Office. Governor Ron DeSantis Highlights Success of Florida Federal Immigration Partnership
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Florida Governor’s Office. Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Results of Major Immigration Enforcement Operations
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ICE. Largest Joint Immigration Operation in Florida History Leads to 1,120 Criminal Alien Arrests
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Florida Governor’s Office. Largest Joint Immigration Operation in Florida History
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ABC News. ICE, Florida Officials Arrest Nearly 800 in Four-Day Operation
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Florida Governor’s Office. Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Additional Memoranda of Agreement Between Florida Law Enforcement and ICE
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The Center Square. Operation Tidal Wave and Florida 287(g) Partnerships
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CBS 12. Operation Tidal Wave Becomes Largest ICE Partnership in Florida History
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WFLA. Operation Tidal Wave: 15 Arrested in Targeted Immigration Enforcement Operation
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Tallahassee Democrat. Anger and Shock: Florida Immigrant Advocates React to Operation Tidal Wave
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ICE. ICE and State of Florida Arrest 230 Criminal Alien Sexual Predators and Violent Criminals
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NewsNation. More Than 150 Illegal Immigrant Sex Offenders Arrested in Florida Operation
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WLRN. Officials Bragged of Broward Immigration Operation’s Transparency, Yet Basic Facts Remain Unknown
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WLRN. Florida to Give $50M to Local Law Agencies for Immigration Enforcement
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WLRN. Another $90 Million for Illegal Immigration Enforcement Teed Up for Florida
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Central Florida Public Media. Immigration Enforcement Effort Operation Tidal Wave Brings Wake of Praise, Protest
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Click Orlando. Orange County Commissioners Discuss ICE Agreement
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National Immigrant Justice Center. New Lawsuit Challenges Florida’s Authority to Detain People at Everglades Detention Center
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ACLU. New ACLU Report Reveals How the Trump Administration Is Using Local Police to Build a National Deportation Policing Force
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WPBF. ICE’s Operation Tidal Wave Results in 780 Arrests Across Florida