Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd is calling for stronger cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, arguing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) needs to remove restrictions that prevent local agencies from assisting in the deportation of criminal migrants.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Judd said that local law enforcement could be one of ICE’s biggest assets in carrying out Trump’s renewed focus on deporting illegal immigrants, but federal roadblocks are hindering those efforts.
“There’s got to be an infrastructure at the federal level to house these folks because we can scoop them up in large quantities,” Judd said. “There’s 1.4 million with a federal warrant or a removal order. If we can identify them, put them in the computer, we can go pick them up.”
Judd’s Polk County Sheriff’s Office has worked alongside ICE since signing a memorandum of agreement in 2019 during Trump’s first term. However, Judd said those efforts diminished under the Biden administration.
Judd pointed out a major issue with ICE’s deportation process, saying that criminal migrants with active deportation orders are not listed in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), a key database used by law enforcement.
“I think that is an officer safety issue,” Judd said. “When we stop vehicles, the people that we stop may very well be in this country illegally with an active deportation order, knowing, ‘My Gosh, they’ve caught me.’ But we don’t know that.”
Judd recalled a recent case in which his department arrested a criminal migrant for choking a victim. The individual was handed over to ICE, but months later, deputies found him back in the county, this time arrested for a DUI alongside his also undocumented and intoxicated brother.
Judd described multiple crime incidents involving undocumented migrants, including organized burglary rings made up of Venezuelan migrants who targeted Asian-American business owners in Polk County, a group of Venezuelan migrants who stole millions nationwide, with hundreds of thousands stolen in Central Florida, and fatal traffic accidents caused by undocumented individuals driving without a license.
Judd said crime in Polk County is at a 53-year low, but he believes the numbers would be even lower if criminal migrants were swiftly deported.
“Our crime rate would be even lower if it weren’t for the Biden administration allowing all the criminals here,” he said. “Our victimization would be lower. We wouldn’t have the fentanyl problem.”
Judd emphasized that local agencies are ready and willing to assist ICE, but the federal government must step up and improve coordination.
“We can change this, and we will,” he said. “We need the federal government to ramp up as quickly as they can and stand by for help.”
