Posted on 08/02/2025 6:01:37 AM PDT by DFG
Sheriffs are concerned.
Florida’s Governor is griping about the Department of Homeland Security looking to “poach” local and state law enforcement for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Sheriffs losing deputies who are in this fight to just wear a different jersey, basically, but still be in the fight, that doesn’t necessarily add to what we’re doing. It’s just moving someone over,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
However, there are salient material reasons why someone would put on a “different jersey,” given the sweet deal D.C. is dangling in front of current cops.
ICE is offering benefits that can’t be matched locally, in what it calls a “robust package of federal law enforcement incentives, including a “maximum $50,000 signing bonus.” Depending on how hiring progresses, it could exacerbate long-term shortages in law enforcement agencies.
Enhanced retirement benefits, student loan forgiveness, 25% Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP) for HSI Special Agents, and “Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUI) for Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) Deportation Officers” are among the incentives.
The Governor hopes sheriffs stand up against this poaching attempt.
“I know when that letter hit, I heard a lot of static coming out of our sheriffs’ departments about that. And I told them, I said, listen, you know, you guys got to defend your agencies and your people. I mean, you say, fight for what you think is right. I mean, this isn’t my policy. It’s coming down from ICE,” DeSantis said.
The feds note that “significant new funding through the recently signed One Big Beautiful Bill” facilitates these “benefits to attract the next generation of law enforcement professionals to find, arrest, and remove criminal illegal aliens.”
But DeSantis doesn’t know why that next generation needs to come from local and state ranks.
Recruitment letters went to “a lot of people that are 287G qualified that are working in local agencies in Florida and even some state agencies and are dangling like a lot of bonus money and all this other stuff.”
“And I know some sheriffs have had concerns, you know, that that’s happening. It’s like, hey, we’ve been doing all this stuff to help you guys, and now you’re trying to poach our people who are already in the fight. Why not recruit additional people to be supplementing that instead of just kind of displacing?”
Cops aren’t the only recruitment target. ICE is also making the play in major cities, at college campuses, and at job fairs, so additional people are being recruited.
The Governor made the comments at a Florida Highway Patrol Headquarters in Orlando.
![]() |
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Can’t have any of the Free Market Competition.
This is Government!
“Florida’s Governor is griping about the Department of Homeland Security looking to “poach” local and state law enforcement for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Surprised it took the Deep State so long to again activate DeSantis against Trump. Expect to see more of it.
Small-potatoes DeSantis saying and thinking small-potatoes stuff.
Yes, big federal government with the IRS to collect the money to do the poaching from limited-resources state governments.
Sometimes Trump does his own activating.
“Florida’s Governor is griping about the Department of Homeland Security looking to “poach” local and state law enforcement for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Competition is good.
Governor DeSantis poached law enforcement officers from New York and other left-wing states.
I hope both sides win.
There is a line out the door for these jobs. Sign on bonuses are excessive and wasteful.
“Sometimes Trump does his own activating.”
No one activates Trump, which is why he’s careening around so much on trade and foreign policy.
There should be a law that police are required to stay with the service they originally join.
Best governor in the country. Jealous much?
Why?
What a great way to kill recruitment efforts. Sounds like the old USSR where they assigned you a job and that was it for life.
It’d be stupid for a cop to go to ICE. In three years, it could be cut to nothing.
Check
RDS is correct. Some of the members here act like first graders sucking on a binky.
Geez. Poach away. Hire new cops. What’s the problem here?
Nice opportunities for people.
WHEN ILLEGALS ARE CLEARED-—
GIVE THEM ANOTHER BONUS-—FROM THE FEDS-—TO GO BACK TO THEIR OLD JOBS>
True. Most states are leg a legally required to operate within their budget. The Fed hasn’t even had a budget since 2009.
It’s the police officer’s decision if they want to take a better job, with better benefits. If they qualify and want the job, let them go without bitching about it. DeSantis decided he wanted to run for President after he had just got elected to a second term, but he criticizes folks for wanting to better themselves. He needs to shut up.
I read on another site that Tom Homan said he had to close his LinkedIn account because it was being overwhelmed with people who wanted to apply for a job.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.