Florida Sheriff Slams ICE Over Recruitment Tactics, Demands Apology

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd fired off a public rebuke of Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week as officials attempted to recruit his deputies. With the Trump administration urging ICE to hire 10,000 new agents, local leaders are sounding the alarm because of how federal recruiters are conducting those efforts.

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According to Judd, deputies in Polk County, Florida, have begun receiving recruitment emails from ICE offering a potential fifty-thousand-dollar signing bonus along with other perks for those who join federal enforcement. NBC News reported those messages were sent largely to officers whose agencies participate in the 287G program, which deputizes local and state law enforcement to assist ICE. Florida’s sixty-seven counties have 287G agreements in place.

Judd pointed to the training his office provided specifically to prepare officers for immigration enforcement and argued “that is biting the hand that is feeding you” in an interview on MSNBC He added, “And I am angry.” The sheriff criticized what he described as a lack of professionalism and said that undercutting trust and respect between local and federal agencies is damaging, especially at a time when collaboration is most important.

Judd emphasized he is not the only sheriff upset by ICE’s outreach. He said he had spoken with other sheriffs who felt similarly blindsided. Among them was Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, whose office told NBC News, “ICE actively trying to use our partnership to recruit our personnel is wrong and we have expressed our concern to ICE leadership.”

Judd reserved his sharpest criticism for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whom he blamed for the recruitment tactics. He said, “Kristi Noem needs to get on her big girl pants and do what’s right. She needs to make sure that there’s an apology.”