Florida's immigration enforcement council just did something Washington, DC never does.
They caught one of their own breaking the rules and called him out in public.
The sheriff sitting on the board that enforces monthly reporting requirements just admitted his office hadn't filed a single one in over a year.
The Board Member Who Forgot the Rules Applied to Him
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters chairs one of the most powerful law enforcement positions in Florida.
He sits on the State Immigration Enforcement Council – the eight-member panel hand-picked by DeSantis to drive Florida's hard-line immigration policy.
He has 40 designated immigration officers under his command in Jacksonville.
His office has processed 885 ICE detainers since February 2025.
And yet on Tuesday, when the council met to review statewide compliance data, Waters learned hours before the meeting that his office had reported exactly zero immigration arrests to the state.
For an entire year.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2070274233372922236?s=20
His explanation?
"It's a reporting snafu," Waters said. "My patrol team thought the [paperwork] was also a report to ICE, but it was only being sent to Tallahassee."
Deputies had been checking an "ICE" box on detainee paperwork and assuming that satisfied Florida's monthly reporting requirement.
It didn't.
The Problem Bigger Than One Sheriff
Waters wasn't the only one caught flat-footed.
Out of 272 agencies with active 287(g) agreements, only 163 have made a single documented immigration arrest – meaning more than 60% have either failed to report or simply haven't arrested anyone with an ICE detainer.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, also on the council, had no patience for the excuses.
"You're either doing it or you're not," Gualtieri said, adding that whatever sympathy he had during the law's rollout has run its course.
"Something should be said to get compliance," Gualtieri added.
The council unanimously voted to send warning letters to agencies out of compliance.
Fort Walton Beach Police Chief Robert Bage put it plainly.
"I don't think there's any excuse anymore about not reporting," he said.
$250 Million Waiting – But Only if You Play by the Rules
Florida isn't just asking nicely.
Anthony Coker, executive director of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, put agencies on notice that continued non-compliance could cost them access to a $250 million state grant program created specifically to fund immigration enforcement.
So far, 114 agencies have been approved for $148 million in grants.
Only about $13 million has actually been disbursed.
That gap represents leverage – and Coker is willing to use it.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2067650968846569486?s=20
DeSantis announced in January that Operation Tidal Wave – launched in April 2025 as the largest joint immigration enforcement operation in ICE history – had topped 10,400 arrests statewide.
Of those, 63% had prior criminal arrests or convictions, including violent offenders and sex offenders.
Which makes the reporting failures even harder to explain.
This Is What Accountability Looks Like
The system caught the problem – and that matters.
The breakdown was administrative, not operational – Waters' office processed those 885 ICE detainers without anyone upstairs knowing the state never got the paperwork.
And the moment the data showed the gap, a council stacked with DeSantis allies didn't cover it up – they put Waters on the spot in public and voted to enforce the rules.
That's exactly how it's supposed to work.
DeSantis needs the numbers to prove the program works – to Trump, to Congress, and to every other governor watching Florida's model from a distance.
When sheriffs skip the reporting step, they undermine the case for the program they're supposed to be champions of.
Waters has until next month's meeting to fix it.
The bigger question is how 60% of Florida's ICE partner agencies got a year into the most high-profile immigration enforcement program in state history without realizing they weren't filing their monthly reports.
The arrests are getting done.
Now someone needs to make sure the scoreboard actually shows it.
Sources:
- "Florida immigration council warns agencies to report arrests. One member's agency didn't," Florida Phoenix, June 30, 2026.
- "Governor Ron DeSantis Highlights Success of Florida-Federal Immigration Partnership as Operation Tidal Wave Reaches More Than 10,000 Arrests," Executive Office of the Governor, January 5, 2026.
- "DeSantis announces Florida arrested 10,400 illegal immigrants in 'Operation Tidal Wave,'" Fox News, January 5, 2026.
- "Florida pushes police to step up immigration enforcement," WUSF, July 1, 2026.
- Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287(g) Immigration and Nationality Act, ICE.gov, June 29, 2026.
