On a late March afternoon in Bonita Springs, Florida, a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer pulled up to a Guatemalan couple walking their dog in a park in the affluent beachside community along the Gulf Coast, according to the wife. The officer asked to see the husband’s identification from his car, then ordered the couple to head toward the park exit, she told the Associated Press. When they reached the parking lot, the officer arrested the 48-year-old husband on a charge the wife said was false.
“He told us he was issuing a ticket because the dog had bitten him, but that wasn’t true because the officer never got out of the car,” the wife said in an interview, speaking on condition of anonymity because she said she feared being detained herself or jeopardizing either of their pending asylum cases. The officer “started making calls, arrested him, and waited 40 minutes” for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to arrive and take her husband away, she said.
The arrest highlights the growing cooperation between Florida state agencies and ICE under President Donald Trump’s broader immigration enforcement push. Governor Ron DeSantis has supported expanded state involvement in federal immigration operations, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is among several state agencies that have begun working directly with ICE to identify and detain individuals in the country without legal status.
Immigrant advocates argue that such partnerships lead to pretextual stops and arrests, where minor or fabricated charges serve as a pretext to hold individuals until federal immigration authorities can take custody. They say the practice erodes trust in local law enforcement among immigrant communities and discourages people from reporting crimes or interacting with officers.
The wife told the AP that her husband’s arrest has left their family in limbo. The couple had been pursuing asylum claims before the incident. She said she did not know where her husband was being held or what would happen to his case. The AP reported that the husband’s arrest was part of a pattern in which Florida state officers have served as a force multiplier for ICE, detaining individuals on state charges and then handing them over to federal authorities.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has encouraged state and local law enforcement agencies to assist in immigration enforcement. The Trump administration has made such partnerships a cornerstone of its immigration strategy, arguing that they make communities safer by targeting individuals who have committed crimes in addition to being in the country without authorization. Critics counter that the approach often sweeps up people with no criminal record beyond their immigration status and relies on aggressive tactics that can lead to civil rights violations.
The incident in Bonita Springs is one of numerous reports from around the country of state and local police cooperating with ICE in ways that were less common before Trump took office. In Florida, the partnership has drawn particular attention because of the DeSantis administration’s active encouragement of the collaboration. State agencies including the Florida Highway Patrol and the Department of Law Enforcement have also been involved in joint operations with ICE.