Data Show Florida Agriculture Agency’s Role in Immigration Enforcement
The findings raise questions about officers' training and the impact on their regular duties.
New data obtained by American Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog based in Washington, D.C., show that agricultural officers played a significant role in Florida’s efforts to curb unauthorized immigration. Above, migrant farmworkers harvest watermelon in Chiefland in 2024. [DIRK SHADD | Times]
By Juan Carlos Chavez, Times staff
Published Yesterday
An agency tasked with keeping the state’s food supply safe and investigating agricultural and other consumer crimes has played an active role in assisting federal immigration enforcement.
Florida’s agriculture department took 87 people into custody and transported 434 others to immigration detention sites as part of its cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last year, according to the watchdog group American Oversight.
The data, obtained through public records requests, provide a first look at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ broader role in immigration enforcement beyond its own detentions, from June to December 2025.
According to the data, the state agency took 46 people into custody from November through December, compared with 41 in the previous five months combined. Its officers also transported 81 immigrants to ICE detention sites during the final two months of 2025.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services enforces laws through its Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement, which has more than 200 sworn officers.
Under an agreement with ICE, known as 287(g), trained officers are authorized to perform federal immigration enforcement duties while continuing their regular work and inspections. The state also uses agricultural inspection stations since last year as immigration checkpoints. Florida operates 23 such stations, most of which are located along major highways in the northern part of the state.
Records show that 173 agricultural officers had completed immigration training and received credentials as of October 2025, while one officer had completed training but had not received credentials. Another 50 officers had neither completed training nor received credentials.
In July 2025, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said that all sworn officers of the Agricultural Law Enforcement had been certified under the federal immigration program.
Nationwide, immigration enforcement training changed significantly in March 2025. It was shortened from four to five weeks of in-person training to just 40 hours on-the-job.