Florida Plans To Deputize 9 National Guardsmen as Immigration Judges To Increase Deportations
After months of waiting for federal approval to deputize Florida National Guard Judge Advocate General Corps officers (JAGs) as immigration judges, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump indicated during a visit to the newly opened “Alligator Alcatraz” at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport that the plan will move forward.
According to Florida’s 37-page Immigration Enforcement Operations Plan submitted by state officials in May, the Florida National Guard has nine field-grade JAGs suitable for training as immigration judges, and can be trained within six weeks of Justice Department approval. “The Florida National Guard has offered JAGs to be trained as immigration judges to expedite the legal process at the request of the federal government,” and speed up immigration deportations, per the document.
After touring Florida’s newest immigration detention facility in the Everglades, Trump expressed approval for the plan. “On January 20, I signed an executive order empowering governors and state police to be deputized to enforce federal immigration laws, and Ron’s already taken advantage of it,” Trump said. Later, while answering questions from reporters, Trump added, “Yes, he has my approval. That wasn’t too hard to get, was it?…He didn’t even have to ask me.”
Legal experts have expressed concerns about this plan given the intricacies of immigration law. “Immigration law is very complex,” Fola Olubunmi, an immigration attorney, told WINK News. “With immigration judges, you have to have a certain amount of experience and understanding of the laws in order to be able to do that job.”
Deputizing and quickly training JAGs in immigration could mean “hav[ing] peopl
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