TALHASSEE – President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would approve Florida’s plan to promote deportation by working as an immigration judge to eligible National Guard members.
Trump made the announcement during his visit to South Florida’s new state-run immigration detention center.
For months, Gov. Ron DeSantis has been seeking federal approval to represent the Florida State Guard’s advocate general. Officer acting as an immigration judge.
On Tuesday, Trump said he was in favor of the plan.
“He didn’t even have to ask me, he has my approval,” Trump said during a roundtable discussion at the Everglades immigration detention center.
Desantis said Monday that the National Guard could quickly track deportations by working as an immigration judge at the detention center site.
On Tuesday, DeSantis said his goal was to get through “bureaucracy.”
Unlike federal judges who work in the judicial division and are independent of the president, immigration judges work under the direction of the U.S. Attorney General.
Because detention centers are built on old runways, Desantis and others say the federal government will speed up the deportation process by flying immigrants from the site.
Attorney General James Usmier, who helped plan the detention center, called it a “one-stop shop for immigration enforcement” on social media Tuesday.
“Come, get your ‘process’ and pop out,” Usmeyer said.
According to Florida’s proposed immigration plan since the beginning of this year, the National Guard will have nine judge advocate officers trained as immigration officers, and the training will take six weeks.
A National Guard spokesman has yet to receive formal words to begin training judge supporters, but he said “will stand up to support this mission if necessary and will be led by Governor Desantis.”
