Judd publicly supports president's immigration orders

WINTER HAVEN (FOX 13) - President Trump's new immigration order has a big supporter in Polk County.  Polk Sheriff Grady Judd has been especially concerned about illegal immigrants who commit felonies and says they should be deported immediately.

Trump wants to add 15,000 additional members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Control officers to crack down on illegal immigrants coming from Mexico to the United States. It's music to Judd's ears.

The sheriff cites the story of Ignazio Munoz -- who was charged with trafficking drugs, served time behind bars, and was ultimately deported -- as an example of what's wrong with the system.

"He came back to the U.S.," Judd explained with agitation at a recent press conference. "He armed himself with a lot of weapons and he went back to dealing meth."

Judd says the president's new, stricter orders on immigration may help close what he feels is a revolving door.

"Our primary goal has got to be to get the illegal aliens committing felonies out of this country and keep them out," Judd said.

But community activists like Daniel Barajas, who founded Young American Dreamers, a group to protect civil rights, says the orders have an unsettling effect on many people, undocumented or not.

"If a law enforcement official pulls into a neighborhood, it's like doors get locked, blinds get closed. Nobody goes outside," Barajas told FOX 13.

Barajas is meeting with politicians, organizing community forums, and handing out written materials to quell fears.

"The biggest fear is persecution," he said.