Grady Judd among Florida sheriffs who feel betrayed by ICE’s hiring tactic: ‘Biting the hand that feeds you'
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Sheriffs around Florida are calling out the Department of Homeland Security after it tried to recruit hundreds of their deputies to join ICE.
The backstory:
Some deputies in the Tampa Bay Area received an email from the DHS, asking them to consider joining ICE.
The email was signed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Deputy Director, Madison Sheahan.
READ: Deportation flights out of Alligator Alcatraz underway, Gov. DeSantis says
"As someone who is currently supporting ICE through the 287(g) program, you understand the unique responsibility we carry in protecting our communities and upholding federal law," the email read. "Your experience in state or local law enforcement brings invaluable insight and skills to this mission—qualities we need now more than ever."
The email targets law enforcement officers who are 287g-certified, meaning they're trained to help ICE on the local level.
It also boasts a $50,000 signing bonus to be paid over a five-year service agreement with ICE.
What they're saying:
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd was not happy about the email that hundreds of his deputies received.
"That's biting the hand that's feeding you," Judd said.
In an interview over the weekend, Judd said he's not upset that DHS is trying to recruit law enforcement officers, but he's upset with the way the department went about this latest recruitment tactic.
"To talk directly to the deputies with government documents that were completed so that we could help them, that is not right," Judd said. "It's not professional. It is, you know, it's Bush league work is what it is."
Sheriffs around Florida feel betrayed.
"You know, we're bending over backwards to accommodate you," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. "And this is the way that you treat us."
Judd says they've been a force multiplier to help ICE efforts on the local level. He says they're glad to help ICE, but he's angry that the DHS used data that his office provided in order to try to poach deputies.
"We've been spending a lot of time and effort, and the next thing we know, the people who we have submitted to ICE, who have been ICE trained on our dime, by the way, received a direct email from the administration," Judd said.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri shared the following statement in response to the email:
"The State of Florida and Florida law enforcement agencies have expended significant resources and invested in our personnel to ensure that we are properly staffed so that we can provide the best law enforcement services to our residents and visitors. We have partnered with ICE like no other state to help ICE do its job of illegal immigration enforcement. ICE actively trying to use our partnership to recruit our personnel is wrong and we have expressed our concern to ICE leadership."
Judd and Gualtieri have championed ICE's mission on the local level, with their leadership on the State Immigration Enforcement Council.
Judd says this move by the DHS lacks integrity and professionalism.
"It's not the fact that they did it," Judd said. "It was the way they did and that they used our professional data that we sent them. You know, Kristi Noem needs to put her big girl pants on."
Judd called on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to hold her department accountable.
Judd says he spoke with their ICE field Office Director, who wasn't aware of this email that was sent to law enforcement officers.
The other side:
Fox 13 reached out to the DHS for a comment in response to concerns over the recruiting email.
"ICE is recruiting law enforcement, veterans, and other patriots who want to serve their country and help remove gang members, child pedophiles, murderers, terrorists, and drug traffickers," a DHS official said. "This includes local law enforcement, veterans, and our 287(g) partners who have already been trained and have valuable law enforcement experience. Additionally, more than $500 million from President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill will go to increasing our 287(g) partnerships with state and local law enforcement. Like hiring, we’re supercharging our efforts to fulfill President Trump and the American people’s mandate to remove the worst of the worst from our country."
The Source: This story was written with information gathered by FOX 13's Kylie Jones.