Workers on a Tallahassee construction site are rounded up by ICE and law enforcement officers for screening and detention on Thursday, May 29. (Photo: ICE)
May 30, 2025 by David Silverberg
A state proposal for widespread, unregulated roundups of foreign-origin aliens may improperly favor a private, for-profit Florida-based security firm with financial ties to Tom Homan, the Trump regime’s “border czar” (more formally, White House Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations).
The proposals are contained in Florida’s Immigration Enforcement Operations Plan (henceforth referred to as “the Plan”), which was unveiled by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on May 12. (The full Plan, with some redaction, is available for viewing and download at the end of this article.)
The “Preliminary Potential Actions” section of the 37-page Plan suggests the most radical actions the state could take.
“In support of President Trump’s fight against the ‘deep state’ within federal agencies, the State of Florida with a waiver of certain federal regulations could circumvent federal agency bureaucracy,” states the Plan, which then goes on to list possible actions.
The Plan aims to deal with the challenges caused by a swift, massive roundup of people of foreign origin suspected of having criminal records, lacking documentation, or having lost temporary protected status to stay in the United States.
Among the actions proposed is waiving “federal detention facility requirements” so that detainees picked up in a massive sweep of Florida migrants, immigrants and foreigners can be housed in non-standard shelters like tents. Currently, federal detainees are held in facilities that meet National Detention Standards (NDS).
The Plan argues that NDS limits the number of facilities where detainees can be held and in Florida some state and county facilities don’t meet NDS standards.
“Waiving select requirements would significantly increase the State’s capacity to detain individuals,” states the Plan. If the standards are suspended, the state would be allowed to hold more people more rapidly and “pave the way to set up soft-side detention as needed and desirable”—i.e., house them in tents.
If the state cannot build out this holding capacity on its own, the Plan envisions turning to private companies to provide additional space. As the Plan puts it, the state could “Utilize existing logistics vendors to establish additional detention space. If the State chooses to forgo the federal detention sites as well as the federal detention standards, logistics vendors are prepared to rapidly deploy detention facilities statewide.”
The ‘vendors’
Florida is currently home to seven privately-run, for-profit prisons, the most of any state.
Three are run by the The GEO Group LLC, headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla. These are the Blackwater River Correctional Facility in Milton, the Moore Haven Correctional Facility in Moore Haven, and the South Bay Correctional Facility in South Bay.
On Tuesday, May 27, The Washington Post reported that Homan had earned consulting fees from The GEO Group in the article, “Trump’s border czar earned consulting fees from immigrant detention firm.”
“Before he joined the administration, border czar Tom Homan earned an undisclosed amount in fees consulting for a division of the Geo Group, one of two companies that operates the vast majority of the nation’s immigrant detention facilities, according to the disclosure, which was released last week,” stated the article, written by reporter Douglas MacMillan and researcher Aaron Schaffer.
It continued: “The filing, which has not been previously reported, did not specify what work Homan performed. The document said Geo paid him more than $5,000 during the two years preceding his government appointment in January. Ethics rules do not require any more specific disclosure, and the amount Homan received could be far higher.”
In response to Washington Post questions, Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, told the Post that Homan adhered to “the highest ethical standards” and on taking office had agreed to recuse himself “from any involvement, discussion, input, or decision of any future government contracts that may be awarded.”
(Florida’s other private prisons are: the Lake City Correctional Facility in Lake City, run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CoreCivic), based in Brentwood, Tenn. The Management & Training Corporation (MTC), headquartered in Centerville, Utah, runs the other three, which are the Bay Correctional Facility, in Panama City, the Gadsden Correctional Facility in Quincy, and the Graceville Correctional Facility, in Graceville.)
Picking up the pace
The pace of detention, removal and deportation operations is picking up, as confirmed by a statement from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directorate of the Department of Homeland Security on May 29.
At the time ICE announced replacement of two of its top officials in order to “support its increasing operational tempo.”
This could be interpreted to mean that the two officials replaced, Kenneth Genalo, who headed Enforcement and Removal Operations, and Robert Hammer, the head of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations office, were not rounding up enough people fast enough for the administration’s liking.
Confirming the administration’s intentions were Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security advisor, and Homan himself.
Miller, in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, said that “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day.”
Homan confirmed this in several media appearances. “We’ve got to increase these arrests and removals,” he said on Fox’s “America’s Newsroom.”
“The numbers are good, but I’m not satisfied. I haven’t been satisfied all year long,” he said, repeating his displeasure in an appearance on the CBS News show, “The Takeout.”
While 3,000 a day was “attainable” he told CBS, “it’s not good enough.”
The same day the crackdown came to Tallahassee, Fla., when ICE and other law enforcement officers raided a construction site and arrested over 100 workers. According to ICE, some of the detainees had been previously deported or had criminal backgrounds.
Analysis: The Plan and implications
A “tent city” in Maricopa County, Arizona for migrant detainees set up by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the 1990s. These were dismantled in 2017. Under the Florida Immigration Enforcement Operations Plan, similar camps could be set up in Florida. (Photo: AP/Charlie Reidel)
In Florida, the dry, bureaucratic language of the Plan belies the full magnitude of what it is proposing: a mass roundup of people, based purely on arbitrary quotas, who will then be housed in whatever kind of temporary shelters can be hastily thrown together.
Given the number of detainees envisioned, they would likely be held in holding camps that would be vulnerable to extreme heat, the ravages of hurricanes and other outdoor threats.
As pointed out in an earlier posting, this would be done by the state of Florida outside the constitutionally regulated federal system for immigration enforcement, due process and humane treatment.
Financially, it would all be done at the expense of Florida taxpayers, at a time when the state is seeking savings and is likely to face hurricanes and natural disasters with much diminished federal support.
The beneficiaries of this Plan are privately-held, for-profit incarceration and detention companies, one of which has employed the man overseeing the entire national effort for enforcement, removal and deportation.
The potential for massive corruption, insider dealing and personal enrichment at the cost of human suffering and constitutional illegality should be obvious.
Beyond the corruption aspects, the Florida Plan appears to be proposing crimes against humanity.
Among these crimes, as defined by the internationally recognized Rome Statute, are: deportation or forcible transfer of populations; persecution of “identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender” grounds; and enforced disappearance of persons.
Commentary: Time to act
It needs to be emphasized that, as far as can be publicly discerned, the Plan’s most extreme proposals are exactly that—“preliminary proposals,” so there is still time to stop them before they do any damage.
It’s unclear at this point when the Plan’s proposals would go into effect.
The Florida legislature is expected to reconvene on June 2 to work on a state budget for the next fiscal year.
If the state Plan is to be implemented, money for implementation will need to be included in the budget.
While hearings and committee work occurred in the legislature’s first session, it is not too late for the appropriate bodies to examine this Plan in detail, hold hearings, call witnesses and weigh its full implications.
One would hope that a full examination would lead the legislature to stop any further progress.
The Plan was covered by the media when it was revealed but without a full appreciation and understanding of the magnitude of the “Preliminary Potential Actions.” Given their implications, Florida-based media of all kinds should take a deep dive into these proposals and the Plan in general.
To repeat: This Plan is proposing illegal, unconstitutional and inhumane actions by the state of Florida. It could lead the state to commit crimes against humanity. It will make Florida a pariah state in a country that’s already on a course to isolation and rejection by the rest of the world. It will cause suffering throughout the population, whether documented or not, and it has the potential to penalize the innocent.
If the human and legal arguments are insufficiently moving, its financial implications should give any honest, thinking person pause. It will be extremely costly for the state. It has immense potential for graft, corruption and improper personal enrichment. Economically, it will devastate the workforce, severely impact key industries and drive consumer prices higher.
From a historical perspective it will put Florida on the side of the great crimes and tragedies of history.
In short, it will be an injustice and a stain on the state and nation. By any human and thoughtful standard, it is vastly criminal and just plain wrong.
However, there is still time to prevent it from happening. The “Preliminary Potential Actions” in the Immigration Enforcement Operations Plan are exactly that: “preliminary” and “potential.” They should be publicly and emphatically rejected by the state of Florida, all Floridians and all patriotic Americans.
The world is watching and history will judge.
Click below to view and download the 37-page PDF Florida Immigration Enforcement Operations Plan with redactions.
Liberty lives in light
© 2025 by David Silverberg