A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced a deal with the Trump administration that'll allow his state's highway patrol to carry out immigration enforcement. This comes after the administration sued officials in Chicago over sanctuary laws that limit that kind of cooperation. Here's NPR's Martin Kaste.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: DeSantis supports what he calls President Trump's mandate for stepped-up immigration enforcement and mass deportation. But he foresees a problem.
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RON DESANTIS: He's not going to be able to do it if you have states that are trying to kneecap these enforcement efforts, or even if states and localities just simply sit on their hands.
KASTE: There is evidence that ICE needs local law enforcement. One study published in 2020 found that deportations went down by a third in places with sanctuary policies. DeSantis wants his state to do the opposite.
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DESANTIS: We're stepping up. I know some other states will as well. I know some other states will fight this, but we're strong partners. We understand the people spoke loud and clear that these policies be implemented without delay.
KASTE: The Florida announcement demonstrates a basic truth about American policing.
DAVID HARRIS: Local governments are the creatures of state law.
KASTE: David Harris is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, where he studied the role of local police and immigration enforcement. He says, sheriffs and police chiefs know that their states can tell them what to do. But...
HARRIS: It's a different thing than the federal government doing that. The federal government simply has no authority to order local police to do certain tasks. They are a separate sovereign.
KASTE: Harris says that's why more Republican-controlled states are now likely to step in to aid Trump's mass deportation project. Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia and Oklahoma have already passed bills or announced policies facilitating local cooperation with ICE. Wyoming briefly considered legislation requiring that cooperation, but that was a step too far for Allen Thompson. He's the executive director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police.
ALLEN THOMPSON: So our issue with that mandate was that it takes all of the negotiation aspect out of it.
KASTE: He's worried that if sheriffs are required to work with ICE, they won't be able to negotiate a better deal for, say, their jail beds. And negotiations are a big part of this. Here's Sheriff Terry Johnson in Alamance County, North Carolina.
TERRY JOHNSON: They can't leave it up just to my citizens to pay the bill.
KASTE: His jail has had a longstanding contract to supply ICE with 40 beds, and ICE may soon want more. He feels a duty to help, but not at any price.
JOHNSON: Right now, with the way medical insurance has gone up in our jail, food prices have gone up in our jail, we have to try to negotiate a fair price for the county, as well as the federal government. I'm not going to rob Peter to pay Paul.
KASTE: That sentiment is echoed by Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriffs Association. He says the sheriffs are, quote, "eager to help if asked. " But he says, for them, the most important part of this is resources - whether the feds will pay for jail space, training and overtime.
Martin Kaste, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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