Florida Keys immigrants are facing an uncertain future, awaiting a worst-case scenario that would upend their lives — an authoritative knock, an unidentified phone call or a uniformed officer.
President Donald Trump demanded mass deportations of undocumented immigrants — and Florida lawmakers are unflinching in their efforts to comply.
Legislative leaders initially bucked Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call for a special session to address how Florida would assist the Trump administration’s removal of illegal immigrants by the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement. The legislature eventually met and passed a bill on Jan. 28 that would expand space and beds for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as requested by the Trump administration.
The bill also toughened penalties among undocumented immigrants who commit crimes by giving them automatic maximum sentences. And those who commit murder would face the death penalty. In addition, undocumented students wouldn’t receive in-state college tuition support.
Among the contentious topics is a measure in the Legislature’s bill for a new state immigration czar, which would be Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. DeSantis wasn’t in favor of the proposal.
“How often is agriculture viewed as leading the fight against illegal immigration?” DeSantis said during a town hall on Jan. 31.
Voting “yes” on the House Floor, State Rep. Jim Mooney said the bill wasn’t given to DeSantis as of Feb. 5 due to some disagreements and his initial message that he’d veto the legislation.
“We have a lot of the governor’s products in this bill,” Mooney said. “The bill says we will work hand-in-hand with the feds.”
“So much is happening and laws are changing so fast; people are scared. They live here, work here, have children — they’re our neighbors, and they’re scared,” said Natalia Duke, a Key West native and the daughter of Cuban refugees.
“Even people who are here legally are terrified they’ll get caught up and arrested in a raid,” said Duke, who helped launch the Keys Immigrant Coalition in 2017 in response to new Florida laws that targeted undocumented immigrants.
The current sense of chaos and alarm has eclipsed anything that came before.
“Now I hope the Keys Immigrant Coalition can help alleviate some fear by making sure our community knows their rights,” she said. “All people in the U.S. have constitutional rights regardless of their immigration status, and sharing that information is important.”
Immigrant rights advocates nationwide are hosting Know Your Rights seminars to advise people how to respond if ICE agents come to their home, workplace or school. (See page 14 for immigration rights information from the ACLU).
Immigrants now worry constantly about their kids at school, raids at their workplace or government vehicles in their neighborhoods.
The Keys Weekly asked local law enforcement leaders and the superintendent of schools what policies and plans were in place in light of the state and nationwide crackdown.
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office
Sheriff Rick Ramsay participated in a Zoom call last week with DeSantis and all 67 Florida sheriffs.
“It was sort of a one-way conversation, and was geared toward the governor saying, ‘I’ve got the power and I expect all elected officials to aid and assist in the immigration enforcement efforts, and if you don’t, you could be removed from office or face ramifications,’” Ramsay told the Keys Weekly. “My stance has always been that we’re not going to job sites or doing roundups. We’re not checking IDs just to try to find people. But if we become aware that a person may be here illegally, we’re not going to hide or harbor anyone.
“We will comply with the law, and if you’re arrested and in my jail, and you have what’s called a federal detainer, which is basically an immigration-related warrant, then we’ll notify the feds that we have you, and we’ll let them know when you’re getting out, which we’re required to do by law.
“We’ve never prevented our deputies from asking someone if they’re here illegally, but my guys aren’t trying to hurt anyone. We’re not trying to be ICE; we have empathy,” Ramsay said. “It’s not an easy answer. We’ll be fair.”
Ramsay added that additional state troopers from Florida Highway Patrol have been working in the Keys to combat illegal immigration since the summer of 2024, when hundreds of migrants entered the Keys from Cuba and Haiti. Most of those troopers are still in the Keys, and that agency is enthusiastic about assisting state and federal immigration efforts, according to a Jan. 89 post by FHP post on X that states, “We are ready and willing to follow the governor’s lead and work with federal partners to execute the Trump illegal immigration mandate.”
Key West Police
Key West Police Chief Sean Brandenburg told the Keys Weekly last week he had not been contacted by any state or federal officials about immigration enforcement efforts, and it was business as usual for his department as of last week.
“No one has reached out, made contact or given any kind of direction,” Brandenburg said. “I haven’t heard from any of our federal partners.”
In addition, Key West lawmakers in 2017 passed a resolution designating Key West as a Welcoming City. The resolution states “the city shall not request or maintain information about, or investigate or assist in the investigation of the citizenship or immigration status of any person unless such inquiry is required by a valid state or federal law.”
That resolution had not been rescinded as of Feb. 4, city attorney Ron Ramsingh told the Keys Weekly.
Monroe County schools
Teachers and administrators in Keys schools have acknowledged the concern many immigrant parents now have when dropping off their kids at school. Often, children of undocumented immigrants are American citizens, by virtue of birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed in the Constitution for anyone born in the United States. Though President Trump has expressed interest in ending birthright citizenship, such a move would require congressional and likely Supreme Court approval.
“I have been in contact over the past week and will continue to be in contact with State Attorney Dennis Ward,” said Theresa Axford, schools superintendent, “who will inform me of any information he receives regarding immigration matters in Monroe County that are pertinent to school operations. We agreed that our current policies relating to outside agencies such as law enforcement interviewing or picking up students should continue to be followed at this time. Those policies are on page 39 of our Student Code of Conduct, which can be found at keysschools.com.
“We will strictly require any party asking to interact with a student to show official identification. And the school resource officer, who knows the students and school policies, will be informed.
We both agreed that the least disruption possible to the school day should be our goal as well as following the law.”
— Jim McCarthy contributed to this report
