A Florida sheriff said that federal immigration authorities need to remove the “shackles” from local law enforcement agencies so they can work hand-in-hand to make their communities safe from illegal criminal migrants.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told Fox News Digital that local departments could be the “biggest assets” for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations in carrying out President Donald Trump’s promise to deport illegal immigrants.

He highlighted the need for infrastructure to house migrants, saying federal authorities need to “take the chain off” local municipalities.

“There’s got to be an infrastructure at the federal level to house these folks because we can scoop them up in large quantities because they’re here illegally committing crime and or they already have,” he said. “There’s 1.4 million with a federal warrant or a removal order. If we can identify them, put them in the computer, we can go pick them up.”

“You can’t just flip the switch on and off. You’ve got to put infrastructure together. But we will be an ally at an even greater level than we already have been,” he said. “We’ll load up ICE with illegal immigrant criminals.”

Judd said that last April or May under the Biden administration, his officers apprehended a criminal migrant accused of violently choking a victim. He said that, as customary for his agency, they contacted ICE and placed a hold on him.

“He left our jail in an ICE van, and we thought, ‘Well, they’re gone,'” he said. “Well, last month we found that same person again with a DUI with his brother, who is an illegal and drunk,” he said. “We say, ‘Hey, we thought that we deported you?’ And then we followed up to find out that ICE would not put another hold on him because they denied the hold last April. So there’s the problem.”

How illegal immigration affects Polk County

Judd provided examples of how migrant crime affected the residents of Polk County. 

“The Biden administration allowed illegal Venezuelans here that were professional burglars, and they targeted our Asian-American friends who are here legally and owned businesses,” he said. “In that instance, seven of the nine burglaries targeted Asian Americans.”

“We also busted a group of Venezuelan migrants who had stolen millions of dollars across the U.S. and hundreds of thousands from victims in Polk County and Central Florida,” he said.

“We also saw traffic fatalities, by illegals, who were driving without a license and with no license and no respect,” he said.

Suspected thieves made off with $1.69 million in cash, jewelry and clothes stolen from homes in gated communities, according to Judd. The theft happened in August 2024. (Polk County Sheriff’s Office)

Judd said their crime rate is at a 53-year low due to their tough-on-crime approach.

“Our crime rate would be even lower if it weren’t for the Biden administration allowing all the criminals here. Our victimization would be lower,” he said.

“We wouldn’t have the fentanyl problem. And we have had, what, a quarter-million or more people die of fentanyl overdoses,” he said. “We can change this, and we will. We need the federal government to ramp up as quickly as they can and stand by for help.”