Florida Deportation Orders

Florida's deportation orders surge in June, following a national trend

Since March, deportations ordered by immigration judges in Florida have increased 18 percent, according to recently released data.

In June, judges issued 5,415 removal orders, a 17.6 percent increase compared to March’s 4,605 removal orders, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonprofit that tracks immigration data.

Florida follows a national trend of an increase in deportation orders, which hit an all-time high of 79,000 in June, the most orders issued in a month so far in President Donald Trump’s second term.

Even though Florida remains one of the top states for overall deportations, it lagged behind an average national surge of 30 percent, as other states saw steeper climbs in the number of people ordered to be deported to their country of origin between the months of March to June.

And while Mexico is the destination country for the largest share of removal orders in the U.S., with 121,001 since last October (the beginning of the federal fiscal year), in Florida the most removal orders were issued to those originally from Guatemala.

With 3,934 detainees, Florida ranks fifth among states. About a quarter of immigrants detained in Florida are housed in a state-run immigration detention facility in Baker County dubbed Deportation Depot. Alligator Alcatraz, a billion-dollar tent facility located in the Everglades that was in operation for nearly a year, closed earlier this month.

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