Immigration authorities announced on Tuesday they had arrested more than two dozen illegal aliens at construction sites in Florida.
The raids took place in Wildwood, Florida, during worksite enforcement encounters, according to an X post from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Tampa.
Wildwood, a city in Sumter County, is about an hour northwest of Orlando.
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Illegal immigrants arrested during the operation were from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, according to the post.
A video shared by HSI Tampa showed authorities walking through a neighborhood with newly constructed homes.
Though the video did not show any arrests, a photo posted by HSI Tampa appeared to show an arrest at a construction site in Wildwood.
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Officials said some of the illegal immigrants had previously been deported, though it is unclear if any of the aliens had previous arrests or convictions.
The total number of arrests has not yet been released.
In a separate post, HSI Tampa said the agency was “diligently working to determine if construction companies in the fastest-growing region in the U.S. [are] employing illegal aliens [and] violating federal immigration law.”
The raid comes after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this week that more than 100 FHP troopers were sworn in as special deputy U.S. Marshals, which allows them to enforce immigration laws independent of the federal government.
“We are excited that we’re making huge progress on the issue of enforcing laws against illegal immigration,” Gov. DeSantis said during a news conference on Monday. “No state is doing, even close, to what Florida is doing… What we’ve been doing has not only been effective, it’s really been a model for the rest of the country.”
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He added that when he first became governor, Florida allowed sanctuary cities.
“It really became difficult when Joe Biden took office at the beginning of 2021, because he had basically campaigned on not enforcing the border at all,” Gov. DeSantis continued. “Clearly, there has to be rules of the road. Clearly, the people of the U.S. have the right to determine who comes in or who doesn’t come in to our country. And clearly, you have got to have enforcement about those rules so that people realize that you’re not going to be able to violate them with impunity. … Basically, the Biden administration just threw all that by the wayside.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, ICE, and ICE Miami did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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