DeSantis seeks human-smuggling probe

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday asked that a statewide grand jury be set up to examine networks that smuggle people into the state as part of an investigation that also would focus on local governments that he says violate state law by adopting sanctuary policies.

DeSantis filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court requesting that the grand jury be impaneled.

The Republican governor announced the petition at a news conference with law enforcement agents in Pensacola where he also signed into law a bill requiring county jails to assist federal agents with immigration enforcement and prohibiting state and local governments from doing business with contractors who bring into Florida people who are in the U.S. illegally.

DeSantis also said he intended to expand a strike force of state and local law enforcement agents that is tasked with stopping trafficking.

“We aren’t a border state. People are wondering, ‘Why are you doing this?,’” DeSantis said. “People will say, ‘Let Texas or Arizona worry about that.’ Let me tell you, people trying to come in illegally are trying to get to Florida.”

If approved, the grand jury would investigate parents who use professional smugglers to bring their unaccompanied children to live with them in Florida, traffickers who smuggle people in the country into the state and people and organizations that do business with traffickers.

The grand jury also would be charged with investigating local jurisdictions that refuse to honor a request to detain people in the country illegally if they have been arrested for a crime.