The Mandate Begins: DeSantis Unleashes Immigration Enforcement in Florida

There is a certain rare satisfaction—one that comes from watching a politician do precisely what he said he would do, and then doing it faster, and more effectively than anyone expected. It’s the difference between governance and performance art, between the man who leads and the one who merely occupies office space.

Florida, under Governor Ron DeSantis, has become a case study in governance with teeth. The ink was barely dry on the most aggressive immigration enforcement bill in the country when DeSantis, like a bat out of hell, immediately set it into motion. This is not the sluggish, perfunctory rollout we’ve come to expect from the political class, where committees stall and agencies deliberate for months before lifting a finger. No—this is something else entirely. This is the will of the people translated into immediate action.

Only a week ago, the usual suspects in the Florida Legislature—whose principal occupation is the preservation of their own sinecures—attempted to bloat the state’s immigration bill with committee-driven nonsense, designed not to enforce the law, but to ensure its own perpetual reconsideration. You see, the modern legislator doesn’t wish to solve a problem; he wishes to hold hearings on it. Preferably indefinitely.

And yet, as if to punctuate their own irrelevance, DeSantis bulldozed through their obstructions, stripped out their loopholes, and turned the bill into an instrument of actual enforcement. Today, Florida is not talking about enforcing immigration law—it is enforcing it. And for the political class, that is the most terrifying development of all.

Legitimacy in Governance: Power Must Be Used or It is Not Power at All

A government that makes promises but fails to enforce them is not a government at all—it’s theater. It’s a paper tiger, roaring but unable to strike. This is why so much of the modern state is viewed with contempt: it exists not to act, but to appear to act.

The legitimacy of law depends entirely on its enforcement. And enforcement, in turn, depends on a leader willing to push the machinery of government into motion. DeSantis is that leader.

While others hem and haw, lamenting the “complexity” of the immigration crisis, DeSantis signs the law on Thursday and begins implementing it Monday morning...on President’s Day. There is no ambiguity. No strategic delay. No waiting for the winds of media sentiment to shift. Not even a Federal holiday will slow him down.

He is, in short, using power as it was meant to be used.

What Has Been Done: The Governor Moves at the Speed of Law

It is worth marveling at just how quickly the entire enforcement apparatus of Florida was set into motion under DeSantis’ hand.

✅ A Real Enforcement Leader Appointed – The newly created State Board of Immigration Enforcement, previously a theoretical exercise, now has its first executive director in Larry Keefe. Keefe is not, as some had feared, a committee bureaucrat. A former U.S. Attorney Larry Keefe is a man known for his aggressive stance on immigration with a reputation for making life exceedingly difficult for human smugglers and illegal entrants.. Keefe will oversee implementation, ensuring Florida’s 287(g) cooperation with ICE, handling deportation operations, and managing law enforcement grants to strengthen the crackdown. Keefe today said he would be “relentless” in fulfilling his “responsibilities under this new legislation.

✅ Immediate Compliance Orders to Local Officials – At DeSantis’ first Cabinet meeting under the new law, two resolutions were passed demanding that all state and local officials comply with ICE enforcement—which means no sanctuary policies, no ignoring detainers, and no bureaucratic foot-dragging.

✅ Revocation of In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants – One of the more insidious policies of the past decade—where illegal aliens were granted in-state tuition rates at Florida universities while American citizens from out of state had to pay full freight—is now dead and with it another incentive that keeps illegals in the state.

✅ Mass Expansion of State Detention for ICE – Florida is no longer a state where illegal immigrants caught in law enforcement proceedings are released with a wink and a bus ticket to another jurisdiction. The state is expanding its detention and deportation capacity immediately.

✅ Mandatory Cooperation Between State and Federal Authorities – While previous versions of the bill attempted to water down this requirement, DeSantis ensured that Florida law enforcement agencies must comply with federal immigration law, participate in the 287(g) program, and actively work with ICE to remove illegal aliens from Florida communities.

Enter the Enforcer: James Uthmeier as Attorney General

As if this weren’t enough, DeSantis has now secured James Uthmeier as Florida’s Attorney General. For those unfamiliar, Uthmeier has been DeSantis’ most trusted legal mind, serving as his chief of staff. Uthmeier is not your typical law school bureaucrat who spent three decades in comfortable irrelevance drafting legal memos that no one reads. No, he’s a wartime consigliere. He is the legal mind working behind every successful