The move would 'allow law enforcement to take action and better protect communities,' a resolution says.

Florida officials are trying to ice out ICE.

State law enforcement representatives say they need policy changes to be able to remove and detain all immigrants who are in the country illegally, not just criminals and those with removal orders.

That's why the State Immigration Enforcement Council passed a resolution May 20 to ask Gov. Ron DeSantis and other statewide elected officials to engage with President Donald Trump's administration, specifically Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

They want an federal executive order that will provide more resources to make it easier for Florida's law enforcement to detain and hold all immigrants who are in the country illegally.

"The big stumbling block is not the state, it's not the board, it's not the council, it's ICE's inability to deal with the monumental issue," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, council chair.

The state said some immigrants taken into custody by law enforcement or "for violations of Florida law" do not always have ICE detainers on them, and even if they are taken into ICE custody, some are being released. The state now wants a way to detain immigrants and send them to ICE without removal warrants or state charges.

The move would "allow law enforcement to take action and better protect communities," the resolution says.

Florida's leaders have touted the state as the toughest on illegal immigration, and this latest resolution adds to the long list of policies the state has enacted to comply, and in some ways outdo, Trump's mass deportation mandate.

But sheriffs on the State Immigration Enforcement Council and its director, Larry Keefe , have consistently expressed concerns about bureaucratic roadblocks in the federal government that they say are slowing them down.

At the May 20 meeting, sheriffs from across the state said they were frustrated. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County criticized ICE and said the federal agency had an "infrastructure" problem, especially when it comes to holding detainees.

"It's going nowhere because they don't have the resources to pick the people up, don't have the resources to house the people," Gualtieri said. "They don't have the resources to process the people. They don't have the resources to adjudicate these individuals on the civil immigration courts ... Until somebody fixes the infrastructure problem, this is not going to move in the direction that we all want to see it go."

During public comment, Orange County Public Safety Director Danny Banks said the Orange County jail has seen a significant increase in bookings from other counties, and the federal reimbursement does not cover the rate of the current daily cost of incarceration.

"I'm fearful it's going to lead us to maxing out our jail space such that we won't have any more room," Banks said. Gualtieri added that inmates in the Pinellas County jail are sleeping on the floor because of lack of space.

Crackdown on illegal immigration comes with $300M price tag

Since Trump took office for his second term, the Republican-led legislature and DeSantis passed a package of measures with a $300 million price tag that cracks down on illegal immigration and ramp up arrests in collaboration with ICE across the state.

In four months, officials say they have deputized all Florida Highway Patrol troopers with immigration authority, leading to statewide detention plans like Operation Tidal Wave. The state said the plan has led to over 1,100 arrests.

But deputizing all of Florida's law enforcement with immigration enforcement credentials is taking too long, the state says.

According to the resolution, Florida sheriffs and police chiefs are requesting officers be allowed to begin enforcement immediately after the mandated 40 hours of training, with background checks and credentialing expedited afterward, to "streamline the process," as the timeline for what's known as " 287(g) designation " can take months (with the word "months" underlined).

ICE is "doing the best they can with the resources and the rules as they are written, but that's not going to get us to where we need to be. That certainly is not going to accomplish President Trump's mission, and I certainly know it's not going to accomplish the mission of Gov. DeSantis," Judd said.

This latest resolution is more of the same, as it's not the first time the council has asked about direct communication with Trump or for the waiving of federal detention standards, which immigration attorneys say could be considered unconstitutional .

At the council's first meeting in late March , Judd said ICE must modify its current policy to create rules allowing local and state law enforcement to help ICE reach its "full potential to resolve the immigration crisis."

And DeSantis and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier also have criticized a federal judge who paused one of Florida's new anti-illegal immigration laws. At a press conference in early May, DeSantis said judges "have just gotten out of control in this country."

In a recently released 37-page immigration enforcement operations plan , the state asked again for the waiving of federal detention standards to put up soft-sided detention centers near state-owned airplane runways "to establish routine air corridors to those nations routinely receiving repatriated illegal aliens. This would be especially useful in prompt removal of aliens under unexecuted Final Orders of Removal."

The resolution asks for more detention standard waivers and requests for the ability to house individuals for more than 48 hours in county jail facilities. It also requests more resources for law enforcement to have 24/7 access to ICE databases and for data to be shared across all federal agencies that deal with immigration, as "law enforcement officers have observed a lack of communication."

In the resolution, it states the federal agency is currently not willing to take everyone detained by state law enforcement into custody, but Florida is "committed" to supporting federal immigration enforcement.

At the meeting, one sheriff urged the council to push for an in-person meeting with Trump, Noem and the governor to "actually have a conversation."

"I truly don't believe that people are sitting down and looking the president in the eye and telling him exactly what the problem is and how to resolve it," Judd added.

Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at .