Florida troopers patrolling the state’s roadways are being told to arrest and jail undocumented immigrants on offenses like driving without a valid driver’s license as a way to help push more people on the path to deportation, according to state guidelines obtained by the Herald/Times.
“Every effort should be made to take the subject into custody and deliver them to a county jail,” Bill Minton, the chief attorney for the Florida Highway Patrol, wrote in the March 6 memo.
The previously unreported guidelines also say troopers can detain people who are not suspected of committing a crime for up to an hour, an amount of time that raises questions about potential violations of a person’s constitutional protection against unreasonable seizure…