Lake Worth Beach officials will stick with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office as its police service amid demands that the city cut ties if the agency continues working with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
The city's elected leaders decided on Aug. 18 to explore renewing its contract for three years, down from an initial 10-year proposal that drew pushback from advocates of immigrants and their U.S.-born families.
Capt. Terrence Carn, PBSO's Lake Worth division commander, argued in favor of the 10-year pitch by showing city commissioners that crime has fallen since 2008, when the city disbanded its police department. Commissioner Chris McVoy, however, pushed back.
"If the stated purpose of the federal immigration enforcement
is to get the worst of the worst, the criminals, the bad guys, the gangsters," McVoy said, "Why does federal immigration need to be in our town?"
PBSO: Lake Worth contract would not expand relationship with ICE
The contract talks come as the Trump administration has ramped up enforcement of immigration laws against those in the U.S. without documentation. President Donald Trump has promised the largest mass deportation in the nation's history, targeting violent criminals. But 71% of ICE detainees have no criminal convictions, according to data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center at Syracuse University.
Over the past 18 months, several enforcement efforts have taken place in the Lake Worth Beach area, home to many immigrants from Latin America.
Section 287(g) of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act allows ICE to deputize state and local law-enforcement agencies to work with it in immigration enforcement. Gov. Ron DeSantis required Florida law-enforcement agencies to comply in 2025. One task it covers is having police check the immigration status of people they come in contact with during routine policing.
When PBSO deputies run pulled-over drivers' information through law enforcement databases, the only immigration information that would show up are immigration-related warrants, if they have any, an agency spokesperson said.
McVoy also argued against a 10-year contract because of what he called lack of transparency. When he asked the Sheriff's Office for data on those detained and given to ICE, or if it gives license plate scanner data to ICE, the agency claimed it could not disclose any of it due to state law, he said.
Groups advocating for immigrants and their U.S.-born families have said the new contract would tie the agency closer to ICE and increase unfair targeting of citizens or legal residents who law enforcement believe are here without documentation.
About 41% of city residents were born abroad, and 57% speak English as their second language, U.S. Census Bureau estimates show.
"It's been put out there that this contract expands the relationship with ICE. Does it do that?" Commissioner Mimi May asked Carn.
"No," Carn replied.
Racial profiling goes against PBSO policy, said Carn, who is Black. "We're not driving around saying, 'Ooh, I see this person here. Let's stop them,' " he said.
PBSO is also required by law to help other law-enforcement agencies, Carn said. "But we will not conduct immigration sweeps in schools, at workplaces and houses of worship," he said.
PBSO contract offer includes rangers for Lake Worth parks, Cultural Plaza
Commissioners will consider extending the city's next contract with the Sheriff's Office during its Aug. 25 meeting.
The current proposal calls for spending an additional $500,000 a year more than the current contract to hire five park rangers to patrol the city's public parks and the Cultural Plaza downtown. The annual cost would be more than $15.8 million.
Advocating for a contract, Commissioner Sarah Malega said, "I did run on park rangers for reelection. … I believe that children should be able to play in a park and be safe." She said constituents in her district have complained to her about dogs off leashes and impromptu parties with hundreds of people.
Commissioners want the new contract to require park rangers to wear body cameras and carry the anti-overdose drug Narcan. Park rangers would not have the authority to arrest people, but can call in deputies with that power.
Even so, McVoy criticized the plan. "How well does the community like having folks who look like police officers wandering around their parks? Does that give them a warm and fuzzy feeling? I don't know," he said.
"That half a million dollars could be spent to do a lot more good things," McVoy said, such as expanding PBSO's Homeless Intervention Team that connects people in need with services to help them.
Local nonprofits who asked the city to cut ties with the Sheriff's Office over its cooperation with ICE, including the Guatemalan-Maya Center and Lake Worth For All, have decried what they called a lack of "guardrails" in the contract proposal to protect residents from the ICE collaboration.
But those groups have not detailed what they want edited, removed or added to the contract proposal and have not proposed an alternative law-enforcement agency.
Email news tips and ideas to Chris Persaud at cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lake Worth stays with PBSO amid ICE complaints; may seek shorter deal
