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Polk County deputies lead in immigration enforcement according to a new report, and Florida Democrats call on lawmakers to fund food banks amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has reported more immigration-related encounters than any other local law enforcement agency in Florida. That’s according to the state board of immigration enforcement.

The Polk County Sheriff’s office polices around 850,000 people, and its goal is to keep everyone safe.

“We’re not out here going to job sites, going to businesses, going to agriculture fields. We’re just bumping into people as we do our normal daily business,” Sheriff Grady Judd said about the office’s immigration enforcement.

Since August, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office has had more than 400 immigration encounters, second in line after the Florida Highway Patrol. That’s according to the state board of immigration enforcement.

The board was created in February by Gov. Ron DeSantis to help deport people without legal status. The board recently experienced a change in leadership.

Larry Keefe is no longer the executive director of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement. Keefe held this position since February of this year, and it is not clear where he will head next.

“Larry has done a number of things in our administration over the years, and he has performed at a very high level with honor and integrity, and we really thank him for his service,” DeSantis sai during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting over the phone.

DeSantis appointed Anthony Coker as the next executive director. He was the liaison to the state of Florida for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Florida Democrats call on lawmakers to fund local food banks amid government shutdown

Florida Democrats are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency amid the ongoing government shutdown.

That’s because millions of Floridians may soon find themselves without federal food assistance — like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Some lawmakers are urging DeSantis to use emergency dollars to help resupply local food banks.

“Florida has the fiscal strength to respond. What’s needed now is the moral will to act,” Florida Democrats wrote in an open letter.

The request by all 43 Florida Democrats comes as federal funds for food stamps are set to expire November 1.

After that, it’s estimated that nearly three million Floridians would lose access.

“If feeding our neighbors doesn’t count as a state of emergency I don’t know what else would,” State House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said.

SNAP provides food assistance to almost 42 million Americans. Among them are seniors, the unemployed, and people with disabilities.

The office of the governor didn’t return a request for comment. 

Florida Democrats release their own proposals for eliminating property taxes in the state, and a Florida Republican reports the federal government shutdown could last past Thanksgiving. 

Florida Democrats join property tax elimination fight with new proposals

The path to eliminating property is getting more complicated. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature, especially the Florida House, seemingly on different pages.

There’s one goal, and yet, there are more than a dozen ideas on how to get there.

Senate Democrats have joined the discussion with proposals of their own. One proposal would call for a non-school property tax exemption for Floridians 65 and older. This proposal has a requirement that homeowners must have a household income of less than $350,000 a year. Under this proposal, homeowners will have needed to reside in the state for at least five years.

“Although I’m a Democrat, what we’re going to do is work as a Senate body to provide relief for the residents,” State Sen. Bernard Mack said. “And working with the house and the governor’s office, at the end of the day, whatever your party is, it doesn’t matter. What we want is to provide relief to the residents of this great state.” 

Senate Democrats are proposing other relief too — like a limit on assessments for small businesses.

“What we want to do is provide relief for the small businesses in this whole conversation,” Mack said. “And so, well, what I don’t want to do is for us to provide relief, but then we shift the burden to a lot of our small businesses. So and that’s the reason why I put, put out that package.”

The proposals come as Florida Republicans debate strategy.

Currently, the Florida House wants to propose seven different ideas to voters. That’s a plan that DeSantis doesn’t support.

“Placing more than one property tax measure on the ballot represents an attempt to kill anything on property taxes. It’s a political game, not a serious attempt to get it done for the people,” he wrote on X last week.

Meanwhile, leadership in the Florida House is expressing its frustrations with DeSantis.

“The governor has not produced a plan on property taxes. Period,” Florida House Speaker Danny Perez said. “It’s unclear what he wants to do. I’ve personally reached out to share with him the house’s proposals, and he has, so far, not wanted to engage in a conversation.” 

All this and more will need to resolve in the coming weeks to months. The 2026 legislative session kicks off in January.

As unpaid federal workers line up at food banks and airports experience staffing shortages and flight delays, Republicans and Democrats remain at odds over how to resolve a federal funding showdown that has shuttered the government for 27 days.

With hundreds of thousands of federal workers missing paychecks, and 40 million low-income Americans at risk of losing food benefits beginning this weekend unless the government reopens, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Monday that the stalemate is “a simple math problem. We need Democrats to help.”

There is currently no sign that lawmakers on either side of the aisle are moving toward a compromise.

Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna suggested the shutdown could continue for weeks in a Sunday interview with Fox News.

“Look, behind the scenes, Maria, I’m hearing that we potentially might not be back until even around the Thanksgiving timeframe or after that,” she said. “And it’s really unfortunate, because as you know, the military’s going without paychecks potentially, we have the SNAP and EBT program that’s potentially, especially going into the holiday season, going to be on the chopping block here.”

The federal government has been closed since Oct. 1 when Democrats and Republicans in Congress failed to pass legislation that would fund it for the 2026 fiscal year. A stopgap funding bill to keep the government open through Nov. 21 has repeatedly failed in the Senate, as Democrats demand an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that will otherwise expire at the end of the year.

On Monday, Democrats yielded no ground to Republican demands that five Democratic Senators join their ranks and vote for the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor: “Donald Trump says there’s no money to pay federal workers but he’s spending $40 billion to bail out Argentina, $300 million on his vanity ballroom, $172 million on two luxury jets for Kristi Noem (and) hundreds of millions for outfitting his foreign jet.”

Calling President Donald Trump’s priorities “warped,” he said, “Here’s what the president needs to do. He should negotiate with Democrats.”

Last week, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bill called the Shutdown Fairness Act that would have allowed pay for air traffic controllers, military troops and other essential federal workers the Office of Personnel Management has approved while the government is shut down. On the same day, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., objected to requests for unanimous consent to pass two Democratic bills that would have paid federal employees, including one to pay all the workers.

On Monday, the American Federation of Government Employees union that represents 800,000 workers said in a statement: “Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today. … It’s time for our leaders to start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike.”

If the government remains closed, about 2 million active-duty U.S. troops and reserve military will miss full paychecks Friday. Johnson said Monday that the recent $130 million donation to the Trump administration to pay troops “is a small fraction of what’s needed.”

He also said the 40 million Americans who rely on the Agriculture Department’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will not be helped by a contingency fund to cover their benefits because it would pull money away from congressionally appropriated funds for school meals and infant formula.

Schumer said it is “bunk” that the Trump administration will not fund SNAP.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers went unpaid Friday as the government shutdown enters its 24th day, and the U.S. sends an aircraft carrier strike group to Latin America. 

As hundreds of thousands of federal workers went unpaid Friday during the 24th day of an agonizing government shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called on House Republicans to return to Washington to negotiate a bipartisan agreement.

“We need Republican support for a bipartisan path forward in order to get out of this situation,” Jeffries said Friday during a news conference at the Capitol.

“I said this directly to the president with (House Speaker Mike) Johnson and (Senate Majority Leader John) Thune right next to me,” Jeffries said, referencing a White House meeting in late September to avert the current shutdown. “This does not get resolved until you decide to give permission to Republicans on Capitol Hill to negotiate a bipartisan resolution.”

House Republicans have been in recess since Sept. 19 after passing a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open through Nov. 21. That bill has repeatedly failed in the Senate as Democrats demand an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that will otherwise expire at the end of the year.

The federal government has been closed since Oct. 1, when Democrats and Republicans in Congress failed to pass legislation that would fund it for the 2026 fiscal year. Hundreds of thousands of essential federal workers are now working without pay while others are furloughed.

On Thursday, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bill called the “Shutdown Fairness Act” that would have allowed pay for air traffic controllers, military troops and other essential federal workers the Office of Personnel Management has approved while the government is shut down.

“Deranged Democrats just blocked our bill to pay essential workers who keep Americans safe. Why? They believe that forcing Americans to work without pay gives them leverage,” Senate Republicans wrote on X after the failed vote.

On Friday, Jeffries reiterated a point he has made multiple times since the shutdown began.

“We’re prepared to support any bipartisan legislation that comes out of the Senate that is designed to decisively address the Republican health care crisis, reopen the government and enact a bipartisan spending agreement that actually makes life better for the American people,” he said.

Jeffries refuted the idea that Democrats bear responsibility for any lasting fallout from the shuttered government and pushed back on the Republican contention that their stalled funding bill continues spending levels approved during the Biden administration.

He said the spending levels the Republicans would like to extend are based on the Republican stopgap funding bill Congress passed in March to keep the government running through the end of September. That bill cut $13 billion for domestic programs, including Medicaid.

“We’ve made clear we will not support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of the American people,” Jeffries said Friday. “We’ve been saying that for six weeks. We have not moved off our position.”

Neither have Republicans, who insist the government must reopen before any negotiations can happen. 

“It’s becoming clearer by the day that Democrats don’t want an outcome, they want a political issue,” Thune wrote on X on Friday. “They’ve refused to reopen the government — 12 times. They’ve refused my offer to discuss Obamacare’s failures. They’ve refused my offer to hold a vote on their own proposal to address a problem they created. They’ve refused to pay the troops and federal employees who are working without a paycheck. The only thing they’ve said yes to? The Schumer Shutdown and political ‘leverage.’”

The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier strike group to the waters off South America, in the latest escalation and buildup of military forces in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to U.S. Southern Command to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post.

The U.S. military has conducted its 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, Hegseth said earlier Friday, blaming the Tren de Aragua gang for operating the vessel and leaving six people dead in the Caribbean Sea.

In a social media post, Hegseth said the strike occurred overnight, and it marks the second time the Trump administration has tied one of its operations to the gang that originated in a Venezuelan prison.

The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks when they first began to three this week, killing a total of at least 43 people since September. Two of the most recent strikes were carried out in the eastern Pacific Ocean, expanding the area where the military has launched attacks and shifting to where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled.

In a 20-second black and white video of the strike posted to social media, a small boat can be seen apparently sitting motionless on the water when a long thin projectile descends, triggering an explosion. The video ends before the blast dies down enough for the remains of the boat to be seen again.

Hegseth said the strike happened in international waters and boasted that it was the first one conducted at night.

“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” Hegseth said in the post. “Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”