DAVIE, Fla. â Law enforcement officers from across are teaming up on increasingly coordinated and successful efforts to arrest illegal immigrants along the states roadsides.Â
This month, Fox News Digital rode along with troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) on its largest partnership yet, dubbed Operation 9.
During the three-day sweep, FHP teamed up with five other federal, state and local agencies.Â
After three days, 249 illegal immigrants had been captured, processed and handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
And many handcuffed on the shoulders of South Florida highways were “ghosts,” said Lt. Ramin Sulaiman, assistant commander of the
Whats alarming, he said, is “we have no records for them, no accountability of who they are.”Â
And thats what his team sees every day in their routine work patrolling the states highways.
More than 1 million immigrants who came into the country illegally during the Biden administration told immigration officials at the border that they were headed to Florida, Sulaiman said. Then, they were released.
“But that does not include all the ghosts, meaning the people that have no encounters [with law enforcement],” said Sulaiman.
“Theyre just here.”
And with unknown criminal histories and intentions, he said.Â
Florida has about 23.5 million known residents. Based on their daily roadside encounters, Sulaiman and other troopers say there are likely millions more uncounted ghosts. Â
Troopers patrolling the Sunshine State on routine duties have happened upon â and gathered up â more than 10,476 illegal immigrants since March 2025, Dave Kerner, executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, told Fox News Digital.Â
On routine stops for driving infractions, they find that many drivers dont have a license. Thats the first clue they might not be citizens. And that leads to more-probing questions.Â
Trooper Tony Golden normally focuses on commercial vehicles on the highways in six counties in Floridas Panhandle.
He encounters so many in his day-to-day work that he believes the number of them in Florida “is astronomical,” he said.
Golden understands why immigration enforcement is a polarizing topic, even among some law enforcement officers.Â
But “we are enforcing the law,” he said. “We don’t pick and choose what we want to enforce.”
He bristles at suggestions that troopers pull over drivers because they look a certain way.Â
“People accuse officers of targeting people for immigration enforcement,” Golden said. “Thats not true.”
The scary part, he said, is that many illegal immigrants â including violent criminals â blend into the communities where they live and work.
“The ones that are running around with no [traffic] violations â you might not ever see them. And they could be the worst of the worst.”
During Operation 9, more than 100 officers huddled in groups before daybreak at an FHP station in Broward County. Gathered were troopers, agents from ICE and U.S. Border Patrol, deputies on specialty teams from the Broward Sheriff’s Office, officers with Floridas Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, and guardsmen with the Florida State Guard.
Since October, Florida has carried out eight similar operations, Sulaiman said.
With each round, the partnerships between agencies have become increasingly efficient, because “we all have the same common goal,” Sulaiman said.Â
And now, he added, “we dont really go through any of the hiccups.”
As additional agencies tag along and learn, Floridas efforts continue to expand.Â
During Operation 9, officers made frequent trips back to the station, guiding handcuffed men and women into an air-conditioned wait
