“It’s ICE’s responsibility”: Florida sheriff and immigration agency trade blame over detainee readmissions

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri says the repeated release and readmission of immigrants at a Florida jail is “totally” ICE’s responsibility. He told Axios that federal detention centers lacked enough space to house all the people in immigration custody.

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Totally

His response followed a ProPublica investigation published Aug. 27 that documented hundreds of readmissions at jails in Pinellas and Orange counties. Immigrants would leave the facilities and return shortly afterward, restarting the period of custody.

Gualtieri called the investigation “stupid” and said the outlet had turned the situation into something that, in his view, “lacked relevance.” He also said he initially declined to be interviewed for the investigation. The controversy drew the attention of the Pinellas Human Rights Board, whose chair, County Commissioner René Flowers, said she wanted Gualtieri to address community concerns.

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Stupid

The sheriff later provided Axios with an internal ICE memorandum dated Dec. 11, 2025. The memo redesignated the Pinellas jail as a facility authorized to hold detainees for more than 72 hours, citing the “increased operational pace” of immigration enforcement and deportation actions. Gualtieri said the readmissions stopped being a problem after that authorization.

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Lacked relevance

ProPublica reported that the sheriff’s office provided the memo on the afternoon of Sept. 2, five days after the investigation appeared, and the publication added an update. Its analysis found that Pinellas readmitted at least 174 immigrants two or more times between July 2025 and July 2026. In Orange County, 559 foreign nationals went through the same procedure between July 2025 and early February 2026. The cases involved people detained on ICE orders, not local criminal charges, and the numbers exceeded those recorded at other U.S. jails.

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Increased operational pace