MIAMI — There will soon be more Border Patrol agents roaming South Florida to enforce border security and immigration law, thanks to the Trump administration’s billion-dollar injection of federal funds.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael W. Banks said the agency will permanently station more agents across the Miami sector, which is headquartered in South Florida and also operates out of Georgia and the Carolinas. That will represent a 110% increase in officials throughout the area of responsibility, the chief said, although he did not specify how many agents are currently stationed there. An agency spokesman would not specify exact numbers, citing security reasons.

“The most important thing for us in Border Security is to be able to see a threat before it ever gets to our Coast or gets to our land border,” Banks said. Banks is a veteran Border Patrol officer whom President Donald Trump appointed to head the agency in January.

Border Patrol, under the Department of Homeland Security, is tasked with preventing terrorists from entering the country. It’s also focused on stopping the flow of illicit arms, undocumented immigrants and drug trafficking between U.S. ports of entry. In Florida, agents patrol land and coast borders and arrest people who are unlawfully in the United States.

The top immigration official also said there will be investments for facility improvements, civilian personnel hiring, and technology like drones that consistently watch over the borders. The cash is coming from a law known as the Big Beautiful Bill, which is providing $165 billion for Homeland Security. Nationwide, that will fund the hiring of 3,000 new Border Patrol agents and 10,000 Immigration and Customs Officials, as well as 80,000 additional beds in detention facilities.

Trump and his top immigration officials have argued that the massive infusion of capital into Homeland Security is necessary to fulfill the administration’s mass deportation goals. Under the Trump administration, Border Patrol encounters with immigrants between ports of entry in the U.S.-Mexican border have plummeted, according to government data. But there’s been an uptick in immigration encounters in South Florida. Border agents in the Miami sector carried out 6,470 apprehensions between October 2024 and September 2025. That’s up from the three previous fiscal years, although there were notably 5,741 apprehensions in fiscal year 2022.

Banks credits the uptick in activity in South Florida to the nosedive in encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We’ve been able to return Florida agents back to Florida because they are not somewhere else processing massive amounts of illegal immigrants. And where you have more law enforcement, you have more enforcement. You’re going to see those apprehension numbers continue to rise,” he said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Florida officials have also established collaborations to assist federal authorities, who are constitutionally tasked with immigration enforcement. The Sunshine State has the largest number of agreements under Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program, which grants trained officers limited immigration duties. That includes the power to arrest people suspected of violating U.S. immigration law. Activists have condemned its widespread implementation in Florida, arguing it makes communities less safe because immigrants will be discouraged from reporting crimes. They also point to a 2011 investigation that found cops under the 287(g) program in Arizona violated civil rights of immigrants and racially profiled Latinos.

Banks and other law enforcement officials have said that it only makes sense to work together with state agencies on immigration. He called cooperation with the state “extremely helpful.” During an ICE-led operation known as “Tidal Wave,” federal and state authorities arrested over 1,000 people in Florida in a single week. That includes 378 people with deportation orders and several gang members, ICE said.

“If you arrest someone and then you turn around and just release that person on the streets, now a new arrest has to happen. And every new arrest has a potential for danger. So it makes the streets much safer if we work together and communicate with each other,” Banks said. He added that undocumented immigrants without rap sheets sometimes get picked up during operations targeting criminals. “We can’t unsee or unlearn that someone’s in the country.”

Banks briefly retired from Border Patrol in 2023 over policy disagreements with the Biden administration, and during that time advised Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on border security as the first-ever “border czar” in that state. Since he returned in January, Border Patrol has also had boots on the ground during high profile, ICE-led operations in Los Angeles and Chicago. So far, ICE has not asked the agency for assistance in an operation of that nature for Florida, Banks said, and the agency has no knowledge of any upcoming plans.

Federal authorities have been slammed with lawsuits and multiple accusations of excessive use of force, civil rights violations, and racial profiling In Los Angeles and Chicago. Banks said the accusations his team has investigated have not been credible, though he didn’t specify which cases. He also pointed to an uptick in attacks against law enforcement.

“My agents are some of the most professional law enforcement officers out there. We’re well-trained, we don’t racial profile, and focus on those that are in the country, illegally,” he said. “If we find an agent has behaved inappropriately we will take the appropriate action.”

As a teenager growing up in Georgia, Banks picked peaches with immigrant workers. Like him, they were trying to get by and support their families. Those experiences have shaped his approach to law enforcement. When asked about his agency’s responsibility to the people in their custody, the Border Patrol chief said: humane enforcement of the law.

“Just because someone is being arrested doesn’t mean that they need to be mistreated. And we’re not going to do that. We’re going to treat them with the respect they deserve as human beings.”

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