Sheriff Blasts ‘Open Border’ Policies As 25 Illegal Immigrants Arrested In Trafficking Sting

Florida police announced Thursday that they had arrested 25 illegal immigrants in a human trafficking sting earlier this month.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news conference that his department had arrested 157 people as part of “Operation Autumn Sweep,” an undercover anti-human trafficking operation conducted from October 2 to October 7. Included in the arrests were illegal immigrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, Cuba, Guatemala, and Mexico.

“Sixteen percent of these total arrests were people who should not even have been in this country,” Judd said. “But they were here. And they were here because we have a federal government that enabled these criminals to come into the country and then treated them very well after the criminals came here illegally.”

In one instance, Judd said that one of the women arrested told authorities that she flew from Venezuela to Mexico before crossing into Texas where she was “greeted by Border Patrol.”

“There was no sneaking. She flew in, she got here, she simply walked across the open border. There is no border security at the southern border. Zero. It doesn’t exist,” Judd said.

Judd said the woman was told she would be eligible for benefits included SNAP, Medicaid, free housing, and free travel.

“She was given free housing, all because the United States paid for that,” Judd said. “This was not a stealthful act, and they gave her free travel, free housing, free food, free medical care. All while people from the hurricane are still waiting for help.”

Judd said that Travis Hutchinson, one of the men arrested during the operation, was trafficking two women from Colombia and Venezuela. They had been brought illegally into the United States by a human trafficker known as a coyote before they were sent to Florida.

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The sheriff had harsh words for the Biden-Harris administration, which he said was facilitating human trafficking with its border policies.

“Make no mistake about it, the government is complicit and is aiding and abetting human trafficking in the United States,” Judd said. “In addition to that, there is a wide-open border where fentanyl is coming across, and that is encouraged, and as a result of that, we have thousands upon thousands of people dying in the United States. And then the best that our federal politicians can say was, ‘well, it didn’t kill as many people this year as last year.’”

Another three of the suspects nabbed in the operation worked at Disney World, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s office. “We always arrest Disney employees,” Judd said, describing the operation.

The Polk County Sheriff’s office was aided by law enforcement from surrounding counties and cities during the operation, which was cut short due to Hurricane Milton.