During a one-on-one meeting with President Trump on Monday, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw addressed some local concerns with the president.
“It was excellent,” Bradshaw said about the meeting on Tuesday. “It was nice to talk to him about what the concerns are here locally.”
Bradshaw said they talked about the added cost his office is facing whenever the President is in town. They’re estimating it’s costing the office $60,000 a day in overtime to make sure #45 is safe.
The sheriff is confident his department will be reimbursed from the federal government.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. It’s just taking a little bit longer,” Bradshaw said.
Palm Beach Commissioners voiced concern on Feb. 7 during a meeting that they might not get the money back from the federal government.
“They sound less confident because they’re not as close to it as I am,” Bradshaw said.
The sheriff said he is working closely with local congressmen and senators.
Officials in Hawaii didn’t get reimbursed for costs when President Obama was in the Aloha State. Sheriff Bradshaw said it’s different with the Sunshine State because the President is here so often.
“We haven’t asked for reimbursement when other presidents have come here on a one time basis,” Bradshaw said. “This is actually a residence that he is going to coming to on a regular basis.”
While anti-Trump protests in the area have been going smoothly, the sheriff said he is taking the issue of teenagers throwing an object at the President’s motorcade very seriously. The route for the President to Mar-a-Lago however, won’t change drastically as a result.
“When people want to protest you have to give them legitimate space to have them get their message across,” Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw said his office is working very well with the Secret Service and they’re well prepared for President Trump’s next visits.
“I’d suspect maybe in a couple of weeks he might be back,” Bradshaw said.
As chairman of the Regional Domestic Security for South Florida, Bradshaw was keen on talking to the President about homeland security, including the President’s proposed wall at the Mexican border.
“We think we’re going to see an uptick in people trying to get here,” Bradshaw said. “The natural progression of that is when they’re going to put the pressure on that border, the people who are trying to come in are going to come in another way.”
The Department of Homeland Security released a set of documents, detailing President Trump's executive orders on immigration and border security.
The directives would instruct I.C.E. officers to remove undocumented immigrants who have committed any type of crime, not just serious crimes as it had been under the Obama administration.
Sheriff Bradshaw said he is not expecting big changes in the area.
“(I.C.E. officers) are not going to do immigration sweeps where they’re going to knock on people’s door to see if they’re here locally,” Bradshaw said. “That’s not what’s going to happen. That’s not what’s happening now.”
The new memos also call on reviving a program that recruits local sheriff's deputies to help with deportation.
“We’re not immigration enforcement officers," Bradshaw said. "We will assist them when we have to, to take people into custody, but that’s not what my job is.”
