PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Federal agents are increasing immigration enforcement operations on the Treasure Coast, and local police departments are stepping in to assist. <\/p>\n
Currently, local police are assisting with these operations, but officers with the Port St. Lucie Police Department (PSLPD) may soon be fully carrying out the enforcement actions themselves.<\/p>\n
Local officers recently helped with ICE operations on Tuesday when authorities reported that a 19-year-old threw a rock at an ICE<\/a> vehicle, smashing the window. The PSLPD was called in to capture the suspect, Pasqual Velasquez Martinez.<\/p>\n Port St. Lucie Police Chief Leo Niemczyk commented on the necessity of local assistance: \u201cWe\u2019re the agency that\u2019s right here, right? In these situations, they had fleeing people, and they called upon us for assistance, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n See also: Boynton Beach man arrested after 135 mph Corvette crash kills young woman<\/a><\/p>\n This incident occurred as multiple helicopters and law enforcement agencies were locating a suspect on Gatlin Boulevard the next day. According to police reports, the Florida Highway Patrol arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico, but another man ran from the traffic stop and is still at large.<\/p>\n Chief Niemczyk maintains that his officers are simply following his orders.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the chief of police, I have full control over where my officers participate or don\u2019t participate and I\u2019m really not expecting any large change in our operation as a result of that agreement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The increased ICE presence on the Treasure Coast has also led to a rise in protests, including one in front of an ICE facility in Stuart on Thursday, where one person was arrested.<\/p>\n South Florida Immigration Attorney Mayra Joli is urging people to consider alternatives to protesting against the federal agency. \u201cThey cannot think that going out and protesting against ICE to stop something that shouldn\u2019t happen in the first place it\u2019s safer for everyone to have the criminal or the perpetrator being picked up at a facility instead of letting them on the street,\u201d Joli said.<\/p>\n More protests are planned in the area tonight, and we’ll plan to monitor those situations.<\/p>\n Find more ways to stay up to date with your latest local news. Sign up for our newsletter<\/a> to get the day’s top headlines delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/a> for the biggest stories and can’t miss video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Federal agents are increasing immigration enforcement operations on the Treasure Coast, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-19484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}