{"id":387623,"date":"2026-09-01T22:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/387623\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T22:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:50:09","slug":"ice-official-speaks-exclusively-with-wink-news-about-operations-in-southwest-florida-southwest-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/387623\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE official speaks exclusively with WINK News about operations in Southwest Florida | Southwest Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014\u00a0WINK News anchor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/users\/profile\/claire%20galt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Claire Galt<\/a> spoke exclusively with ICE Field Office Director Matthew Elliston about immigration enforcement in Southwest Florida and across the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Elliston, who oversees ICE operations in Florida and the Caribbean, discussed a recent enforcement operation in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/lee\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lee County<\/a> that he said resulted in about 500 arrests over four days.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>WINK News\u2019 Claire Galt spoke exclusively with an ICE official about who agents are prioritizing, how enforcement operations work and what happens after an arrest.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">In the exclusive interviews, Galt asked Elliston about who ICE is prioritizing, how enforcement operations are conducted, what happens after someone is arrested and whether immigration enforcement has increased in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Elliston also addressed questions about the recent Lee County operation and what happens to people after they are taken into ICE custody.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>WINK News\u2019 Claire Galt spoke exclusively with an ICE official about who agents are prioritizing, how enforcement operations work and what happens after an arrest.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>The interview comes as immigration enforcement activity continues to draw attention across Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Last week communities from Fort Myers down to Estero reported ICE activity in their neighborhoods. WINK News also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/ice-agents-detain-man-outside-lee-health-facility-as-neighbors-report-ice-activity-across-southwest\/article_5d0f1ab4-658b-4ab5-875c-a0e4b706af2b.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">captured video<\/a> of an arrest outside a Lee Health facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile protestors rallied in Downtown Fort Myers\u00a0after receiving information that ICE agents were staying at a local hotel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Across the country, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/ice-arrests-50-thousand-people-august-continuing-record-rcna595510\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reports suggest<\/a> ICE arrested roughly 50,000 people in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014\u00a0WINK News anchor Claire Galt spoke exclusively with ICE Field Office Director Matthew Elliston&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,325,115,121785],"class_list":["post-387623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-lee","tag-news","tag-southwest_florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387623","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=387623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}