(The Center Square) — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed several agreements between state law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday to deputize them as part of immigration enforcement statewide.

The 287(g) agreements were reached with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Florida State Guard.

“Florida is setting the example for states in combating illegal immigration and working with the Trump Administration to restore the rule of law,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Tallahassee. “By allowing our state agents and law enforcement officers to be trained and approved by ICE, Florida will now have more enforcement personnel deputized to assist federal partners. That means deportations can be carried out more efficiently, making our communities safer as illegal aliens are removed.”

A similar agreement is already in effect with the Florida Highway Patrol, along with the Florida Department of Agricultural Law Enforcement.

These agreements allow state law enforcement to perform immigration officer functions, which includes identifying and removing incarcerated criminal foreign nationals who are eligible for removal before they are rereleased into the community.

Sworn officers will have the ability under the 287(g) agreements to interrogate any suspected illegal alien as to their immigration status. If they’re in violation of the country’s immigration laws, they can be further detained and processed. 

These officers will also be able to arrest and detain any foreign national trying to enter the country through the state’s ports or coastline.

They will also have the power to serve and execute warrants of arrest for immigration violations and deliver migrants to ICE for further screening. 

Florida state law enforcement and State Guard members will also be able to administer oaths and take evidence during processing and prepare affidavits and the taking of sworn statements for ICE supervisory review.

(The Center Square) – Nonprofit status of the billion-dollar NCAA could be next in the crosshairs, says a North Carolina congressman.

The organization generating nearly $1.3 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2023, anchored by March Madness, has been scorched for its policies allowing men to compete in women’s athletics, use women’s locker rooms, and failing to protect women’s spaces in general.

NCAA President Charlie Baker responded to President Donald Trump’s executive order protecting women’s spaces by saying the NCAA would change policy and do so.

That effort has failed, according to leading voices for women.

“Guess if the NCAA is not going to protect women in sports by allowing loopholes, we need to look at their nonprofit status,” U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said on social media to Riley Gaines.

No voice has been louder or clearer than hers. And she tells Fox News Digital the policy “is as clear as mud.”

One example is a statement that no waivers are available, and athletes assigned male at birth “may not compete on a women’s team with amended birth certificates” or other forms of identification.

“But here is the thing – there is no waiver being asked for,” says Jennifer Sey, founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics apparel. “The changed birth certificate is the proof of a person’s sex as required by the NCAA policy but pushed off to the states to verify. And the states provided the changed birth certificate.

“The NCAA is playing language games here. Unless a cheek swab or spit test is used to verify sex, we got no deal.”

Sey talked with The Center Square earlier this month, just prior to President Donald Trump on Feb. 5 signing the Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order.

On network television Wednesday morning, Independent Council on Women’s Sports – also known as ICONS – said “There must be a screening mechanism to ensure that no male athlete can cross that barrier.

“The policy that the NCAA released has no accountability and oversight from the NCAA. It has no clear language limiting women’s team membership to female athletes only and it has no mechanism for screening sex.”

Murphy, on social media earlier this month, said it’s common sense “men are faster and stronger than women, regardless of what is done medically to their hormones. Harm has occurred. It shouldn’t have had to take an EO by @POTUS to force the NCAA to back away from attacking women in sports.”

Only Florida, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Montana prohibit changes to the marking for sex on a birth certificate. Fourteen states allow the change without any medical documentation.

Gaines on Wednesday in an interview on Fox News Digital – not a linear channel; rather, an on-demand viewing of Fox News programs – said the policy loopholes are there for states and schools. For example, there’s no definition of male or female but there is of gender identity, she said.

“And it defines gender identity as both man and woman,” she said. “So, of course, you can see where that’s a problem.”

She criticized the lack of accountability by the NCAA.

Jones was an All-American in singles and doubles tennis at Stanford, and three times an NCAA runnerup. Gaines was a 12-time All-American swimmer at Kentucky. 

(The Center Square) — The Louisiana Public Service Commission voted Wednesday to remove Commissioner Davante Lewis as vice chairman after he called Gov. Jeff Landry an “asshole” in a social media post last week.

The 3-2 vote stripped Lewis of his leadership role and appointed Commissioner Eric Skrmetta as his replacement. 

The commission also approved a request from Entergy Louisiana to bill customers for $182 million in Hurricane Francine storm recovery fees.

The utility estimates it will add between 80 cents and $1.10 per month bills for customers who use 1,000 to 1,500 kilowatt hours of electricity to help pay for repair costs from the 2024 Category 2 storm that made landfall in Terrebone Parish.

The controversy erupted after Landry praised newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a social media post, calling him a “major upgrade” over former Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine.

In response, Lewis criticized Landry’s post, accusing conservatives of promoting “cruelty and chaos” and directly insulting the governor.

Following his removal, Lewis condemned the decision as a “biased, dangerous, & retaliatory clap back on constitutional free speech,” thanking supporters who attended the meeting.

He later doubled down on his criticism, calling the Republican Party “hypocrites” and sharing a text exchange that appeared to show another commissioner using the same insult against him.

Despite his removal as vice chairman, Lewis remains a voting member of the commission. Skrmetta, a Republican, will now serve as vice chairman. The commission did not publicly comment on whether further action against Lewis is being considered.

Several individuals testified before the LPSC in defense of Lewis, arguing that Lewis’ posts were “constitutionally protected.” 

“We are here today because Chairman Mike Francis alleges that he was embarrassed that Devonte Lewis…exercised his first amendment right, a constitutional right to free speech, to criticize Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry,” Alfreda Tillman Bester, general counsel in Louisiana for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said at Wednesday’s meeting. “I’m embarrassed that [Landry] posted a picture on social media of former Health and Human Services Director, Secretary Rachel Levine, a physician, a four star officer in the nation’s uniform services, beside a picture of vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in an apparent juvenile insult.”