(The Center Square) – During a news conference over the state’s red snapper harvest on Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis dealt with a heckler who was ejected from the proceedings.

While the heckler’s comments couldn’t be understood on the audio, the second-term GOP governor said “that’s a fraud” and that the heckler should be ashamed of “peddling bogus narratives.”

The heckler was later removed from the event.

DeSantis announced that Florida’s Gulf of America red snapper season of 126 days will be the longest since the state started managing the fishery. He said the season will open on Memorial Day weekend May 24-26, pause for a few days and reopen on June 1 running through July 31.

The season will resume on Sept. 1-14 and also have open times for Veteran’s Day weekend, three days at Thanksgiving and at Christmas. 

Last year’s season was 104 days.

“We know that folks from all over the Northwest Florida love to do the red snapper. We also know that the local economy loves it as well,” DeSantis said. “Given recreational fishing for golf red snapper has been a tradition here, going back to the 1840s and probably even before then.

“So we can enjoy this historic season thanks to the great work of FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission) and the state Reef Fish Survey, which gathers data directly from anglers and helps us better manage the health and stock of the species, while today’s announcement is welcome for our Gulf communities, we have more work to do in the Atlantic.”

Under federal management, the season is only two days for Atlantic red snapper after last year’s “season” lasted only a single day.

DeSantis said he is in discussions with President Donald Trump’s administration to get the Sunshine State to manage that fishery as well sometime this year, something that is also sought by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for the Peach State’s coastal waters as well. 

“We will do a good job,” DeSantis said. “We will have accurate data, and we will be able to expand a lot of opportunities for a lot of people to be able to do this. And this is really keeping with, I think, the president’s vision to empower the states and make sure the federal government isn’t overstepping its bounds. So we stand ready, willing and able to get that job done.”

DeSantis also urged lawmakers, working on the state budget as the legislative session is set to end on Friday, to renew sales tax holidays for summer that includes fishing and other recreational supplies, even concert tickets. 

(The Center Square) – U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officers in Miami, working with multiple Florida law enforcement agencies, arrested nearly 800 illegal foreign nationals.

“In a first-of-its-kind partnership between state and federal partners, ICE Miami and Florida law enforcement arrested nearly 800 illegal aliens this week during the first four days of #OperationTidalWave – a massive, multi-agency, immigration enforcement crackdown,” it said.

Among those arrested were “a Colombian murderer, alleged MS-13 and 18th Street gang members and a Russian with a red notice for manslaughter,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a White House press briefing Monday morning.

Florida is the only state in the country where all state and local law enforcement agencies in all Florida counties are participating in ICE’s 287g program. This includes the Florida Department of Law Enforcement state troopers, sheriff’s offices and police departments in all 67 Florida counties.

“I think the main reason why this operation is significant is because it’s the first of its kind,” Todd Lyons, acting ICE director, told ABC News. “It’s one that not only we’ve been doing what we have, but we have surged all our federal partners together along with Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement [and] Removal Operations, which are all the enforcement arms of ICE, but we’re also using all our 287(g) partners in the state of Florida. We’re using state, local and county law enforcement agencies to assist us in our operations.”

Of the nearly 800 arrested, Florida law enforcement officials were involved with 275 arrests of illegal foreign nationals who already had final orders of removal from a federal immigration judge and hadn’t been removed from the country.

In response to the operation, Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “Florida is leading the nation in active cooperation with the Trump administration for immigration enforcement and deportation operations!”

“State troopers, local police officers, county sheriffs – they’re our eyes and ears,” Lyons said. “They encountered these criminal aliens out and about during their regular duties, and they’re able to go ahead and identify those public safety threats for us.”

The Trump administration has been prioritizing the most dangerous criminals for removal first, The Center Square reported.

Previous ICE arrests in Florida were of a Cuban intelligence officer and violent foreign nationals previously deported multiple times. They include men from the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico who’d been arrested for human smuggling, convicted for violent crimes and previously served prison time, The Center Square reported.

ICE agents also arrested alleged Chinese spies, human smugglers and violent criminals, including a Chinese-Canadian national charged with three counts of using an unmanned aircraft to photograph defense installations and equipment at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations agents are also disrupting maritime smuggling events, arresting illegal foreign nationals from China, Ecuador, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

In another multi-agency operation in Palm Beach County, ICE and Border Patrol agents arrested illegal foreign nationals with convictions for a range of crimes. Their convictions included drug possession, prostitution, illegal re-entry, resisting an officer, robbery, probation violation, fraud (illegal use of a credit card), larceny, cocaine possession, driving under the influence and possession of stolen property. Those arrested and processed for removal were citizens of Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela – all living in the U.S. illegally, The Center Square reported.