ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis called for increasing Florida’s collaboration with immigration authorities while the White House “Border Czar” boasted of flouting a court order during an immigration roundtable that drew hundreds of protesters to Sarasota on Thursday.

DeSantis teased an agreement with President Donald Trump’s head immigration adviser Tom Homan that he said would allow Florida law enforcement agencies to “do even more than we’ve already done over the first two months of the Trump administration.”

The governor said the U.S. needs the “best effort in American history” to deport illegal immigrants, which he said Florida has and will continue to lead the way in doing.

“If states like Florida step up, we’ll be able to achieve it,” DeSantis said. “Some of this is leading by example.”

The roundtable with Homan and former Acting Director of Homeland Security Chad Wolf comes just a month after DeSantis signed sweeping legislation aimed to help the Trump administration round up and deport illegal and undocumented immigrants.

The state has begun deputizing local law enforcement agencies to work with ICE, including all 67 county sheriffs departments in Florida.

But some offices are more active than others, with an Orange County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson saying last month the agreement only requires them to select candidates for Homeland Security training and gives them the option to join a task force.

Meanwhile, cities such as Fort Myers have yet to reach agreements to work with ICE on immigrations enforcement, something DeSantis said they could be compelled to do under Florida law.

“Under our law they must be involved in it and that will happen. One way or another, we will get that done,” DeSantis said.

The panel discussed issues ranging from birthright citizenship to Trump’s defiance of court orders in deporting hundreds of Venezuelans. Above all, DeSantis, Homan and Wolf all said that the U.S. should be in the business of enforcing its laws — which they claimed the Biden administration failed to do.

Former President Joe Biden had directed ICE to focus on illegal immigrants who had committed crimes and said that only entering the country illegally was not reason enough to deport someone. Many immigration violations, such as crossing the border or overstaying a visa, are categorized as civil offenses or criminal misdemeanors.

“That garbage is over with,” Homan said of the Biden-era policy. “If you’re in the country illegally, you’ve got a problem.”

In the same breath, Homan criticized federal judges for blocking Trump’s deportation of Venezuelans, and bragged that he didn’t turn the planes around despite courts ordering the administration to do so.

DeSantis agreed, and said judges shouldn’t be able to bring the executive branch to a halt.

“Are we ruled by the consent of the governed… or are we ruled by a district judge?” he said.

Panelists also said they would want changes to the 14th amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.

DeSantis argued that illegal immigrants having children in the U.S. was not what President Abraham Lincoln had in mind, despite the specific language that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Homan said the promise of birthright citizenship is a “magnet” for illegal immigration, and that the Supreme Court needed to reconsider the amendment. The Trump administration’s legal arguments on the issue have been criticized by many legal observers.

Outside the venue, hundreds of protesters organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation rallied with signs reading “stop illegal deportation” chanting “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state.”

Counter protesters flew flags bearing the crest of ICE and the “back the blue” American flag.

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