IMMIGRATION

Orange County will not transport ICE detainees to federal facilities, OC commish tells packed town hall

By: Norine Dworkin | Editor in Chief

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July 12, 2025

Orange County will not transport people who Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers suspect are undocumented from the county jail to any federal facilities for deportation.

So said Orange County Commissioner Mike Scott, who represents District 6. Scott made that announcement Friday at a packed town hall at Orlando's Mt. Pleasant Church, co-hosted by the advocacy organization Equal Ground and Congressman Maxwell Frost and State Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis.

“ We will not be transporting anybody to any federal facility— Alligator Alcatraz or otherwise,” Scott told attendees to raucous applause. “That's not happening in Orange County.”

Scott may have been a bit premature with his announcement. The matter of transporting ICE detainees is the subject of an addendum to the original memorandum of agreement (MOA) between Orange County and ICE, signed by Mayor Jerry Demings in February and ratified by the Board of County Commissioners in March.

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Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings says it's the federal government's job to transport any detainees that ICE suspects are undocumented to federal detention facilities. "We don't have the resources."

Sent by the Florida Sheriffs Association to county jails and sheriff’s offices in the state, the addendum would extend corrections officers’ "power and authority" to allow them to “detain and transport arrested aliens subject to removal to ICE-approved detention facilities …”

It’s on the agenda for Tuesday’s Board of County Commissioners meeting.

The original MOA, known as the Warrant Service Officer Program, drafted Orange County corrections officers to assist ICE at the county jail where they can issue warrants and detain and interrogate people.

The program was part of the Gov. Ron DeSantis’ effort to support President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy; many municipalities were bullied into compliance with threats of losing state funding or removal of elected officials from office if law enforcement officers were not committed to the ICE-assistance effort. The board approved it, 5-2, with Orange County Commissioners Nicole Wilson of District 1 and Kelly Martinez Semrad of District 5 protesting the state’s threats.

“Being coerced is not the same as agreement,” Wilson said at the time, Central Florida Public Media reported.

Demings "declined" to sign the Sheriffs Association addendum, according to a June 25 inter-office memo in Tuesday’s agenda packet.

“We will not allow our correctional staff to transport ICE detainees to federal detention facilities from our jail,” Demings said in a statement emailed by his press secretary. “That is the responsibility of the federal government. We don’t have resources to do that.”