“The idea is that our police department is a safe space to go to and report when we’ve been harmed or when a crime has happened. See something, say something. They tell our kids this all the time,” Marantes said. “But imagine now you know that police are in these agreements with ICE. Do you feel comfortable coming forward and giving information if your neighbor’s house was broken into and reporting what you saw because you’re afraid …you’re going to get picked up? So it becomes an issue of public safety because people are less likely to report, let’s say someone’s a victim of domestic violence or rape.”

Still, last February, Florida legislators followed up on Trump’s executive order with a consensus agreement called a “memorial,” guaranteeing that the state’s law enforcement agencies would cooperate. Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration made it clear that not cooperating wasn't an option. Cities that initially balked at signing the agreements with ICE were told their leadership would be suspended unless cooperation was secured.

So a year in, what might cooperation and assistance from a local police department look like?

VoxPopuli reached out to chiefs of police in Winter Garden, Ocoee, Windermere and Oakland. Only Michael Bryant, deputy chief of the Town of Oakland’s police department, answered our detailed questions. Our interview, a combination of questions asked by email and in person, has been edited for clarity.

VoxPopuli: According to a December YouGov poll, 18 percent of Americans would call the police if they suspected someone was living in the U.S. illegally. Split by political party affiliation, those numbers rise: 33 percent of Republicans would call police if they believed someone was here illegally compared to 11 percent of Democrats. Now, President Trump’s executive order allows local law enforcement to get involved in “investigation, apprehension and detention of illegal aliens.” How are Oakland Police officers assisting ICE in their deportation efforts?

Deputy Chief Michael Bryant:  The idea is we would only be assisting with transporting once they found somebody. Or if we were to pull somebody over, we would notify [them], Hey I’ve got these two people here. They don’t have any kind of driver’s license or any of that kind of stuff. We’re not gonna do any proactive activities.

To date, the Oakland Police Department has been asked to assist with ICE on two occasions. Once, when ICE agents had taken multiple detainees into custody as they exited the Turnpike into our town and needed an additional unit to help transport them.  

The second occurred when our officer conducted a lawful stop of a vehicle for a traffic violation. The occupant was a habitual traffic offender who was being arrested and transported to jail anyway, and a subsequent detainer was placed on the occupant by ICE and served at the jail when he was booked.

We have at no time assisted with any search warrants or actively sought anyone out. ICE has not asked us to participate in any operations, nor do we expect them to. As you know, we don’t have a particular population ICE would be interested in nor do we have a lot of commercial businesses to be targeted in hopes of encountering those individuals. It’s really just business as usual for us.

VoxPopuli: What about demonstrations or protests, vigils? Typically those types of events take place in Orlando, but there have been some Black Lives Matter and pro-Palestinian protests and a Charlie Kirk vigil in Winter Garden. It’s not inconceivable that someone could organize a protest or a vigil in Oakland.

Deputy Chief Michael Bryant:  Well, first, I don't envision a protest occurring here, but if one was to occur here,  it would just be like any other protest of a labor dispute or anything else … as long as everybody's behaving peacefully.

 Ahead of time, they would notify us and say, Hey, we're gonna do it on this corner. We would make sure it's safe. We would just do the same thing we would do for anybody else.

As far as our officers go, some of the things you're seeing [in Minneapolis], we're not gonna react unless somebody was to break a law or provoke something where we would have to interfere.  I don't wanna say we're fine with protests, but we are, I mean, our job is to protect the protesters. So if somebody came here and wanted to say, Hey, we're gonna protest around the fountain on Tubb Street, we'd make arrangements to make sure it was a safe place to protest.  

VoxPopuli: Do you have an opinion on what’s been going on in Minneapolis with the protesters and ICE agents?

Deputy Chief Bryant: Without being there, I really wouldn’t know what was going on. If there are situations where people’s Constitutional rights were being violated, obviously, we’re not for that. The whole point of the police department is to make sure everybody’s Constitutional rights are protected and their Florida rights are protected. … I wouldn't personally be signing up for ICE right now.

VoxPopuli: And Oakland Police, they’re taught to de-escalate situations so we don’t end up with officers shooting U.S. citizens?

Deputy Chief Mike Bryant: Exactly. Obviously we’re not in that situation. It’s not nearly … the tempers aren’t flying that much. But here, we would arrange for [protesters] to have a safe place to speak their mind and flash their signs and stuff like that until they crossed a line that would be a Florida statute that we could enforce. Then we would enforce it.

And  we'd also do it in such a way where … you don't have to … we have discretion. We don't have to nitpick. And really, if it's a situation where we would be making the situation worse, our guys would be told to be patient, you know, take it a little bit. Once somebody hurts somebody else, once there's another victim, then we definitely would act. But up to a point where we are just the victims, the police, you know, sometimes we have to take a little, if we're gonna keep the overall peace.

VoxPopuli:  In the last week, a memo has surfaced that expands ICE agents’ ability to make more arrests with fewer constraints. It was issued by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. It allows ICE agents to enter homes of those who are believed to be living in the U.S. illegally without a judicial warrant. Reuters reported that a federal lawsuit was filed by immigrants’ rights groups Friday to challenge this on the grounds that it violates Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. A recent YouGov poll found that 80 percent of Americans disapprove of ICE agents entering homes without judicial warrants.

So, my question to you is, would you or your officers ever follow a law that you know to be illegal?

Deputy Chief Mike Bryant: If you’re speaking of the concept of administrative warrants and going into people’s houses, stuff like that? No. We’re not gonna be part of anything like that.

In terms of stopping somebody who just “appears to be,” you know, no. Oakland Police will have probable cause to make a traffic stop and then once we make the traffic stop, if we find out certain information, sure we’ll act on that just as if we found drugs in the car or anything for a U.S. citizen. But as far as helping violate people’s Constitutional rights, we’re not gonna be any part of that.