Orange County commissioners want to renegotiate with the federal government how ICE uses its jail.
On Tuesday, commissioners discussed the current Intergovernmental Service Agreement with the United States Marshals Service and an addendum that would have Orange County correction officers transporting ICE detainees to sites outside of the county, such as Alligator Alcatraz.
“We don't have the capacity to do that,” said Mayor Jerry Demings.“If the sheriffs want to do that, that's up to the sheriffs. But in terms of our correctional staff, they are not law enforcement. They are there to take care of the custody of persons who are within our Orange County Jail.”
The current IGSA agreement allows the Orange County Jail to house ICE detainees until they are transported to the Orlando Courthouse or another detention center.
The county is reimbursed $88 per day, per detainee; however, county officials are still trying to determine the cost of housing ICE detainees.
County Corrections Chief Louis Quiñones said there has been a large increase in the average daily population of USMS inmates in the last three and a half years. In 2022, the daily intake was 57 inmates. So far this year, it’s 109. Quiñones said the jail can currently handle the load, but if correction officers began transporting detainees off-site, it would have a negative impact on jail operations.
“Which is the reason why we're taking a position that is not our role and responsibility,” Demings said. “That's the federal government's role. Let them handle that.”
Quiñones said that the IGSA agreement stems back to a 1983 arrangement with the USMS for housing federally charged or convicted individuals. The agreement was modified in 2011 to include the housing of immigration holds. Orange is one of half a dozen counties in the state with an IGSA agreement. A previous agreement in March had 17 correctional officers trained and credentialed as warrant service officers, which gave them the power to serve warrants of arrest for immigration violations and warrants of removal.
Prior to the discussion, about two dozen people arrived for public comment, asking the county to terminate the IGSA agreement, expressing concerns over human rights violations, including Hope CommUnity Center CEO Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, who is currently running for a Florida House seat.
“Cancel the IGSA,” Sousa-Lazaballet said. “If enforced, you would devastate family, destroy trust, and make our county complicit in state-sponsored human trafficking. This is about due process, about home rule and about choosing compassion over cruelty.”
Commissioners acknowledged that modifying the agreement in any way to exclude immigration provisions would likely result in the withholding of federal financial funds.
“I don't know what to say to that, except that one cruelty doesn't make up for another cruelty,” said District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson.
One possibility of heading back to the negotiations is coming away with a worse deal, such as signing a Basic Ordering Agreement. Counties with an IGSA were directed to sign a BOA, which allows counties to bill ICE $50 for housing a detainee rather than the $88 it would receive under an IGSA.
Wilson acknowledged the issues over county resources, but expressed greater concerns about human rights violations.
“We've continued to hear about due process violations. We've continued to hear about egregious human rights violations in these detention facilities. Orange County cannot be complicit. I am not going to be complicit,” she said.
Commissioners are expected to go over the modified agreement at the next commission meeting on July 29.
