An agreement allowing Orange County corrections officers to transport detainees for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency comes before the County Commission for ratification Tuesday.
Mayor Jerry Demings signed the addendum to Orange County’s agreement with ICE on Friday but said he did so "under protest and extreme duress."
Last month, Orange County commissioners had declined last month to approve the addendum. But a letter from the Florida attorney general and comments from Gov. Ron DeSantis made it clear that failing to sign would result in removal from office.
Mayor Demings said he couldn't let that happen.
Attorney General James Uthmeier accused Orange County of being a “sanctuary” county and said officials were violating state law by failing to use their “best efforts” in cooperating with ICE.
With a staff shortage of 24% at the jail, Demings said the county may never actually be able to spare those officers to transport immigrants.
Demings said he wants to make sure the county has the opportunity to have a conversation with ICE -- to communicate concerns about “operational readiness.”
“It is our responsibility,” he said, “to make sure that the jail is safe every day 24 hours a day for those persons who are in our care and custody” as well as jail employees.
County Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad said she plans to vote against the addendum.
“I give the mayor a lot of grace on this,” she said. “I actually give all my fellow commissioners a lot of grace on this, because we're really caught between a rock and a hard place.”
Martinez Semrad said she would like to see a court consider what the legally required "best efforts" really are for a county in cooperating with ICE.
A protest was planned downtown at 6:30 p.m. Monday by several groups including Orlando 50501, who are urging county commissioners to “stand up to DeSantis.”
On Tuesday, advocates from Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka and an immigrant rights coalition are planning to urge commissioners "to file a lawsuit asking the courts to clarify whether local governments can be forced to enforce federal immigration law," according to a news release.
