Facing pressure from the state, the Board of Orange County Commissioners ratified a controversial agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On Tuesday, commissioners voted 5-2 to ratify an addendum to the county’s 287(g) Warrant Service Officer Agreement, allowing county correction officers to transport detainees to ICE-approved facilities. They did so after Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings signed the agreement Friday following a letter from State Attorney General James Uthmeier that stated if the commissioners did not ratify, they could be removed from office.
“I'm willing to fight, but I prefer to fight from the vantage point of where I am sitting today,” Demings said. “By signing the agreement, we avoided the immediate risk of having the governor appoint his minions to lead Orange County, and thereby we maintain the current duly elected Orange County Commission.”
District 5 Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad and District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson were the dissenting votes and expressed opposition before the vote.
“You gotta pick your hill to die on, I'll pick that hill all day,” Semrad said. “I don't believe in this form of government when I'm being forced to vote in a certain way under threat of removal, that it is based on our discretion to define, and that scares me.”
Nearly all of the public speakers on Tuesday understood the position that Demings took and the decision he made, and some called on the county to challenge the agreement and the position the state had put them in. Immigration advocates also demonstrated outside the county’s chamber during the meeting.
In June, the county declined to sign the addendum, citing that correctional officers do not have the capacity to transport detainees. The agreement, prior to the addendum, allows Orange County Jail to house ICE detainees until they are transported to the Orlando Courthouse or a detention center upon request from ICE.
On July 29, Attorney General Uthmeier published his letter to Orange County on the social media platform X. According to Demings, he first learned of the letter through media coverage of the post on X, and didn’t receive the letter until Friday, days later.
Uthmeier’s letter suggests that by not signing the addendum, the county was violating two statutes. The first, that no local government entity would adopt a “sanctuary policy” or a policy that impedes ICE from performing its duties. The second is Section 908.104(1)Florida Statutes, which “requires state and local jurisdictions to 'use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law,’” Uthmeier wrote.
During Tuesday’s meeting, county attorney Jeffrey Newton outlined Uthmeier’s letter and the violations, stating he couldn’t make sense of them, especially the second statute that makes use of the phrase “best efforts.”
“It is deliberately, I believe, ambiguous,” Newton said. “Let's understand this leap of logic that occurred. You, by failing to do something, adopted a sanctuary policy. That doesn't make sense to me.”
After the decision to ratify, commissioners began calling for legal action, asking for clarity on Uthmeier’s accusations.
“Specifically, no one has been able to tell us what exactly ‘best efforts’ are and what do you mean by ‘sanctuary jurisdiction,’” said Wilson. “And is this addendum the final addendum? Because we continue to see this erosion.”
Demings hinted that a future fight is on the horizon.
“Until the courts have the opportunity to weigh in. The fight isn't over,” Demings said. “I can tell you this is that we're in a better position today, having signed the addendum to win the fight in the future, and so we do have to be strategic in what we do and how we fight.”
