The Orlando City Council is “unequivocally” against the idea of a federal immigration center opening locally, Mayor Buddy Dyer said at Monday’s council meeting.
Dyer was speaking in response to advocates who flagged immigration enforcement concerns during a public comment period and at a rally held outside City Hall before the meeting. Advocates had been urging Orlando leaders to take a more decisive stance, and some kind of action, against the immigration crackdown being carried out under President Donald Trump’s leadership.
Last year, between Jan. 20 — the day Trump began his second presidential term — and Oct. 15, law enforcement made 20,629 immigration-related arrests in Florida. That’s about 10% of all such arrests made nationwide, according to an analysis of government data by WUSF.
Earlier this year, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement toured a warehouse facility located at 8660 Transport Drive in east Orlando. Ever since, concerns have been mounting about the potential that ICE could convert that facility into a detention center -- a “concentration camp,” as described by immigration advocates. Signs opposing such a facility have started popping up across the city.
RELATED: There were 20,000+ ICE arrests in Florida through mid-October last year
Leading the charge against an Orlando-area detention center are local chapters of 50501, a national movement which evolved out of last year’s initial protests against “the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies,” according to the group’s website.
On Monday, two local 50501 chapters were among the 20 groups represented by advocates who gathered outside City Hall to urge Orlando leaders to take a harder stance against ICE’s aggressive ramp-up of immigration enforcement.
Hedder Pierre Joseph, an educator who is also running for Orange County’s District 6 Commission seat, made an impassioned plea to elected officials, calling on them to “have courage” in the face of potential political consequences for speaking up against ICE.
“We have our elected officials who are going on as though it's business as usual. It is not business as usual,” Pierre Joseph said. “You're afraid of losing your seat?! You have people that have lost their lives.”
ICE data show that between January of last year and Jan. 6 of this year, 35 people have died in ICE custody. One of the latest deaths was Royer Perez-Jimenez, a 19-year-old who died in Glades County, Pastor Sarah Robinson of Audubon Park Church said Monday.
“We are here to demand our Orlando city government say no to the warehousing of human beings in our city,” Robinson said.
She joined Pierre Joseph and other advocates who spoke outside City Hall Monday in calling out local elected officials for not doing more to push back on ICE.
“I find the defeatism of our current mayor and city commissioners incredible: as in, ‘not credible,’” Robinson said. “‘There's nothing we can do’ seems to be their line. But this is nothing more than complying in advance with authoritarian bullying. This is a betrayal of the ideals of our city.”
Earlier this year, a city attorney advised commissioners they cannot legally block ICE from opening a detention facility. Dyer reiterated the same thing on Monday, but made clear: if it were up to him and his fellow commissioners, no such facility would come to Orlando.
RELATED: City attorney says Orlando cannot block ICE detention facility
“We absolutely oppose any form of ICE detention facility within our community,” Dyer said. “That being said, I don't want to mislead anybody …. We do not have the authority to block or regulate a facility were they to try to locate one here.”
Dyer’s comments were echoed by all six city commissioners, who encouraged advocates to keep protesting, and to focus on elevating their concerns about immigration enforcement to state and federal officials.
“We have to go to the people who are making these decisions, that are making this stuff possible. And I'll go with you,” said District 4 Commissioner Patty Sheehan.
Sheehan floated the idea that city commissioners could adopt a resolution formally stating their opposition to a local ICE facility. Orange County commissioners passed such a resolution last month; while it holds little legal weight, it does clarify the commission’s stance against the idea.
RELATED: Update: Orange County resolution opposes possible ICE detention center
“Maybe we’ll look at the resolution Orange County did, see if we can pass it at the city level,” Sheehan said. “But there is a supremacy clause at the federal level that — no pun intended — trumps us. So we're stuck in a situation that we don't like.”
Sheehan was citing the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which holds that federal law supersedes state law.
Both Sheehan and District 2 Commissioner Tony Ortiz urged members of the public to vote in this November’s midterm elections.
“Elections have consequences. And we are seeing real-life consequences,” Sheehan said.
A federal appeals court in Miami is slated to hear arguments Tuesday on the future of so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention center located in South Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve. Environmentalists previously won an injunction halting construction and operation of the facility, but that injunction has been on hold following an appeal.
