If county commissioners adopt a revised agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Orange County prison employees may be ordered to transport immigration detainees to Alligator Alcatraz or other detention facilities at the county’s cost.
Commissioner Nicole Wilson, who voted against the original Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA) with ICE to house agency inmates from all across Florida at the county jail on March 26, stated, “I’m going to fight it.”
Corrections spokesperson Tracy Zampaglione stated that jail employees had not yet been asked to transfer inmates.
According to her email, ICE transports prisoners, not Orange County Corrections. Inmates released to ICE custody are not transported by the Orange County Corrections Department.
However, it might be altered by the one-page addendum to the commission’s Tuesday schedule.
The codicil, if approved by the board, would permit county jail officials who have received ICE training to transport immigration detainees upon request from the immigration agency. All Florida jails are required to work with ICE under a statute that was passed earlier this year.
The other commissioner who did not vote in favor of the first ICE pact, Kelly Martinez Semrad, was similarly against increasing the workload of jail employees.
I disagree with forcing our correctional officers to perform more work than they are compensated for, to perform tasks they may not find acceptable, or to comply with an overreaching state government directive, she stated on Wednesday. The public is putting tremendous pressure on us to act morally.
The number of additional Florida or other counties that are dealing with comparable demands is unknown. Unbeknownst to the community, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava secretly signed a comparable amended agreement with ICE in June, according to a Miami Herald story on Wednesday.
Any correctional personnel trained under the prior arrangement would be able to transfer inmates upon ICE’s request under that agreement, which seems to be the same as the one being proposed in Orange County.
However, a memo to the county commission states that Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings, who signed the initial agreement, has not yet agreed to sign the addition.
By late Wednesday afternoon, the Orlando Sentinel had not heard back from the Demings spokesperson.
The county jail is one of just a few establishments in the state that houses federal inmates under Orange County’s current IGSA.
This implies that individuals who are detained on immigration-related offenses outside of Orange County’s boundaries—in certain situations, up to 100 miles away—are booked and held in the jail until they are able to be moved to an ICE facility.
The county gets only paid $88 every day an inmate is held, although it costs roughly $145 to keep someone, which is one of the reasons that agreement has drawn criticism. A deeper wrinkle is added by the new transit provision.
The federal government’s failure to fully reimburse the county for the cost of detaining ICE prisoners was the specific point of contention for Commissioner Wilson.
She remarked, “I don’t understand why there’s this expectation that we just goosestep in line.”
According to her, she was worried that the county would be involved in sending inmates to locations like Alligator Alcatraz, the hurriedly constructed holding facility for ICE detainees in the Everglades, in what are likely quite cruel conditions, quickly and without due process.
She added, “And we don’t know what happens to them after that.”
Advocates claim that ICE-targeted immigrants vanish from Orange’s jail.
“It would be a huge disservice to the county’s immigrant population to approve the amended agreement with ICE,” said Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, executive director of Apopka’s Hope Community Center.
“The vitality of immigrants and immigration is the foundation of our community,” he remarked. Not only is it a step in the wrong direction, but it also goes against everything we as a community stand for when our county officials turn their backs on our beliefs and align themselves with a deportation machine.
Florida jails are required to assist with ICE by a bill passed during the state legislature’s special session in February, but Sousa-Lazaballet contended that the law does not compel the county to agree to the agency’s new restrictions.
Other leaders in the community lack confidence.
Commissioners are under pressure and could be removed from office if they don’t cooperate with state and federal authorities, according to Orlando Episcopalian priest Jose Rodriguez.
These commissioners were chosen by me to speak for me and to express my voice. Rodriguez stated. They will be removed from office, nevertheless, if they speak for the incorrect voice.
He referenced earlier warnings from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier that if municipal council members and commissioners don’t follow ICE, they will be removed from their appointed positions.
Uthmeier most recently threatened to remove Key West city commissioners from office if they didn’t reestablish their canceled relationship with ICE in a letter he uploaded to X. On Tuesday, commissioners decided to re-implement the accord.
Rather, Rodriguez urges the commissioners of Orange County to go down fighting, by telling their constituents what they truly think of the deal, even if they have to support it in the end.
If commissioners feel they are being coerced, I believe the most effective thing they can do is to voice their opinions about it,” he said. They had better mark that with an asterisk.
