Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and the Orange County mayor and commissioners are at a standoff over county officials working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention efforts through ICE’s 287(g) program.
Florida leads the country with greatest number of ICE 287(g) partnerships, more than 300 agencies as of July 31, according to ICE data.
Federal law authorizes ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration functions only under ICE’s direction and supervision. Local law enforcement officers can apply to participate in the Jail Enforcement Model (JEM), Task Force Model (TFM) and Warrant Service Officer (WSO) model, The Center Square reported.
In Orange County, the county corrections department was approved for the WSO model in February.
However, at a June 26 meeting, Mayor Jerry Demings directed the department to reject an addendum requested by ICE and the Florida Sheriff’s Association to allow corrections officers to transport arrested illegal foreign nationals to an ICE-approved facility without a formal request by ICE. He said the county doesn’t have the resources or staff to comply.
His direction effectively “adopted a sanctuary policy and failed to exercise best efforts in support of the enforcement of federal immigration law,” Uthmeier wrote in a letter to the mayor and county commissioners.
Uthmeier cites state law that prohibits local government entities from adopting or having in effect any “sanctuary policy” that prohibits or impedes law enforcement agencies from complying with federal immigration law and requires them “to use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law.”
Prohibiting county corrections officers “from transporting arrested aliens to ICE-approved detention facilities squarely prevents them from cooperating with ICE and participating in federal immigration operations,” he said, in violation of state law. Rejecting the addendum to the WSO agreement “constitutes a failure to use ‘best efforts’ to assist with federal immigration enforcement.”
The mayor’s directive was “particularly puzzling because illegal aliens represent an obvious danger to the county,” Uthmeier added.
He cited recent arrests including of a Mexican national illegally in the country who admitted that while driving drunk he hit and killed a 6-year-old kindergarten student, WDBO News reported. Authorities said he had been living in the U.S. illegally since at least 2006 and his criminal history includes three DUI charges in Florida.
Other recent arrests include five Colombian nationals who committed “residential burglaries, targeting the homes and apartments of business owners while they are at work,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said. They were believed to be “responsible for a series of residential burglaries” in Osceola and Orange counties; two had ICE deportation warrants.
Targeted residential burglaries increased nationwide under the Biden administration as the border crisis escalated – and remain ongoing. Authorities nationwide discovered they are organized by a South American theft group (SATG) primarily by Colombians and Chileans exploiting immigration policies, The Center Square reported.
Uthmeier said the commissioners must immediately adopt the addendum and allow county corrections officers to work with ICE or be sued and even removed from office.
The mayor told reporters, “the notion that we have somehow not cooperated with ICE is a misnomer,” Fox 35 Orlando reported. “We already have shortage of correctional staff at Orange County Jail,” he said. With staff and funding shortages, they can’t pull resources for transportation, he said. Doing so would make the county and jail less safe, he argues.
Commissioners are expected to discuss the AG’s directive at their meeting next Tuesday.
