Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened on Tuesday to remove Orange County leaders from office if they failed to expand cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

The county in recent weeks rejected an amendment that would have, among other things, permitted corrections officers expanded authority to coordinate with ICE, mandating local law enforcement to transfer illegal immigrants held in county jails to ICE detention centers. The “ICE addendum” would have required those officers to transport immigration detainees to federal detention centers, including the new ICE holding facility in Florida known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” 

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Citing Florida law that states counties must use their “best efforts” to assist ICE, Uthmeier, an immigration hawk who was recently issued a rebuke by a federal judge on the matter, argued that the county’s move to reject expansion of its 287(g) agreement with ICE constituted a violation of the state’s sanctuary city ban. Local officials must approve the ICE addendum requiring local officers to transport immigration detainees from local jails to ICE facilities or risk being fired from their jobs, the attorney general warned.

“Failure to take corrective action will result in the enforcement of all applicable civil and criminal penalties, including removal from office by the Governor pursuant to section 908.107, Florida Statutes, and the Florida Constitution,” Uthmeier wrote in a letter to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and all six county commissioners. 

The county responded to Uthmeier’s threat by saying Demings and the commissioners will discuss the ICE addendum at their next meeting on Aug. 5. 

The saga started in March, when Demings signed a 287(g) warrant service officer agreement with ICE. The original agreement granted Orange County sheriff’s deputies and corrections officers new powers to detain illegal immigrant suspects based solely on a warrant issued by ICE for their arrest. 

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed this week that 110 of its deputies would receive special training allowing them to carry out the ICE warrants. Nearly all of them have already completed the training, according to the Orlando Sentinel, meaning those law enforcement agents, called designated immigration officers, or DIO, can detain illegal immigrant suspects by using an ICE warrant for their arrest. Seventeen correctional officers are trained and credentialed as warrant service officers, Orange County Corrections Chief Louis Quiñones Jr. said in recent comments to WESH News. 

However, controversy stirred in June when ICE and the Florida Sheriffs Association came to Orange County with a request to amend the 287(g) agreement. Under the new terms, county corrections officers would have been required to transport immigration detainees from local jails to ICE detention facilities. 

Demings refused to sign the new agreement, with officials, including Quiñones, expressing concerns that the order would place a heavy burden on the county. County correctional officers do not have the capacity to transport immigration detainees, as the department is already struggling to cope with staffing shortages, with a report earlier this year finding the jail had roughly a 25% vacancy rate among employees, they argued.

Officials further contended that Uthmeier’s interpretation of the law that counties must use their “best efforts” to assist ICE is far too broad, expressing unease about how far the state could go with requiring local sheriff’s departments to shoulder traditional ICE duties under the attorney general’s reading of the language. 

“I take a strong stance on the transportation because that’s not within our core responsibility as a County Correctional Facility to transport federal inmates to other federal detention facilities,” Demings said earlier this month following a meeting with the commissioners on the county jail’s agreements with ICE. “We don’t have the capacity to do that. If the sheriffs want to do that, that’s up to the sheriffs. But in terms of our correctional staff, they are not law enforcement. They are there to take care of the custody of persons who are within our Orange County Jail.”

JUDGE HOLDS FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL JAMES UTHMEIER IN CONTEMPT OVER IMMIGRATION LAW GUIDANCE

The county is considering modifying its Intergovernmental Service Agreement to avoid being forced to transport detainees to ICE facilities. The current IGSA contains some immigration provisions allowing for coordination with federal law enforcement. Removing such language could bypass legal challenge from Uthmeier. 

Still, revamping the IGSA could lead to a loss of funding for Orange County, which is reimbursed $88 per day, per immigration detainee held in local jails. Should the county negotiate the agreement, it could see funding slashed to $50 for housing a detainee wanted by ICE, according to Central Florida Public Media.