Just two days after hundreds of people gathered outside of Orlando City Hall to protest the killing of Minneapolis mom Renee Good by a federal immigration enforcement agent, local advocates repeated their call for Orange County government to end its collaboration with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.
During county commissioners’ regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, advocates demanded that the county — one of the last Democratic strongholds in Florida — at the very least file a lawsuit to seek guidance on whether the county would legally be able to end its agreement with ICE under the state’s immigration laws.
“All throughout the country and all throughout this state and all throughout Orlando, everyday people are standing up to ICE,” said Corey Hill with anti-Trump group Orlando 50501, speaking to Orange County commissioners and the mayor Tuesday. “All that we ask is that you show some of that courage and be brave with us.”
Florida is the only state in the country where all county sheriff’s offices have entered into agreements to partner with ICE. Such agreements authorize local deputies to engage in federal immigration enforcement duties. Orange County, as the operator of the local jail, also has an intergovernmental service agreement with ICE, authorizing federal immigration enforcement agents to temporarily detain people accused of being in the country illegally in the Orange County Jail.
According to the mayor’s office, over 5,000 people have been booked into the Orange County Jail on behalf of ICE since April 2025, including those arrested in other counties (who were later transported to the jail) and people arrested by ICE without any other criminal or civil charges. The bookings have been in step with President Trump’s mass deportation agenda, which has faced even greater scrutiny in recent days following an ICE agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mom of three.
An ICE agent last Wednesday shot Good three times in the face as the 37-year-old mother of three attempted to drive away from ICE agents on a residential street in her Honda Pilot. The Trump administration, defending the agent’s actions, has labeled Good a “domestic terrorist” and dropped an investigation into the shooting. Several U.S. Department of Justice officials have resigned in protest.
“I am afraid for anyone caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, who tries to follow directions but does so in the wrong way, in a moment of panic or confusion, because they too are afraid,” said local resident Sean Crumpacker, speaking to Orange County commissioners Tuesday morning. “I love Orange County, and I don’t want this county caught up in a preventable human rights injustice, only because we are too afraid to put it to an end.”
Unlike Minneapolis, where mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to “get the fuck out” following the fatal shooting of Good, Orange County is more hostile territory when it comes to immigrant rights issues.
State law, for instance, requires a certain level of cooperation with ICE from operators of county detention centers. But local rights advocates argue that Orange County is going above and beyond what it’s legally required to do. That’s why they’re asking the county to get clarity on the issue from the courts.
“Our tax dollars belong to Orange County, not fascist agendas,” one local resident added bluntly during the public comment period. Over a dozen people spoke up about the issue Tuesday on behalf of the local Immigrants Are Welcome Here coalition, made up of over 60 legal aid, labor and social advocacy groups.
“Our tax dollars belong to Orange County, not fascist agendas”
According to county officials themselves, Orange County has already spent over $330,000 to detain people in the local jail over the last year on behalf of ICE. That’s because the federal government is failing to fully reimburse the county for the cost of temporary detention.
Each detainee costs the jail roughly $180 per day, yet only a portion of that cost — $88 per person, per day — is currently being reimbursed by the federal government.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, a Democrat and former sheriff who recently launched a campaign for Florida governor, sent federal officials a letter last month, asking that they fully reimburse the county for immigration enforcement-related expenses and saying that the county was “unfairly” shouldering the burden of it.
Demings, however, declined to respond to the pleas made by advocates during this Tuesday’s board of commissioners meeting, even after District 5 commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad requested a discussion on the issue.
“Could we address some of the public comments where people are requesting a lawsuit?” Semrad asked, immediately following the public comment portion of their meeting. “Maybe, if not today, we need to have a space where people can really talk. I mean, this audience is, they’re on fire today —”
“Commissioner,” Demings interrupted. “We’ll move forward on the agenda.”
A county spokesperson later confirmed to Orlando Weekly over email that although the board considered ending its agreement with ICE, as requested by the Immigrants Are Welcome Here Coalition, the board “ultimately [voted] to renegotiate” with the feds for full reimbursement for detention costs.
It’s a sensitive issue, and not only because Orlando is a top tourist destination, welcoming millions of international visitors each year, or because nearly one-quarter of Orange County’s population is foreign-born.
County officials last July, including the full board of county commissioners, faced threats of forced removal from office from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier after the board initially declined to have county staff transport ICE detainees to long-term detention facilities. County leaders, including the county’s corrections chief, had argued that such an arrangement would unduly burden the correctional department, which was already short-staffed.
Faced with Uthmeier’s accusations of defying state law, however, Demings told the press shortly after receiving the AG’s threat that he ultimately “signed the damn thing” — referring to an updated agreement with ICE — explaining that “we really had to.”
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