The Orange County Sheriff’s Office, out of 17 applicants, has submitted the largest request for state funds to carry out immigration enforcement, in the latest round of grant awards distributed by the State Board of Immigration Enforcement.
The State Board of Immigration Enforcement, scheduled to meet June 9, is composed of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, State Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture commissioner Wilton Simpson — all Republicans.
State lawmakers in 2025 earmarked $250 million in funds for the state board to reimburse local governments for aiding federal immigration enforcement. This includes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a troubled agency currently under scrutiny for aggressive enforcement tactics, a surge of suicides in ICE detention, and the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year. Nearly two-thirds of Americans surveyed earlier this year say ICE has gone too far in the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office, according to board documents, requested $10.8 million in grant funds in the latest round of grant proposals for equipment, including $9.7 million for 910 portable radios and $504,200 for analytic software.
According to the budget request, the software “will aid the agency and other federal, state and local agencies in data sharing, and integration which will be used for tracking immigration enforcement efforts.” The radios will similarly “will enhance coordination with ICE for immigration enforcement activities.”
The newest slate of state immigrant enforcement grant proposals submitted by 17 local law enforcement agencies across Florida range from a $10,000 request from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office to the $10.8 million request from OCSO.
According to the News Service of Florida, the state has teed up $90 million total from the $250 million money pot for this round of grants. About $30 million is for new awards, while $57 million has been allocated for additional funding requests from local law enforcement agencies that have already sought state funding from this grant program.
All new awards, including the OCSO request, have already been approved by the board’s executive director Anthony Coker, the News Service of Florida reports.
Behind OSCO, the largest funding requests came from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office ($8.2 million) and the Lakeland Police Department ($4.4 million).
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office — covering cities such as Naples and Fort Myers — wants to use this money to buy portable radios, shackles, “inmate restraint chairs” (“to help support the safe and secure handling of immigration detainees”) and mobile skywatch towers (to “enhance situation awareness and support immigration enforcement operations”), among other purchases.
The Lakeland Police Department, meanwhile, wants to use its $4.4 million to buy data analytic software (to “support lawful operations while maintaining public safety and civil liberties”), body-worn cameras and in-vehicle cameras.
Other law enforcement agencies (not Orange County) have requested funding for riot gear suits, translation devices “to communicate with individuals who do not speak English,” ballistic helmets, tactical vests, license plate readers and other technology and gear.
Some law enforcement agencies have requested funds for riot gear, tactical vests, and ballistic helmets
The Orlando Police Department, for its part, is not mentioned in state immigration board funding proposals. But the funding request from OCSO — covering Orlando and its world-renowned tourist attractions — comes at a time when Orange County leaders are desperately trying to address concerns from local residents about ICE activity.
The Democratic-leaning county recently changed its agreement with ICE to restrict how long ICE can temporarily detain immigrants in the Orange County Jail on federal immigration charges — a civil offense. The new agreement, known as a basic ordering agreement, also allows the jail to only accept ICE detainees who are facing criminal charges, with data from corrections officials confirming that thousands of ICE detainees held in the jail over the last year have been held without any charge of criminal activity.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, a former sheriff himself, on Tuesday described the shift as “the result of this board’s action to maintain compliance with Florida law, while serving the best interests of the taxpayers of Orange County, surrounding our role in housing federal inmates.”
Advocates with the local Immigrants Are Welcome Here Coalition have mobilized to county commission chambers over the last year to urge county leaders to ensure ICE detainees’ due process rights are being protected and to end cooperation with ICE. The second call-to-action is more complicated.
Under Florida statutes, the county must demonstrate “best efforts” to support the enforcement of federal immigration officers (no, the term “best efforts” is not explicitly defined) and the county must have an agreement with ICE to temporarily house its federal detainees in the local jail.
The issue has garnered significant attention since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, declaring his intention to conduct the “largest deportation operation in American history.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier this year claimed that the Trump administration has since deported more than 675,000 “illegal aliens,” adding that an additional 2.2 million “illegal aliens” have self-deported.
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