ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings did not hold back when discussing a letter the county received from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. The letter demands that the county agree to transport undocumented immigrants to ICE-approved facilities or face potential civil and criminal penalties.
“When I left the office yesterday, we had not formally received a letter. Apparently, the letter was sent to you, the media, and not to those of us in Orange County government,” Demings said when News 6 asked about the letter. “We’ll probe into what the statutes say, but what I will tell you is that his interpretation of the law is an unjust law. What is happening, sadly, in our nation, here within our state, is that our state attorney general is trying to bully the law enforcement agencies, the sheriffs, the police chiefs in our state to comply with whatever they say.”
The attorney general sent the letter to Demings and the county board, instructing them to sign an amended ICE agreement. The amendment would require Orange County to transport detainees to ICE facilities.
Uthmeier warned that failure to comply could result in consequences, including potential removal from office.
“The commission should always prioritize the safety of its residents over the misguided views of left-wing activists,” Uthmeier wrote in the letter.
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Demings responded by emphasizing the county’s existing cooperation with ICE. He noted that the number of detainees has increased substantially and that the county wants to negotiate reimbursement for housing them.
“Our community is entitled to reimbursement for those that we hold on federal charges. We’ve said that we want to negotiate what that reimbursement rate should be,” Demings said.
He also expressed concern that agreeing to transport detainees would strain county resources.
“When the federal government asks us to take and pull our resources out of the jail to go handle a federal responsibility there, to transport them to other locations, indirectly what they’re doing and directly what they’re doing is making our community unsafe, making our jail unsafe, because then they are pulling people out of resources that we cannot afford to send somewhere else within our state,” Demings said. “What I’ve tried to do for you today is to simply enlighten you about the facts, the reality, and the consequences of pulling people out of our jail when our jail is already short staffed to make our jail an unsafe place for our community, an unsafe place for our corrections officers, and for even the inmates, to make it perhaps an unsafe place for our inmates as well.”
Regarding the recently-announced audit of the county by the Florida Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), Demings and District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson said the audit is politically motivated.
“All of this is just mean-spirited politics,” Demings said.
Wilson added, “We invite anybody who can allow us to see a better way of doing things. We do not want to reinvent the wheel, but the idea of coming for us for things like investing in raised crosswalks or in environmental conservation land, that is a political position. It is not about saving you time or money.”
From January through May, Orange County reported that 438 people were booked into the county jail on ICE detainers without any state charges filed.
Several commissioners rejected the notion that Orange County was acting as a “sanctuary county.”
But Uthmeier countered that “any local government effort to impede law enforcement’s ability to assist the federal government in immigration enforcement is per se a sanctuary jurisdiction.”
Mayor Demings fired back at Uthmeier’s remarks, questioning the attorney general’s credibility and experience.
“I find it somewhat ironic, that the 37-year-old attorney general is attacking me personally, attacking our board,” Demings said. “I spent more years on the streets of Florida, patrolling our streets as a law enforcement officer than he’s been alive.”
Despite the public clash, Uthmeier said he remains open to discussion.
“I certainly hope they will come around,” Uthmeier said. “The law requires it. The law was passed in February; it’s pretty clear. It says local governments have to exercise best efforts to support ICE in carrying out its federal immigration enforcement duties.”
The mayor said the county board will discuss both the attorney general’s letter and the audit during their next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday.