ORLANDO, Fla. – A spokesperson with the Orange County Corrections Department told News 6 that the federal government owes the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursement payments for housing ICE detainees inside the Orange County Jail.
In an email to News 6 Thursday, the spokesperson said the federal government has not made any relevant payments since July.
The county received $207,000 in reimbursement payments between January and June 2025, according to the corrections spokesperson.
The spokesperson said the estimated outstanding payments as of November amount to $644,000.
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Based on an agreement the county has with the U.S. Marshals Service, the federal government is required to partially reimburse Orange County in exchange for the county holding federal inmates at the jail.
The compact, called the Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA), currently holds that the federal government pays the county $88 per inmate held per day. County leaders have said that it costs $180 to house an individual inmate per day.
Between January and November 2025, the county has spent $1.74 million to house ICE inmates, according to the corrections spokesperson, who later clarified that the figure reflects detainees who have underlying state/local charges, as well as those who are solely there on immigration detainers.
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The payments stopped the same month that Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings directed his staff to re-engage the federal government in an attempt to renegotiate the terms of the IGSA.
During a county commission meeting this week, Danny Banks, the deputy county administrator of public safety, said the process to try to renegotiate the reimbursement rates is ongoing.
The county corrections spokesperson also told News 6 that between Jan. 1, 2025, and Nov. 30, 2025, there have been 5,907 bookings with ICE detainers.