ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said Tuesday that the county attorney’s office is “exploring the legal issues” centered around U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s interest in opening a detention facility in Orlando.
Earlier this month, representatives of ICE toured Beachline Logistics Center, a warehouse on Transport Drive. ICE Senior Advisor David Venturella confirmed the agency’s interest to News 6.
“It’s a site that could fit that purpose,” Venturella told News 6’s Mike Valente outside the warehouse following Venturella’s visit. “But we are at very early stages.”
[WATCH: ICE tours Orlando warehouse as possible detainment center]
Demings’ remarks about ICE and the agency’s interest in a detention facility came one day after Orlando’s city attorney issued a legal opinion, stating that the city could not do anything to stop such a facility from opening.
“In sum, we can take no action to limit or regulate any activity by the federal government in its action to enforce federal immigration law,” wrote city attorney Mayanne Downs, in a notice sent to Mayor Buddy Dyer and city commissioners.
Downs cited the Federal Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution in her explanation that federal laws are “the supreme Law of the Land” and override—and preempt—any conflicting state or local laws.
In his comments during a regularly scheduled county commission meeting, Demings referenced the Orlando city attorney’s legal opinion, but noted the county has its own attorney’s office, which has been tasked with examining steps forward.
“Our county attorney’s office is reviewing our statutory requirements,” Demings said to reporters following the meeting’s morning session Tuesday.
[WATCH: Orlando attorney: City can’t stop ICE facility]
Valente asked Demings why he believes the county has legal avenues to pursue, given that the warehouse is in the city’s jurisdiction and the city attorney’s legal opinion poured cold water on any potential action.
“Whether or not—pursuant to our joint planning agreement with the city of Orlando—[if that] could be invoked as a result of the city’s failure to do something, that’s unknown,” Demings said.
When Orlando and Orange County came to an agreement in 2024 over Orlando’s annexation of Sunbridge—which encompasses the warehouse—the compact required the two local governments to work together on a joint planning agreement. It’s unclear if that joint planning agreement means the county has a vested interest in the future use of that land, and thus can inject itself in this situation.
“I think there’s a conversation to be had about that zoning process for anything that’s within Sunbridge that would be deviating from the original planning documents,” said Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson, who represents District 1.
Wilson has proposed an ordinance that would impose a temporary moratorium on non-municipal detention facilities, similar to a measure Kansas City’s council adopted to block an ICE detention facility from opening there.
[WATCH: Immigrant advocates, lawmakers urge public to speak out against ICE agents in Central Florida]
“I think we’re all aware of the Supremacy Clause and we respect it,” Wilson said when Valente asked her about the Orlando city attorney’s legal opinion. Still, she said, she was not prepared to “walk away” from her efforts to try to block the potential opening of a detention center.
“There are statutes and provisions within the General Services Administration,” Wilson said. “The statutory provisions actually talk about working with local zoning officials.”
The General Services Administration handles, among other things, the leasing of office space for the federal government.
Wilson pointed to two statutes in particular, including the Federal Urban Land Use Act, which requires GSA “consult with planning agencies and local elected officials and, to the greatest extent practicable, to coordinate federal projects with development plans and objectives of the state, region and locality where the project is to be located.”
Demings said the county attorney’s office also continues to explore legal options pertaining to the county’s existing agreement with the federal government, which allows federal inmates to be housed at the Orange County Jail.
Amid a sure of ICE detainees at the jail, Demings has griped about the current reimbursement rate from the federal government for housing those inmates, and on Tuesday, he floated the prospect of a lawsuit.
“They’re not adequately reimbursing us at this point for holding the inmates that we have been holding,” Demings said.
The mayor said negotiations with the federal government on the reimbursement rate have “ramped up” in recent weeks.