ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – During Tuesday’s regularly scheduled Orange County Commission meeting, members of the public and at least three commissioners advocated for the county to pursue a lawsuit over its relationship with ICE, but Mayor Jerry Demings pumped the brakes on the idea.
“At the end of the day, we want to be in a position where if we go into litigation, we win,” Demings said.
More than two dozen members of the public used their respective speaking time during the public comment period to urge the county to file a lawsuit.
“I’m here to urge you to file the clarification lawsuit to find out your legal obligations to work with ICE,” said one person.
Later in the day, Georgiana Holmes of the Orange County Attorney’s Office cautioned against a lawsuit that, in theory, would be filed against the state or federal government in an effort to determine the county’s obligations under section Chapter 908 of the Florida Statutes.
Section 908.104 states that “state and local law enforcement agencies and any official responsible for directing or supervising such agency shall use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law.”
Much of the discussion Tuesday revolved around the words “best efforts.”
“If and when appropriate, one possible legal approach would be to ask the court to confirm that the county’s current operations meet the ‘best efforts’ requirement,” Holmes explained.
Holmes advised, though, that any such request would need to be “grounded in real, existing facts so a court can meaningfully address the county’s obligations.”
Holmes said Demings’ letter to ICE last week is an “important part of the factual record.”
In his Feb. 3 letter to ICE, Demings said that effective March 1, the county would implement a cap on the number of ICE inmates housed at the Orange County Jail without local criminal charges. He also warned the agency that the jail would no longer allow ICE to re-book an immigrant detainee after that detainee’s 72-hour hold had expired.
[BELOW: New limits coming to ICE enforcement, Orange County mayor declares]
“How ICE responds to those limits matters,” Holmes explained. “If ICE operates within the caps and operational guidelines set out in the mayor’s February 3rd letter, that reflects cooperative coordination. If ICE disregards those limits by re-starting the detention clocks or exceeding the imposed caps despite clear notice of the county’s resource constraints, that would help demonstrate that any resulting impacts are not due to county inaction but demands beyond what the IGSA (Intergovernmental Service Agreement) and the law require.”
Holmes continued by noting that there may come a point when litigation is an appropriate step.
“The key issue is timing,” she said. “What has changed is that we are moving away from theory toward developing real facts. This is not about avoiding litigation. It’s about ensuring if the county does go to court, it does so at the right time, for the right reasons, and with concrete factual records.”
In a statement responding to a lack of action Tuesday, the executive director of Hope Community Center acknowledged a vote was not scheduled, but said “the urgency of this matter merits immediate action.”
“The discussion before the postponement revealed a stunning lack of clarity,” Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet wrote. “It is now apparent that no one, not even the County Attorney, can definitively say what the county is legally obligated to do. They are caught between a vaguely worded Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA) with ICE and a state law mandating ‘best efforts’ to assist federal immigration enforcement. A fundamental question hangs in the air: What constitutes a ‘best effort,’ and does it require the violation of basic rights?”
Although Demings’ imposed policies do not take effect until March 1, the number of inmates on ICE detainers has already plummeted.
As of Tuesday, the jail was holding 22 inmates with ICE detainers and no local criminal charges, according to Corrections Chief Louis Quinones, who briefed commissioners alongside Holmes.
Quinones said that no one currently in the jail had been booked multiple times on ICE detainers.
The re-booking practice at the jail has drawn the ire of federal judges, who have ruled in recent weeks that at least 10 immigrant detainees have been unlawfully held at the facility.
Quinones revealed Tuesday that as of Jan. 31, 84 inmates had been re-booked over the previous 90 days. At least four of those inmates had been booked eight times each.
Demings did signal he would write to the U.S. Marshals Service to give the agency a deadline to enter into negotiations over the reimbursement rate for housing ICE detainees and federal inmates. As of today, the county is reimbursed $88 per day for every federal inmate, but the actual cost to taxpayers is $180.
Commissioners also discussed a possible moratorium on non-municipal detention facilities. Last month, Commissioner Nicole Wilson floated the idea in a memo to her colleagues, following the news that ICE was interested in converting a warehouse into a detention facility.
Like Orlando’s city attorney, Holmes argued that the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution would make such a moratorium ineffective.
Instead, Wilson appeared amenable to the idea of a resolution opposing the opening of a detention facility.
No vote was taken on that matter or any other immigration matter Tuesday.