ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange County community members questioned commissioners regarding immigration enforcement concerns on Tuesday.

What You Need To Know

At Tuesday’s Orange County Commission meeting, immigration advocates asked the mayor and commissioners to provide clarification on Orange County’s obligations to ICE under their Intergovernmental Service Agreement

Members of the groups Immigrants are Welcome Here and The Hope Community Center urged the commission to sue to seek clarity from the federal government

Last year the county signed an IGSA allowing the Orange County Jail to house ICE detainees

But in a December letter from the mayor to the U.S. Marshal’s Service, Demings highlighted the financial burden the county was under

During the Orange County Commission meeting, immigration advocates spoke out during public comment and asked the mayor and commissioners to provide clarification on Orange County’s obligations to ICE under their Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA).

Members of the groups Immigrants are Welcome Here and The Hope Community Center urged Mayor Jerry Demings and the commission to file a lawsuit in order to seek clarity from the federal government on the agreement.

Erica Gomez-Tejeda, a member of the group Immigrants are Welcome Here, expressed frustration with the commission’s lack of action when dealing with the financial toll the agreement is taking on the community.

“They don’t know what people are charged with and if their due process is being violated by having them here,” she said. “They don’t know how much they’re going to get reimbursed, only that it’s going to be a maximum of $100. So, all of these unknowns with an entity that’s going and causing havoc, why are we sinking ourselves instead of standing up for the community?”

Last year the county signed an IGSA allowing the Orange County Jail to house ICE detainees.

But in a December letter from the mayor to the U.S. Marshal’s Service, Demings highlighted the financial burden the county was under, stating, “I request the USMS expedite the renegotiation of our IGSA and provide us with a complete reimbursement of Orange County’s expenses related to your immigration enforcement initiatives, such that our local taxpayers no longer bear the costs of your initiative.”

Demings said that since April 2025, Orange County Jail has housed more than 5,000 ICE detainees — creating costs that exceeded the reimbursement provided under the agreement, $88 per day. The actual cost per inmate equals around $180 — placing the county in a financial deficit.

Dozens of residents took to the podium during the meeting to pinpoint their concerns about ICE, IGSA and the growing deficit.

“We have the right to due process. We have the right to free speech. We have the right to not be detained illegally,” said Jennifer Hall, co-founder of Orlando 50501 Latinos.

Speakers said that while the IGSA is a voluntary agreement, the county has been participating without formally confirming whether it is legally obligated to do so. Leaders with Immigrants are Welcome Here and Hope Community Center asked the county to file a lawsuit to obtain a definitive legal ruling on the matter, ensuring accountability and the protection of immigrant communities.

“We should not be playing a role in not knowing if people are in our jail, and they should not have been detained anyway. We need ICE out of our streets, out of our jails, out of our schools,” Gomez-Tejeda said.

Without a clear answer on the county’s continued involvement with ICE, community members cited concerns about the impact immigration enforcement is having in the community at large.

“They’re closing seven schools, possibly eight. But we have seen other schools get affected, too, because population was going down,” said Hecser Barros, a member of Immigrants are Welcome Here Coalition. “As the population goes down, funding gets cut, and we see less teachers. It gets, it’s just a chain reaction. So, we need to get a clear answer from our county commission, our mayor, on this topic.”

District 3 Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad moved to address the comments and said, “Mayor, can we address some of the public comments where people are requesting a lawsuit?”

Demings was quick to change the subject.

“We have other items. Maybe that will come up, but at this point, we are going to move forward to the consent agenda,” he said.

Commissioner Martinez Semrad pressed, “I know we have a lot, I know, but maybe if not today, we need to have a space where people can really talk. I mean this audience, this, they are on fire.”

Demings responded, “Commissioner, we are going to move forward on the agenda.”

The item was not brought up during the rest of the meeting agenda.

Spectrum News reached out to Orange County Corrections Department officials to ask whether they had received any response from the U.S. Marshal’s Service regarding Deming’s December letter — but we have yet to hear back.