As immigration agents bring more and more ICE detainees to the Orange County jail, the county’s cost grows heavier every day and Mayor Jerry Demings appealed this week in writing to federal authorities for relief in shouldering the burden.
He said the county loses $92 per day per detainee under the terms of a contract to assist immigration authorities.
“Orange County has done our part to ensure our operations are compliant with both federal and state laws which have mandated our participation in supporting immigration enforcement activities,” Demings wrote in a Dec. 22 letter. “But I am deeply concerned that the fiscal impact of these legislative mandates is being unfairly shouldered by the taxpayers of Orange County, to the tune of over $333,592.00.”
He sent his missive to an operations official for the U.S. Marshal Service, the county’s contract partner.
Since January when President Donald J. Trump started his second term, the county jail has booked about 6,000 detainees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including more than 3,600 since August, according to figures compiled by county corrections.
The throng of detainees includes many who were arrested outside of Orange County but brought to its jail, the region’s largest.
Under its contract with the Marshal Service, Orange County is reimbursed $88 per day per ICE detainee.
Louis A. Quinones, Orange County’s correction chief, told county commissioners earlier this year that the true cost of providing a secure environment, appropriate healthcare and access to basic human needs to an inmate behind bars is $180 per day per detainee.
ICE detentions in Central Florida are spiking
The mayor is a member of the elected commission.
“This financial burden has had a substantial impact to our county budget for which we are not receiving reimbursement from the federal government nor from the state of Florida,” Demings said in the letter that termed the growing shortfall a “hefty burden” for local taxpayers.
In August, the county sent a formal notice to the Marshal Service requesting to renegotiate the Intergovernmental Support Agreement, or IGSA, based on updated calculations associated with housing federal inmates, including ICE detainees, at the jail.
The mayor’s dispatch requested the service’s “immediate attention toward righting this wrong, and your immediate action in providing Orange County full reimbursement of our expenses related to supporting your immigration enforcement activities.”
“The burden of the expense related to immigration enforcement activities should be borne by the federal government, not local governments who’ve been forced to follow the law in support of your initiatives,” he said in the letter.
Community groups like “Immigrants Are Welcome Here,” who say they oppose ICE’s tactics of snatching people off the street based on suspicion they are undocumented, have held rallies at the County Administration Building opposing local cooperation with federal agents.
Though sympathetic to the groups’ concerns, the mayor signed agreements with ICE because he and fellow commissioners were threatened with removal from office by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Attorney General James Uthmeier, a DeSantis appointee, if the county board didn’t cooperate with ICE.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com