\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAs immigrant advocates sound the alarm about heightened ICE activity in Central Florida, new numbers from Orange County Corrections show a surge of inmates booked into the jail with immigration holds in the past week.”My advice to immigrants who are in fear right now is to remain calm,” Orlando-based criminal defense and immigration attorney Phillip Arroyo said.Arroyo spoke with WESH 2 after he visited the Orange County jail Friday morning.”I had never seen the booking area of the jail with so many immigrants that were just picked up,” he said.The latest numbers from Orange County Corrections back up what Arroyo witnessed.On Friday morning, 377 inmates had been booked in the jail with immigration holds compared to 71 one week ago on Jan. 9.About half of the 377 inmates with immigration holds Friday also face local charges. “I can probably give you a guarantee that the overwhelming majority of those criminal offenses are driving without a license,” Arroyo said.This week\u2019s noticeable increase in the immigrant jail population comes as Democratic U.S. Congressman Maxwell Frost said he\u2019s confirmed ICE agents made \u201cpretty large hotel reservations\u201d in Central Florida. “Number one, please know your rights and ensure that your friends and family know their rights as well,” Frost said in a video posted to social media Thursday.Frost is also addressing reports that ICE may be looking to open a new detention facility in Eastern Orange County.”We want taxpayer dollars used to help community,\u201d Frost said, \u201cnot to take our neighbors away that make this community what it is and makes it the City Beautiful.”Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson said Friday morning she went to an industrial warehouse south of SR-528 in Eastern Orange County. She said she observed what appeared to be vehicles from a Federal government contract doing a site visit. \u201cWe do not want that here in Orange County,\u201d Wilson said, \u201cand you’re seeing it at the jail. I am worried that the reason why they’re looking for additional space is because we’ve been asking for more transparency for anyone coming into the jail.”The state of Florida, under the leadership of Republican Gov. Ron DeSanti,s has supported the second Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation efforts by requiring local law enforcement agencies to enter 287(g) cooperation agreements with ICE.The state has also constructed the controversial Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in the Florida Everglades. The state also converted the Baker Correctional Institution into Deportation Depot. “Although you don\u2019t have to have committed a crime to be subject to immigration enforcement,\u201d Gov. DeSantis said earlier in January. \u201cIf you’ve come illegally, that is the offense and so of course people can enforce the law.”Attorney Arroyo told WESH 2 he has clients in the country legally who have been detained during the immigration crackdown.”If an ice agent approaches you,\u201d he said, \u201cremain silent and ask for an attorney. Do not try to resist, because we all saw what happened in Minnesota. Your life is at risk.”WESH 2 reached out to ICE officials in an attempt to confirm the industrial warehouse in eastern Orange County is under consideration for a new detention facility.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
As immigrant advocates sound the alarm about heightened ICE activity in Central Florida, new numbers from Orange County Corrections show a surge of inmates booked into the jail with immigration holds in the past week.<\/p>\n
“My advice to immigrants who are in fear right now is to remain calm,” Orlando-based criminal defense and immigration attorney Phillip Arroyo said.<\/p>\n
Arroyo spoke with WESH 2 after he visited the Orange County jail Friday morning.<\/p>\n
“I had never seen the booking area of the jail with so many immigrants that were just picked up,” he said.<\/p>\n
The latest numbers from Orange County Corrections back up what Arroyo witnessed.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, 377 inmates had been booked in the jail with immigration holds compared to 71 one week ago on Jan. 9.<\/p>\n
About half of the 377 inmates with immigration holds Friday also face local charges. <\/p>\n
“I can probably give you a guarantee that the overwhelming majority of those criminal offenses are driving without a license,” Arroyo said.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s noticeable increase in the immigrant jail population comes as Democratic U.S. Congressman Maxwell Frost said he\u2019s confirmed ICE agents made \u201cpretty large hotel reservations\u201d in Central Florida. <\/p>\n
“Number one, please know your rights and ensure that your friends and family know their rights as well,” Frost said in a video posted to social media Thursday.<\/p>\n
Frost is also addressing reports that ICE may be looking to open a new detention facility in Eastern Orange County.<\/p>\n
“We want taxpayer dollars used to help community,\u201d Frost said, \u201cnot to take our neighbors away that make this community what it is and makes it the City Beautiful.”<\/p>\n
Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson said Friday morning she went to an industrial warehouse south of SR-528 in Eastern Orange County. She said she observed what appeared to be vehicles from a Federal government contract doing a site visit. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not want that here in Orange County,\u201d Wilson said, \u201cand you’re seeing it at the jail. I am worried that the reason why they’re looking for additional space is because we’ve been asking for more transparency for anyone coming into the jail.”<\/p>\n
The state of Florida, under the leadership of Republican Gov. Ron DeSanti,s has supported the second Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation efforts by requiring local law enforcement agencies to enter 287(g) cooperation agreements with ICE.<\/p>\n
The state has also constructed the controversial Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in the Florida Everglades. The state also converted the Baker Correctional Institution into Deportation Depot. <\/p>\n
“Although you don\u2019t have to have committed a crime to be subject to immigration enforcement,\u201d Gov. DeSantis said earlier in January. \u201cIf you’ve come illegally, that is the offense and so of course people can enforce the law.”<\/p>\n
Attorney Arroyo told WESH 2 he has clients in the country legally who have been detained during the immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n
“If an ice agent approaches you,\u201d he said, \u201cremain silent and ask for an attorney. Do not try to resist, because we all saw what happened in Minnesota. Your life is at risk.”<\/p>\n
WESH 2 reached out to ICE officials in an attempt to confirm the industrial warehouse in eastern Orange County is under consideration for a new detention facility. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As immigrant advocates sound the alarm about heightened ICE activity in Central Florida, new numbers from Orange County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[61203,147,61204,15467,26022,61202,7206,1841,9552,1225,61201,38182,139,141,140,31212,914,11575],"class_list":["post-122913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-arroyo","tag-central-florida","tag-criminal-offense","tag-friday-morning","tag-frost","tag-ice-activity","tag-immigrant","tag-immigration","tag-inmate","tag-jail","tag-orange-county-corrections","tag-orange-county-jail","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-past-week","tag-state","tag-surge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}