{"id":137137,"date":"2026-01-30T03:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137137\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T03:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:15:18","slug":"cory-mills-lashes-out-at-volusia-town-hall-after-ice-pushback-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137137\/","title":{"rendered":"Cory Mills lashes out at Volusia town hall after ICE pushback \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This story is part of the News Collaborative of Central Florida, an initiative of independent local news outlets working toward a more informed and engaged Central Florida. It was originally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2026\/01\/29\/outrage-over-ice-agents-during-florida-congressman-cory-mills-town-hall\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published by WKMG News 6\/ClickOrlando.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>NEW SMYRNA BEACH \u2014 U.S. Rep. Cory Mills was booed at his town hall Thursday by a crowd angry over his support of ICE operations in Florida and Minnesota, leading him to call one participant \u201ca bumbling moron.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At least two dozen police officers were posted outside the Brannon Center before the town hall began, as a group of eight women held a banner that read, \u201cRaging Grannies\u201d and a sign that read, \u201cIce Out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another sign stated, \u201cWe Could All Be Pretti Good,\u201d in support of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, the two Minnesotans shot and killed by immigration agents earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Mills addressed questions submitted prior to the event, including, \u201cI\u2019m a brown person\u2026what are you going to do to keep all constituents safe, not just the ones who look like you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This question immediately got a round of applause.<\/p>\n<p>The question went on to read, \u201cWhat about arresting members of ICE wrongfully shooting and killing Americans? How are you going to protect your district from ICE?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Representative Mills said, \u201cI think we need to tone down the dangerous rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next, he mentioned his son is half Middle Eastern before saying he agrees there is hate in this world.<\/p>\n<p>He addressed a question about why ICE Agents wear masks. He said it\u2019s to protect their identity, keeping them safe.<\/p>\n<p>To that, a guest in the crowd shouted, \u201cWhen you behave legally, you won\u2019t need a mask.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A man shouted that \u201cAlex Pretti was executed.\u201d Rep. Mills responded, saying, \u201cAuthorities are still reviewing evidence, and so far, evidence seen doesn\u2019t confirm an execution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He then got a roaring boo and some words of profanity while he went on to say, \u201cThe purpose of ICE is to get rid of violent criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mills also responded to the question of whether there are plans to build an ICE Detention Center in his district. He said he\u2019s not heard of any plans.<\/p>\n<p>Mills appeared to get frustrated with some in the crowd and their questions.<\/p>\n<p>He responded to one man saying, \u201cSir, do you want me to continue to finish, or do you wanna continue to go on like a bumbling moron?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was scheduled to host another Town Hall Thursday from 5 \u2013 8 p.m. at the Oviedo on the Park Amphitheatre &amp; Cultural Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of the News Collaborative of Central Florida, an initiative of independent local news outlets&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,114,115,139,141,140,5765,99,1014,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-137137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-orlando","12":"tag-orlando-headlines","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-oviedo","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-seminole-county","17":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137137","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=137137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}