{"id":277176,"date":"2026-05-19T21:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277176\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:17:15","slug":"orlando-music-venue-owner-uncle-lou-released-to-ice-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277176\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando music venue owner \u2018Uncle Lou\u2019 released to ICE custody"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Cleon Williams, the Orlando music venue owner better known as \u201cUncle Lou,\u201d is now in ICE custody, according to his attorney.<\/p>\n

Philip Arroyo says Williams, 62, was taken by ICE Tuesday morning and is no longer in the Orange County Jail. <\/p>\n

Williams had been held in jail on an immigration detainer, but days after his initial booking, we learned he would face a second-degree misdemeanor of intent to sell alcohol without a license. The charge stemmed from a state agency raiding Uncle Lou\u2019s Entertainment Hall <\/a>on Mills Avenue earlier this month.<\/p>\n

An ICE hold was placed on Williams for an expired visa. However, he was held in jail for 10 days before ICE picked him up, which violates the 72-hour hold the county originally agreed to in its agreement with ICE, along with the 48-hour hold the county recently agreed to adopt in a new deal with the agency.<\/p>\n

The local music scene has rallied around Williams since his arrest to try to get him out of jail. Williams has been a fixture in the community for about two decades, with supporters saying his bar was like an incubator for emerging talent.<\/p>\n

Local lawmakers were working <\/a>to try to help Williams get out of jail, including Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando.<\/p>\n

News 6\u2019s Community Correspondent Mike Valente has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and is waiting to hear back. A search on ICE\u2019s website does show that Williams is in ICE custody. Under \u2018Current Detention Facility,\u2019 however, the website reads \u2018Call ICE for Details.\u2019<\/p>\n

Valente also reached out to the Orange County Jail, but was told that federal law prevents them from commenting on ICE inmates.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Cleon Williams, the Orlando music venue owner better known as \u201cUncle Lou,\u201d is now in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1877,1841,1335,139,141,140,114626],"class_list":["post-277176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-uncle-lou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277176","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=277176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}