ICE tells one Florida County there is an order to expel 10,000 residents

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Orange County has illegally considered immigrants in the country, with around 10,000 removals for county residents, and that numbers could rise sharply in the coming weeks.

Mayor Jerry Demings relayed these summaries as part of the committee’s discussion of contracts that would allow prison staff to help federal immigration officials provide warrants and deportation orders.

The mayor described it as “raw numbers” provided to the Sheriff’s Office by immigration officials, and the sheriff’s spokesman confirmed the numbers with the Orlando Sentinel, but did not guarantee them.

“There’s no way to check their accuracy. Only ICE can do that,” sheriff’s spokesman Michelle Guido said in an email, referring to the Federal Immigration Service with its famous three-letter acronym.

Demings said the county was told the number of orders signed could double in the near future.

The total was surprising given the relatively low number of known detention and deportation of immigrants in central Florida since the start of the Trump administration, allowing us to predict a significant surge in enforcement activities locally. However, the total is a plausible gauge, as reliable estimates suggest that around 800,000 people, of Florida’s population, are illegal.

Historically, the mere existence of a forced order of individuals’ ice does not mean that they will be deported. The Trump administration has shown that it shortens or excludes these processes, but the appeal mechanism has long been in place based on the order.

In order for ICE to issue an order, for example, if someone’s visa expires, you need to be aware that there is a person in the country without permission. Institutions often do not recognize the names or status of people who have illegally crossed the border unless they violate the law.

ICE personnel did not respond to phone or email inquiries from the Sentinel.

If the ice pursued the deportation of 10,000 ordered people in Orange County, it has increased significantly over the past few years, affecting local law enforcement activities and county jail operations.

Orange County Corrections Director Louis A. Kinonnes Jr. said the prison booked around 1,000 inmates to the prison in 2024. Since the beginning of 2025, 626 people have been booked to prison along with ice detainees, of which 240 have not faced state charges.

Detainees don’t need any possible causes to believe someone has committed a crime, but it is based on ice suspicions that a person violated immigration rules.

On Tuesday, advocates for more than 20 immigrants urged the committee members to refuse an agreement to support the ice. Supporters, including two lawyers and religious leaders, argued that the arrangement sparked fears about the immigrant community.

Some worried that this could lead to racial profiling.

“This agreement doesn’t make our community safer. People are afraid,” said Felipe Sueza Laza Barrett, executive director of Hope Community Center, which provides guidance, legal services and other support.

John Barry, an attorney at the Orlando Judicial Center, specializing in immigration and child addiction cases, said most of the immigrant children he represents are victims of abuse, abandonment or neglect. He said some are preschool children to acquire legal immigration status, but could be unfairly detained or deported.

Demings sympathized with his supporters, but emphasized the fact that an agreement was mandated.

“We feel you. We will meet you. …But at this point we don’t have a good option,” he said.

Demings said the county would be the only hold among Florida’s 67 counties if the commissioner votes to reject the agreement — Orange County has become the last county to comply — and could lose federal and state funding for the programs the county’s most vulnerable citizens rely on.

The committee members then voted 5-2 to approve the contract. Commissioner Nicole Wilson and Kelly Semrad voted no.

Semrad asked to continue the discussion at the board meeting next month and to address her concerns. She said the county wants to better understand the potential risks it envisions under the terms of the agreement.

“It’s very important for me to maintain the constitutional rights of our residents,” she said.

Immigration advocates were disappointed in the board’s vote.

Some people have accused Governor Ron DeSantis of strengthening local government issues and costs.

In Sarasota last week, along with Trump’s border border emperor Tom Homan, DeSantis said he suggested that local officials could be forced to work with Immigration Enforcement ice under Florida law, and that if they were not, they could be taken from their office.

“Under our law, they have to get involved in it and that happens. In some way, we get it done,” he said.

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