Immigration rights organizations decry 5-2 vote
By Teresa Sargeant
Reporter
The Orange County Board of County Commissioners voted 5-2, on Tuesday, March 25, to ratify a memorandum of agreement for Orange County to cooperate with federal immigration officers in upholding immigration laws.
District 2 Commissioner Christine Moore, who represents Apopka, voted with the majority. District 5 Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad and District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson voted against the measure.
Orange County has set up a memorandum of agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to participate in the Warrant Service Officer Program (WSO).
“The WSO facilitates the custodial transfer of specific aliens in Orange County Corrections Department (OCCD) facilities to ICE for removal purposes at the time of the alien’s scheduled release from criminal custody,” the March 25 county commissioner board agenda packet states. “Selected OCCD personnel will be trained, certified, and approved by ICE to perform certain immigration enforcement functions within OCCD facilities.”
At the board meeting, Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings said the Florida Association of Counties called him on Feb. 19. The association informed him that his county was the only one out of the state’s 67 that didn’t sign the agreement. To not do so will result in Orange County losing federal funding.
Demings said that as “the CEO for Orange County, I can’t let that happen,” especially after speaking with Orange County Corrections Chief Louis A. Quiñones, Jr. and attorneys.
Demings clarified what Orange County’s role is in the enforcement of immigration laws.
“We are not in the business of going out into the community and doing the immigration enforcement for the federal government,” Demings said. “That’s not the role we play. Our role is to house individuals that law enforcement brings into our custody. We do not support the inhumane treatment of anyone, whether they are here legally or unlegally – unlawfully, I should say. We’re here to essentially follow a process, a mandate of the law that we do not have the discretion.”
Any local official found to be derelict of their duties by refusing to obey immigration laws could be removed from office, according to Demings.
In a Tuesday, March 25, statement, Hope Community Center and the Immigrants Are Welcome Here Coalition, representing 30 local and state immigration and human rights organizations, said they “strongly condemn the Orange County Board of County Commissioners’ approval of an agreement that essentially turns the county’s correction officers into ICE agents.”
“This is a devastating decision for our immigrant neighbors and a shameful moment for Orange County,” Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, Hope Community Center executive director, said in the statement. “Instead of engaging in democratic governance, our commissioners were forced into compliance by a governor who rules through intimidation. However, the fact that two commissioners voted against this agreement shows that our voices are being heard, and our fight is far from over.”
The March 25 statement claimed that “several commissioners privately acknowledged that they felt compelled to vote in favor of the agreement for fear of retaliation” from Governor Ron DeSantis, which would include removal from office.
“Democracy perishes when elected officials are too afraid to vote their conscience,” Tessa Petit, co-executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said in the statement. “This vote was made under duress, not through fair debate. Orange County residents deserve better from their representatives.”
On Wednesday, March 26, Orange County District 2 Commissioner Christine Moore told The Apopka Chief that the county commissioners had no choice but to vote for the agreement.
“We didn’t really have a choice,” she said, adding that Orange County must keep immigrants in jail for two days, and the Sheriff’s Office will take care of matters. “I mean, it’s federal law and state law, and our attorney said that we needed to cooperate with the legal authorities. The governor said if we didn’t, we would all be removed from office.”
Moore disagreed with Hope Community Center’s statement about the commissioners fearing retaliation from DeSantis.
“I don’t fear him, but I’m required, when I take an oath of office, I have to follow state and federal law, and that’s what they said,” Moore said. “We really didn’t have a choice to do it. Really, it was in a consent agenda.”
The Apopka Chief is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving the greater Apopka area in Central Florida since 1923.
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