Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened on Tuesday to remove Orange County leaders from office if they failed to expand cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The county in recent weeks rejected an amendment that would have, among other things, permitted corrections officers expanded authority to coordinate with ICE, mandating local law enforcement to transfer illegal immigrants held in county jails to ICE detention centers. The “ICE addendum” would have required those officers to transport immigration detainees to federal detention centers, including the new ICE holding facility in Florida known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Citing Florida law that states counties must use their “best efforts” to assist ICE, Uthmeier, an immigration hawk who was recently issued a rebuke by a federal judge on the matter, argued that the county’s move to reject expansion of its 287(g) agreement with ICE constituted a violation of the state’s sanctuary city ban. Local officials must approve the ICE addendum requiring local officers to transport immigration detainees from local jails to ICE facilities or risk being fired from their jobs, the attorney general warned…