Mayor Buddy Dyer on Monday defended the Orlando Police Department's agreement, finalized last month, to provide officers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions.
Those officers are authorized to interrogate and arrest people suspected of being in the country illegally.
Speaking at a City Council meeting, Dyer said the Florida Police Chiefs Association recommended the agreement. But he said OPD will not be proactive in immigration enforcement and will follow the Orlando Trust Act, a council resolution approved in 2018 that says officers will not ask about immigration status.
“We will from time to time apparently be called upon to support ICE,” the mayor added. “And we will do what we have to do in that regard. We don't want to lose both federal and state funding.”
On March 26, Orlando joined 128 other participating Florida law enforcement agencies -- and 43 whose involvement is still under a pending status -- in providing officers for immigration enforcement. Florida makes up 72% of the nation's overall participation in this particular kind of agreement, known as the Task Force Model of ICE’s 287(g) program.
Advocates for the immigrant community said the agreement is not legally required under a new Florida law. And they said it violates the city’s 2018 resolution.
They said people are scared, especially as temporary legal status -- under a “parole” program -- for thousands of local immigrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua could end on April 24.
Ericka Gomez-Tejeda, organizing director with the Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka, spoke at a press conference before the meeting.
“We are here today,” she said, “because we are shocked that this has happened. We wanted to find out how this could possibly have happened when it affects so many of the residents and how it happened at a time of economic uncertainty and civil rights uncertainty.”
Gomez-Tejeda said the agreement undermines trust in police, which is important for preventing crime. And she said the mistakes that ICE is making cause widespread fear.
“Because the government is getting this wrong, there’s anxiety regardless of immigration status,” she said. “People who have legal residency are also scared to speak up. People who are citizens are scared to speak up, right?
“So what we’re really seeing is an extension of that by the Police Department participating in that. That’s not how you get witnesses. That’s not how you deal with crime.”
Seven years ago, Esteban Garces pushed for the Orlando Trust Act.
Now, he told the City Council, Orlando is part of the federal government’s "deportation and disappearing machine."
“You're a part of the machine that shatters dreams, that disappears parents, that silences students. That is who you are now.”
Central Florida Public Media environment reporter Molly Duerig contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 Central Florida Public Media
