As Florida law enforcement agencies work more closely with federal immigration authorities, immigrant rights activists and families are raising concerns about people potentially being held in custody without any public trace, despite the state’s public information laws.
Miami-Dade officials have asserted their commitment to transparency and adherence to state law regarding the release of inmate information. However, a provision in their agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stipulates that any records and information created under the agreement are federal records, leading many to believe that ICE will have final say over what information is released, including whether a person is even being held.
William Mann, a lawyer with the Community Justice Project, argues that this could pose a significant problem. He fears that local agencies could exploit this provision to prevent relatives, friends, activists, and journalists from accessing information, essentially making those detained as “ICE prisoners” disappear from the system.
Under Governor Ron DeSantis, local and state officials have been required to play a more active role in aiding federal immigration enforcement, a policy that has been amplified since President Donald Trump took office.
A 2022 law broadened Florida’s ban on so-called “sanctuary” policies and required county detention facility operators to enter into agreements with ICE, empowering local officers to identify and process “removable aliens” within their jails. Another measure signed into law this year requires officials overseeing local or state law enforcement agencies to make their best efforts to support federal immigration law enforcement. At the request of federal agencies, county jails must also supply lists of “all inmates” and “any information” on each person’s immigration status.
At a Miami-Dade committee meeting, the board reviewed new terms for the county’s existing ICE agreement but ultimately deferred and left Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to approve the agreement herself. Levine Cava stated she had no choice as this is Florida law and the agreement had to be signed. She and several commissioners noted that any public records under the county’s control would continue to be public.
However, officials in Miami-Dade, despite their commitments to transparency, previously, federal detainees, including those held on immigration holds, did not appear in Orange County jail records until last week.
Ericka Gómez-Tejeda, director of the Hope Community Center, says officials in that county previously took the position that federal records fell outside of the state’s open records laws, effectively making immigrants vanish from the system. She pointed to the case of Esvin Juarez, who was arrested and deported to Guatemala without his family or attorneys knowing where he was being held. She suggests that making it difficult to track detained immigrants is intentional, harming their rights to due process.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings directed the jail to start posting information on those being held for ICE last week, but Gómez-Tejeda contends that this may not help individuals picked up in other counties or states before being transferred to Orange County.
Meanwhile, U.S. Representative Maxwell Frost, a Democrat, has proposed a bill to prevent secret detentions and end detainee abuse. The bill would require all ICE facilities to publicly report identities, locations, times, and reasons for detention. Frost emphasized that if President Donald Trump and his allies believe these policies are defensible, then they should not be afraid to make the information public. The Associated Press reports that Kate Payne in Tallahassee contributed to this article.
