ORLANDO, Fla. — Under the governor’s threat of removal, Orange County commissioners on Tuesday ratified an agreement that could allow county jailers to transport immigration detainees to federal detention facilities.

The vote — coming after pleas to resist from dozens of community advocates — was 5-2 with commissioners Nicole Wilson and Kelly Martinez Semrad opposed.

But no one in the five-member majority expressed support for the amended agreement to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead, commissioners made clear they were acting because the alternative — a board appointed by a Republican governor in one of Florida’s bluest enclaves — was far worse.

Under its agreement with ICE, Orange County operates one of just seven jails in Florida that holds detainees for the federal government who are accused of immigration violations but no other crimes. County mayor Jerry Demings strongly urged commissioners to ratify the controversial addendum to that pact, which could result in county corrections officers driving detainees more than four hours to Alligator Alcatraz to be deported.

Demings said the board may decide another day whether to sue over a state law requiring local governments make their “best efforts” to assist federal immigration enforcement efforts. That is the law Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier cited in belligerent letters and press conferences last week as requiring county commissioners to approve the agreement.

Asked if she was worried DeSantis now would try to suspend or remove her from office for her no vote, Wilson acknowledged it was “a legitimate threat from somebody who is potentially using illegitimate means to do it, a little, little man.”

She said the governor has inaccurately branded and dismissed Orange County as “a sanctuary jurisdiction, when the reality of it is that we’ve done nothing but try to uphold the law as it’s been explained to us.” Florida law prohibits localities from providing “sanctuary” to undocumented immigrants, and DeSantis and Uthmeier insisted Orange County would be doing so if it ditched the amended ICE agreement.

Demings had previously rejected the transportation amendment at a July 15 county commission meeting along with a unanimous board, but signed it Friday in a move announced 15 minutes before DeSantis, Uthmeier and the rest of the governor’s cabinet began a press conference in Orlando.

Demings signed the amendment under “protest and extreme duress,” he said in a late Friday press conference, explaining that he feared his lack of compliance would put Orange County at risk for a DeSantis-appointed “minion” to take his job.

On Tuesday, the mayor said his unilateral decision to sign the agreement was “to buy time” for the board to have a thorough discussion in an open meeting with the public involved.

But the move got him an enraged community.

Over 30 residents gathered near the building where the board holds commission meetings Monday evening, toting signs labeled “Make ICE do their own dirty work,” and “Vets against tyranny” while calling on their supporters to attend the Tuesday meeting to express disapproval of Demings’ move.

Sixty community members gathered in the packed-meeting room Tuesday. Almost all of the speakers urged commissioners to side with the county’s immigrant population, and once again, reject the amendment.

A lone supporter of the pact, Chris Messina, a Republican candidate for Orange County mayor, said the community should join alongside Demings and support the series of ICE-related laws, citing his immigrant wife as an example.

“Legal immigrants like my wife bring many blessings to America when they go through the naturalization process,” he said. “Illegal immigration does the opposite… Follow the mayor’s example, join with Florida law and cooperate with ICE.”

Most speakers disagreed completely.

“Let me be clear, the Attorney General’s threat to remove duly elected officials are not about transportation, ice or fiscal responsibility,” activist Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet said. “They’re about intimidation. They’re about stripping away local power, and they’re about silencing communities like ours.”

Earlier, Semrad and Wilson had called for Orange County to join forces with the City of South Miami and engage in a lawsuit against the state to contest interpretation of the ICE-related law, or to file its own suit.

Orange County Attorney Jeff Newton said during the commission meeting that the “best efforts” requirement to cooperate with ICE is ambiguous, “probably purposely unclear,” and would likely require a court decision to define. But joining with South Miami is likely not the county’s best chance to prevail legally, he contended.

“We’re here to draw a line. This is our community. These are our tax dollars,” Semrad said at a pre-meeting press conference while fitted in a “Defending your dollars” T-shirt. “This is our future to shape, not theirs to control. We’re not here to pick a fight. We’re here to protect what is ours and to stand up and defend our tax dollars.”

Rep. Anna Eskamani D-Orlando echoed her sentiments at a pre-meeting press conference with a direct message to Gov. DeSantis: “Go DOGE yourself.”

Her comment comes after newly appointed Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia announced the Department of Governmental Efficiency, or DOGE, would target Orange County with an audit of its spending.

“There are so many opportunities for Governor DeSantis to look in the mirror and hold himself accountable,” Eskamani said. “We need to fight back.”

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(Orlando Sentinel staff writer Silas Morgan contributed to this report.)

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