Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and immigration attorneys say federal authorities have been transporting detained migrants "around town" before rebooking them into local jails the same day to restart a three-day detention limit, raising new concerns about how immigration enforcement is being carried out in the state.
The allegation, reported by The New York Times, comes as Florida continues to operate one of the most aggressive immigration enforcement systems in the country under Gov. Ron DeSantis.
According to the report, detainees in Orange County, home to Orlando, were not being transferred to federal immigration facilities as expected, but instead briefly moved before being rebooked into jail custody, effectively resetting the clock on how long they could be held.
The practice emerges amid mounting strain on Florida's detention system. Local jails have struggled to handle a growing number of detainees, with some individuals held for longer than the three-day limit set by federal guidelines. In some cases, federal judges have intervened. One detainee, a Venezuelan man with a brain tumor, was released after being held for 25 days despite not being charged with a crime.
State and local agencies made roughly 20,000 immigration arrests in 2025, while the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office covering Florida reported nearly 10,000 arrests so far this year. The state has also expanded detention capacity, including a facility in the Everglades that costs more than $1 million per day to operate.
At the same time, concerns are growing within Republican ranks. Members of the State Immigration Enforcement Council, including Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, have warned that enforcement may be affecting people without criminal records. "They're not violating the law, and they're living the American dream," Judd told Florida Phoenix recently, describing some of those being detained.
Other officials echoed that concern. "It's too wide a net," said Naples Police Chief Ciro Dominguez to The New York Times, arguing that enforcement is "hurting people who are not the target of this."
Despite those concerns, DeSantis has rejected proposals to create a pathway to legal status for noncriminal undocumented immigrants. "That is not consistent with our laws, and it's also not good policy," he said, emphasizing continued enforcement.
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