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  • Orange County mayor says local taxpayers “unfairly” shouldering cost of federal ICE duties

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    Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings wrote a letter to the U.S. Marshals Service on Monday, asking the feds to fully reimburse the county for the cost of jailing people who have been detained on immigration charges on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal agency.

    According to Mayor Demings, compliance with federal immigration enforcement has already cost county taxpayers more than $333,000 and counting. The county, like other jail operators in Florida, has an agreement with ICE, known as an intergovernmental services agreement, that allows ICE officers to detain federal inmates in Orange County Jail temporarily who are allegedly in the country illegally. 

    The U.S. Marshals Service, however, is not fully reimbursing the cost for doing so. While the cost of detaining a person is roughly $180 per person, per day, county officials say the feds are only reimbursing the county $88 per person, leaving local taxpayers on the hook for the rest.

    “Orange County has done our part to ensure our operations are compliant with both federal and state laws which have mandated our participation in supporting immigration enforcement activities,” Demings’ letter reads. “But I am deeply concerned that the fiscal impact of these legislative mandates is being unfairly shouldered by Orange County, to the tune of over $333,592.”

    According to Demings, Orange County Jail has seen a “continually increasing” number of people booked by or on behalf of ICE, with over 5,000 ICE detainees booked into the jail over just the last eight months alone, including those detained in neighboring areas outside Orange County.

    Although county officials formally requested a renegotiated reimbursement cost from the federal government for housing ICE detainees in the local jail in August, Demings says the county has not received an updated figure or full reimbursement as requested, to date.

    “The burden of the expense related to immigration enforcement activities should be borne by the federal government, not local governments who’ve been forced to follow the law in support of your initiatives,” Demings wrote.

    “The burden of the expense related to immigration enforcement activities should be borne by the federal government, not local governments who’ve been forced to follow the law in support of your initiatives.”

    It’s the closest thing to a mic-drop that locals are bound to get from Demings, who has faced heat from local immigrant rights advocates this year over his professed sense of helplessness to address concerns about aggressive federal immigration enforcement in Orange County.

    “We are seeing people aggressively being taken by masked agents in our communities. Unmarked uniforms, arrests without warrants,” Hope Community Center organizing director Ericka Gomez-Tejeda told Demings and county commissioners last week during a county commissioner board meeting.

    Advocates noted that, under separate state agency agreements with ICE, local communities have “incredibly” seen officers not just from ICE, but from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and state Department of Financial Services “in our streets, at our doors,  working for ICE.”

    “When an agency meant to protect the environment is instead stopping community members and becoming a pipeline to immigration detention, this kind of enforcement erodes [trust] and pushes the agency far outside their intended role,” said Farmworker Association of Florida organizer Aaron Quen-Perez, speaking at a press conference ahead of the board meeting last week.

    Demings, however, dismissed the county’s responsibility for addressing such concerns. “The resolution to this issue is not in these chambers, it is somewhere else,” Demings stated bluntly. “If there’s a complaint about how these individuals are doing their business, if they’re violating rights, I believe that the appropriate venue for those types of complaints is either with the federal government, with the state, or the courts — not the Orange County Commission.”

    The Immigrants Are Welcome Here coalition, made up of more than 60 local legal and advocacy groups, including Hope Community Center, has been advocating over the last year for stronger rights for individuals detained by ICE under the Trump administration at the local jail.

    According to NPR, more than 1.6 million immigrants in the U.S. lost their legal status in the first 11 months of President Donald Trump’s second term that began in January, including individuals previously accepted to enter the country through temporary protected status or asylum programs.

    Calls to oppose or publicly challenge Trump’s mass detention and deportation plans, however, have put Demings in a tough spot. Demings, a former sheriff and police chief, recently launched a bid for Florida governor and is running as a Democrat in a solidly red state that overwhelmingly supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election. 

    Still, Demings has made it clear he wants the county to, at the very least, be reimbursed for detaining federal inmates on behalf of ICE — even if he’s less interested in investigating the circumstances under which those individuals were brought to the jail in the first place.

    “I request the USMS expedite the renegotiation of our IGSA and provide us with a complete reimbursement of Orange County’s expenses related to your immigration enforcement initiatives, such that our local taxpayers no longer bear the costs of your initiative,” Demings’ letter to the USMS reads.

    The financial burden, as Demings wrote, amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars so far, in addition to a greater burden on the county’s already understaffed and overburdened corrections system. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, for its part, is now offering unauthorized immigrants an “exit bonus” of $3,000 to “self-deport” and avoid the detention process altogether, the Wall Street Journal reports.

    The DHS, a federal agency that includes ICE, has billed the “exit bonus” as a “limited time offer” for the holiday season, according to WSJ. The Trump administration previously offered a $1,000 bonus to migrants to “self-deport,” although the Guardian reports that some have taken up the offer, but never actually received any money.

    Beyond the financial burden, of course, local advocates for immigrants in Orange County have also highlighted the emotional and physical toll of the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement efforts. “Our communities are living the nightmares that we and every U.S. American citizen dreads,” Gomez-Tejeda said during a press conference on aggressive ICE enforcement tactics last week.

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    “I believe that the appropriate venue for those types of complaints is either with the federal government, with the state or the courts,” Mayor Demings said when pressed

    The money was requested for AI language translators, pepper spray, GPS trackers, handcuffs, bonuses, and more

    Two migrant detention centers may have violated international standards by imposing conditions that could amount to torture, the group claims



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    McKenna Schueler
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  • Man receives medical care after Border Patrol pursuit ends in east Charlotte

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    A man received medical treatment after he appeared to collapse while Border Patrol agents attempted to detain him on Milton Road Sunday near Weeping Willow AME Zion Church, said a neighbor who saw the interaction.

    Raquel, who declined to provide her last name out of concern for her safety, lives off W.T. Harris Boulevard. She said she saw the interaction between agents and the man in front of the church.

    She said agents pursued him in their vehicles from nearby Dany’s Supermarket, where two men had been arrested earlier in the day.

    All of this was happening as federal Border Patrol agents began their second day of operations in the Charlotte area Sunday morning. Saturday in the region saw masked agents taking people from public places, protesters marched in uptown, some businesses closed and activists tried to document what was happening.

    On Milton Road, Raquel said agents attempted to pull the man out of his car and he fell to the ground. They screamed at him to get out after opening his door, she said.

    A witness said a man was injured after fleeing from Border Patrol agents on Milton Road in Charlotte, NC on Sunday, November 16, 2025.
    A witness said a man was injured after fleeing from Border Patrol agents on Milton Road in Charlotte, NC on Sunday, November 16, 2025. submitted

    Social media rumors erupted about the incident, but Raquel said the man appeared to be alive and moving — just in shock. She said two agents went into the ambulance with the man.

    His condition could not immediately be ascertained.

    Observer reporter Julia Coin contributed to this report.

    This story was originally published November 16, 2025 at 3:36 PM.

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    Nora O’Neill,Desiree Mathurin

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  • A Queens mom and her young family try to find ‘the strength to survive’ after ICE took their husband and father away | amNewYork

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    Ecuadorian native Jessica Supliguicha sat inside her Queens apartment, cradling her month-old baby. She wept as she thought of her husband, Jorge, who had never met the girl she held in her arms; he had been deported to Ecuador three days before their baby was born.

    “I don’t know where I get the strength to survive,” Supliguicha said with tears welling in her eyes.

    The tot’s father was taken into custody by ICE agents inside 26 Federal Plaza on Sept. 6; meanwhile, his eight-month pregnant wife was outside of the building waiting to reunite with him. Although other families emerged, Jorge never came out. A lawyer called Supliguicha frantically, stating that Jorge had been detained.

    It was a moment that not only left her traumatized, with only a month post-partum, she would now be unable to provide for her family. Hearing his mother sob softly, her 9-year-old son Dylan sidled over to her and embraced her.

    How Jorge and Jessica met

    Photo by Dean Moses
    Ecuadorian native Jessica Supliguicha sat inside her Queens apartment, cradling her month-old baby. She wept as she thought of her husband, Jorge, who had never met the girl she held in her arms. Heartbreakingly for Supliguicha, Jorge was deported to Ecuador three days before their baby was born.Photo by Dean Moses

    amNewYork followed Supliguicha as she went about her daily life — preparing food for the newborn and folding laundry while Dylan watched YouTube videos and took his Halloween costume for a test spin.

    “It’s Huggy Wuggy!” the boy exclaimed, disappearing into a blue fury costume. Dylan also explained that he was preparing for the Big Halloween dance at school, something he was brimming with excitement over.

    “It’s Huggy Wuggy!” the boy exclaimed, disappearing into a blue fury costume. Dylan also explained that he was preparing for the Big Halloween dance at school, something he was brimming with excitement over.Photo by Dean Moses

    Despite both of them attempting to put on a brave face, a sense of sadness and despair clung to the walls and ceilings of the home, a pressure that felt as though it added weight to each movement.

    Dylan was born out of a previous marriage, but Jorge was, for all intents and purposes, his father — serving as the patriarch he did not have.

    “Jorge came to fill up that emptiness that Dylan needed,” Supliguicha said.

    Now, Dylan is left without a father figure and feels that the only friend he has is his cat.

    For Jorge and Supliguicha, it was a time-old romance of two friends who just never got the timing right. They had known each other since they were just 15 years old, but it wasn’t until 20 years later that fate struck when they reconnected in 2023.

    Both already had families and kids, but something changed this time. Supliguicha saw Jorge with different eyes.

    Both still feared the violence that continued to brew in their motherland. While Supliguicha became a citizen in 2023 after ten years of residency, Jorge had fled stateside after one of his brothers was killed in Ecuador by a gang. When they both found each other in New York, they also discovered comfort in one another and fell in love.Photo by Dean Moses

    Both still feared the violence that continued to brew in their motherland. While Supliguicha became a citizen in 2023 after 10 years of residency, Jorge had fled stateside after one of his brothers was killed in Ecuador by a gang.

    When they met in New York, they also discovered comfort in each other and fell in love.

    Jorge was attempting to resolve the situation with his papers since he had a deportation order that had to be amended because he was marrying a US citizen and his wife was pregnant. They fitted him with an ankle monitor without explanation; he wore the monitor when they tied the knot.

    After four days of marriage, Jorge received a letter stating that he had to appear in court on Sept. 6. He complied with the order, and was subsequently taken into custody by ICE. Supliguicha has not seen him since.

    “I felt that the world was coming to an end,” Supliguicha said. “They change your life overnight.”

    Photo by Dean Moses
    Photo by Dean Moses

    She was shocked from the moment she lost Jorge in the hands of ICE, and as the days passed, she entered the final month of her pregnancy and fell into a depressive state.

    “I became anemic. She (her baby) was underweight,” Supliguicha said.

    Between tears, Supliguicha remembered how she felt the moment they gave her her child, Maite Cristina, after giving birth on Oct. 5. She explains how her pregnancy was an at-risk one, since she had miscarried in the past.

    Photo by Dean Moses
    Photo by Dean Moses

    “She was a girl that I was going to lose from the beginning. She overcame many things(during the pregnancy). But, I never thought that at eight months she would also have to overcome the absence of her father,” Supliguicha said.

    Still, something was missing: Jorge.

    Currently, Jorge is hiding in Ecuador, where he could be persecuted and killed. Supliguicha fears for her husband’s life, with the continued violence on the streets and his brother being murdered by gang members, Jorge is in hiding to survive.

    The dread for her husband’s life and whether her family will ever see him again is an unbearable weight Supliguicha must carry while caring for her family alone.

    “A former sister in law got involved with that gang of robberies and drugs. His family was harmed.” Supliguicha explains why her husband is in danger in Ecuador. “He couldn’t prove here with facts that he was in danger. Right now, he is in danger. He’s always hiding. He doesn’t go out much.”

    Both are waiting for the I-130 form, a petition used by U.S. citizens to bring a non-citizen relative who wants to come to the U.S, to be approved.

    In the meantime, Supliguicha plans to return to work in three weeks because she is struggling to make ends meet and cannot afford the rent.

    Despite both of them attempting to put on a brave face, a sense of sadness and despair clung to the walls and ceilings of the home, a pressure that felt as though it added weight to each movement.Photo by Dean Moses

    Supliguicha created a GoFundMe account to help support her family. She hopes for the future to reunify the family and wishes her daughter to be able to grow with her father.

    “All I can do is move forward and find a way to do things the way they’re supposed to be. Hoping that the paperwork will one day be approved,” she said. 

    At the same time, she emphasizes that her situation is not unique, but rather one of many.

    “I would like them to stop and give them the opportunity for the people who were deported to be reunited, to be together again. Experiencing family separation is awful. My daughter is very young; she can’t understand, but there are older children who can. My husband’s daughters, who were also left without a father,” Supliguichia said.

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    By Dean Moses, Amanda Moses, and Florencia Arozarena

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  • ICE raid fallout: Goldman says feds detained four American citizens detention overnight, pledges task force in response | amNewYork

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    Congressman Dan Goldman said that four of the people arrested during the Canal Street ICE raid on Tuesday were American Citizens, and they were held at 26 Federal Plaza overnight.

    Photo by Dean Moses

    US Rep. Dan Goldman said late on Wednesday afternoon that four of the people arrested during Tuesday’s ICE raid in Chinatown were American citizens who were held overnight at 26 Federal Plaza.

    Goldman fumed as he once again stood outside of the immigration facility late Wednesday afternoon, charging that he believes the viral, violent federal raid that amNewYork reported on was designed by President Trump to sow the seeds of chaos in advance of eventually sending military personnel into the Big Apple.

    “It is purely a pretext to incite violence, so that this administration can then say that it needs to bring in the military to stop violence that they have created,” Goldman charged. “This is not how you conduct an operation designed to be targeted at criminal undocumented immigrants.”

    During the now infamous raid, passing New Yorkers became enraged at the sight of vendors being taken away in cuffs by masked men and confronted them, leading to people being shoved to the ground and narrowly missing oncoming traffic.

    Amidst the mayhem, four American citizens were arrested by federal agents and taken back to 26 Federal Plaza in cuffs, where they were held overnight before being released just prior to Goldman speaking out.

    Congressman Dan Goldman said that four of the people arrested during the Canal Street ICE raid on Tuesday were American Citizens, and they were held at 26 Federal Plaza overnight.Photo by Dean Moses

    “There is no circumstance when four American citizens should be arrested for no reason, because they were released today without any charges. There was no basis. ICE is not allowed to arrest American citizens,” Goldman said. “They spent the night in 26 Federal Plaza in detention, immigration detention, American citizens for nothing. No charges, nothing. This is an abuse of power, and it must stop.”

    Goldman’s statements would appear to indicate potential constitutional violations by ICE of the arrested citizens’ right to due process of law, specifically as outlined in the 14th Amendment. 

    As ICE activity spills out of the courtroom and onto the streets, the Congress member said he is looking to create a task force to respond to these incidents in real time. However, he noted that this is still in the brainstorming stage and has yet to develop a comprehensive plan.

    “My office is working together with other advocates and overlapping elected officials to set up a rapid response task force to coordinate and make sure that no New Yorkers suffer from excessive force, violence, and abuse. If you are going to come here and pretend to act as a federal official, then you’d better act according to the law,” he said.

    Goldman noted that he previously worked as a lawyer for a decade “with ICE agents, Department of Homeland Security agents … prosecuting real criminals.”

    “This is not how they ordinarily behaved. This is coming from the top down with instructions to cause chaos and violence. What we need right now, from the top down, and I’m talking to you, [acting ICE] Director [Todd] Lyons, tell your agents to cool it,” Goldman said.

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    Dean Moses

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  • ICE in Courts: Lander, Goldman demand Congressional inquiry into Homeland Security after ICE supervisor who violently shoved mother was reinstated | amNewYork

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    The ICE supervisor relieved of his duties by homeland security after he shoved a mother to the ground in 26 Federal Plaza.

    Photo by Dean Moses

    City Comptroller Brad Lander and U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman are demanding an oversight inquiry into Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem after she reinstated the ICE supervisor who was caught on video shoving a mother to the ground at 26 Federal Plaza last week.

    The two Democratic pols are fuming after it became clear that the infamous ICE agent involved in the viral shoving of an Ecuadorian mother in the hallway of immigration court would be returning to work. 

    In a statement issued on Sept. 26, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed that the fed in question would be suspended pending an investigation.

     “Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

    That investigation proved to be short-lived, however, after news broke Monday evening that the agent in question had been reinstated, and was back on the job at 26 Federal Plaza — where for months, ICE agents have seized immigrants attending court-mandated hearings.

    Lander and Goldman said Noem has explaining to do as to why the ICE supervisor, who still has not been publicly identified, was brought back on duty so quickly after he was purportedly suspended.

    “With yesterday’s reinstatement of an ICE agent who violently threw a bereft woman to the floor and today’s assault on members of the press, it’s back to business as usual for the Trump Administration — because, after all, the cruelty is the point,”  Lander said on Sept. 30. “These heinous actions cannot go unanswered, which is why I am demanding answers from Secretary Noem and the Department of Homeland Security on the conduct of ICE agents and their use of excessive force.”

    The officials also alleged that ICE is hiring agents with little experience or expertise and without proper training. They are also critiquing Noem for not publicly releasing the findings of the DHS investigation into the shoving incident.

    “The Department’s decision to reinstate this officer is outrageous, especially in light of their own acknowledgement last week that his conduct was unacceptable,” Goldman said. “This officer deserves criminal investigation, not a paycheck from the taxpayers, and it has become clear that giving him a pass for this behavior is incentivizing other rank and file agents to commit violence against civilians.”

    The announcement from Lander and Goldman came hours after masked ICE agents accosted members of the press documenting an arrest at 26 Federal Plaza.

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    Dean Moses

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  • ICE in court: Temporary order blocking mass detainment at 26 Federal Plaza extended amid uncertainty | amNewYork

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    A man is led away to the 10th floor by ICE.

    Photo by Dean Moses

    A judge’s temporary restraining order preventing a large number of immigrants from being held in ICE detention on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan has been extended, but advocates and elected officials fear what will happen when the ruling finally expires.

    The immigration court at Fedearl Plaza continues to play host to a steady stream of emotional ICE arrests, including family separations that leave children weeping. The number of arrests appears to have slowed over the last several weeks since a federal judge ordered that conditions in the facility be improved, as well as reduce the number of people held there. 

    The order was due to sunset on Aug. 26, but has since been extended through Tuesday, Sept. 9. The arrests went on Wednesday, Aug. 27, as amNewYork observed two apprehensions in immigration court on the 12th floor.

    In one incident, an ICE agent confiscated a woman’s paperwork as she left a courtroom in order to prevent her from leaving the building. She said she just needed to use the bathroom; however, she snatched the paperback and returned to court.

    “I guess she changed her mind,” the agent said.

    In another incident, a man leaving his hearing later that afternoon was ambushed by several masked men and pulled away into a stairwell. 

    A man is taken by ICE at court.Photo by Dean Moses
    A woman is led away by ICE. Photo by Dean Moses

    City Comptroller Brad Lander, who has made visits to immigration court almost on a weekly basis, says that it appears that the Department of Homeland Security is abiding by the judge’s order while also stating that even one detainment is too many.

    “The numbers have been more like three or four in recent days — three or four too many, but thankfully down from the numbers that we were seeing earlier,” Lander said. “We were worried before today that the temporary restraining order was not going to be extended. So, it’s extended until Sept. 9, that is a good thing.”

    With the order expiring next month, some say they are concerned about the wide-ranging effects on the immigrant community. In an interview with amNewYork, Co-Director of Health Justice New York Lawyers for the Public Interest Karina Albistegui Adler said the medical well-being of detainees in custody is one of her biggest concerns.

    She claims people in ICE detention are not receiving urgent medical care.

    ”We’ve seen cases where people are detained who have very serious conditions, like a history of a recent open-heart surgery, and long-term care for HIV that they’ve been receiving. They’re detained at their court hearing without those medications,” Adler said. “Because they are being moved around, family members don’t know where they are, don’t know how to advocate for them to get their medication. Sometimes they themselves don’t know that they have the right to continue to receive care.”

    The 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza was widely criticized for its cramped and unhygienic conditions, which led to several filings seeking to prevent overcrowding. Yet while the in-court detentions have slightly slowed, Adler railed that anyone detained is not given medical attention once they are taken.

    “That exacerbates their health just being detained. There’s no way to be healthy when you’re in immigration custody, frankly. And what we’re seeing with not just in the past three months with 26 Federal Plaza, but really, since January, is an overall increase in the need for health care advocacy,” Adler said.

    An ICE agent stands in front of an American flag in 26 Federal Plaza.Photo by Dean Moses

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    Dean Moses

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