Immigrant, labor groups protest Orange County agreement with ICE
Hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis trumpeted the arrests of more than 1,100 in Florida during an immigration enforcement sting, protesters gathered at the Orange County Jail to demand the county stop working with ICE.
More than 50 people attended the Thursday event organized by Immigrants Are Welcome Here — a coalition of immigrant rights, labor and social justice groups. It coincided with International Worker's Day, also known as May Day, and sought to raise awareness of the intersection between migrant, labor and racial rights.
'God warned them and told them, 'Don't you ever close your hand on the stranger,'' said Bishop David Maldonado of Christ International Church in Apopka. 'But Orange County has decided to align itself with ICE, and instead of having a hand wide open, it has closed its fist and threatened every immigrant in our community.'
Earlier in the day, DeSantis stood alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Miramar to laud arrests made during the weeklong sting known as Operation Tidal Wave. He called it a model for the nation as authorities seek to remove tens of thousands more immigrants living in Florida with deportation orders.
The operation was part of President Donald Trump's nationwide crackdown on immigrants without legal authority to be in the United States, an effort being felt in Central Florida.
People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Participants of the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail line up to walk to the podium, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) Bishop William Cavins pastor of Abiding Presence Faith Community speaks during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Participants of the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail chant on their way to the podium, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Labor leader and member of the Central Florida Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) Ericka Gómez-Tejada speaks during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Participants of the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail line up to walk to the podium, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Labor leader and member of the Central Florida Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) Ericka Gómez-Tejada speaks during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Participants of the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail line up to walk to the podium, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Sister Ann Kendrick holds a sign while chanting during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Labor leader and member of the Central Florida Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) Ericka Gómez-Tejada speaks during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, Executive Director of the HOPE CommUnity Center, speaks during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) A passenger pulls out a sign as they drive past the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) Show Caption1 of 32People hold signs during the May Day rally outside the Orange County Jail, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)Expand
Between Jan. 1 and April 30 there were 1,018 people booked into the Orange County Jail with an ICE detainer compared to 1,016 similarly booked in all of last year. County commissioners voted 5-2 on March 25 to ratify an agreement to federalize jail officers to hold and transfer inmates accused of violating immigration law — a move required by a new state law that aims to crackdown on undocumented migrants.
After speakers addressed the crowd for about an hour, protesters marched in front of the jail for around 30 minutes holding signs and chanting slogans like 'Money for housing and education not for jails and deportations.' Some beat a tune on buckets used as makeshift drums.
In addition to demanding due process, legal resources and multilingual support for migrant detainees at the jail, protesters called for fair wages and dignified working conditions for migrant workers — who they described as the backbone of and local communities and the American economy.
'We go from field, row after row, hour after hour, so that families can eat, so that our tables are full and our communities are nourished,' said Aaron Quen of the Farmworker Association of Florida. 'We sacrifice our bodies, we give our time, we do the work that's essential, yet too often invisible.
'Far too many farmworkers continue to live in poverty, fear and silence,' Quen said. 'We face dangerous working conditions, we lack health care, we are denied protections that many others take for granted, and worst of all, we are treated as if our humanity is somehow optional.'
One protester, 25-year-old mother Arelis Rivera, told the Orlando Sentinel she was there because she's worried about the future of the nation and what it could look like when her young son grows up.
'It's scary to think about what this world will be like for my son when he's older, in every way, when it comes to his rights as an autistic person, [and] just as as a man growing up in this society,' Rivera said.
Although she doesn't know anyone directly affected by the county agreement with ICE, she said that's no reason not to get involved.
'I also don't think that you have to know someone directly to be fearful of what's happening,' Rivera said. 'It hurts me to see strangers going through this just as much as it would hurt me to see my mom going through this, and I feel like that's what people are not understanding.'
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