ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Florida’s attorney general responded to concerns by some counties and sheriffs that the high number of immigration arrests were overburdening their jails.
Last month, 9 Investigates first reported the concerns by Orange and Pinellas counties, which represent two of the nine jails ICE uses to consolidate immigration inmates before moving them to federal facilities.
The Pinellas County sheriff said he already had 200 inmates sleeping on the floor to make room for detainees from neighboring counties, while Orange County expressed alarm that its taxpayers were shelling out tens of thousands of dollars to pay for inmates from counties like Lake, Brevard, and Indian River.
Attorney General James Uthmeier acknowledged the issue Tuesday and said his team was working on it.
“We’re going to have capacity concerns. Jails are filling up,” he said. “We’re working with the federal government to address these things.”
Uthmeier said his team was tossing around several ideas that they hoped to bring to the state Immigration Council soon.
The council had been asking that ICE use all 67 county jails instead of just nine, which meant inmates would be housed in their county of arrest.
It’s not clear if that is one of the ideas Uthmeier was considering.
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