The cost of ICE trauma in Orange County is too high
Op ed by Jill Heroux - Reprint - Orlando Sentinel OPINION SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 2026
Our Central Florida community is being torn apart by ICE. This unjust disruption is imposing far-reaching and long-lasting costs on our community. Residents are frightened, isolated and looking for leadership. Orange County elected officials the power to push back, ensuring all people here feel safe and neighborhoods thrive.
The escalation of ICE activity has created a chilling effect. The cost in terms of trauma to people is immeasurable. Families remain trapped in their homes, local businesses lose customers, and school attendance has dropped sharply, with school closures being discussed. The anxiety isn’t limited to immigrants. Non-immigrant children fear coming home and finding their parents have disappeared. Anxiety and depression are palpable among citizenry and immigrants alike.
Trust in local institutions is broken. When law enforcement — from local police to Fish and Wildlife officers — are deputized as ICE agents, the public faith in them evaporates and leaves communities vulnerable. Deceptive tactics used to lure people to detain them makes everyone feel less safe. When people fear calling for help, the entire community’s security suffers. This is another cost to the community.
Constitutional rights are guaranteed to everyone, regardless of status. Due process violations occur routinely; policies undermine basic rights and human dignity. Because the Supreme Court allows “perceived race” or “accents” as grounds for reasonable suspicion, a staggering 57.3% of Orange County residents (34.9% Hispanic and 22.4% Black) are potential ICE targets. Documented immigrants have been wrongly detained and deported. Even U.S. citizens have been arrested and jailed. The entire county is on edge. Another cost to the community.
Advocates have fought for a year just to ensure transparency at the Orange County jail, where detainees on ICE holds were scrubbed from public records. Families have been distraught because they could not locate their loved one. ICE also used revolving-door tactics of removing a detainee at the end of their 72-hour hold, and then returning them to restart the clock, often under a new detention number. County leaders have responded to the information presented, but it has been a hard-fought advocacy process for due process and transparency (“After record January, number of ICE detainees in Orange County jail plummets in February,” March 1). The cost to the families and the community is too high to measure.
The last cost to mention is in dollars lost to the taxpayers. This has come up as a first cost in the conversation with ICE, rather than the trauma to the community. The Sentinel has documented the fiscal deficit of housing ICE detainees in the Orange County Jail. Another fiscal liability for the county is the habeas corpus cases that are being won in court. They are open to suits being filed. But the cost in terms of human lives torn apart, families destroyed, constitutional rights being ignored and anxiety to an entire county is far greater than the financial cost.
Our county leaders must be courageous in questioning their obligation to participate in ICE agreements. They need to be guided by values that count the cost in terms of human lives and community peace of mind into highest consideration. The voice of the people needs to be heard and respected. Fear in leadership has no place here. They need to do everything within their power to limit, to the greatest extent possible, the cost of these traumas to our community. Rather than comply in advance, they need to get clarification on their legal obligations. Our community deserves leaders who stand up and act courageously on their behalf, even when faced with threats from the state.
Jill Heroux is a retired mental-health professional and a co-chair of the Immigration Committee for the League of Women Voters of Orange County.