Basic Ordering Agreements are agreements between ICE and local sheriffs in which ICE promises to pay sheriffs $50 for every immigrant they hold and turn over to ICE, for up to 48 hours of detention. Sheriffs execute these holds by re-arresting someone they were legally required to release.
The Florida Sheriffs Association stated that Basic Ordering Agreements are an “existing procurement tool for acquiring a substantial, but presently unknown, quantity of supplies or services” that allows both parties to negotiate “pricing, issuing, and delivering” for all future orders. Just as it orders supplies, with BOAs ICE now orders immigrants. BOA counties supply and deliver them.
The BOA itself is not a contract. It is an understanding of how ICE and the counties will do business. Instead, each individual “order” from ICE asking the county to unlawfully re-arrest a specific person is a contract.
The following is a sample “Order for Supplies or Services” sent from ICE to Charlotte County, Fla. for detaining immigrants. SPLC obtained it via a public records request to ICE.
