Federal officials are still not giving straight answers about whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to plant a field office at Research Commons, the office complex tucked beside the University of Central Florida. The confusion follows earlier reporting that ICE had been looking at space at 12249 Science Drive inside Central Florida Research Park, only a short hop from campus.
Tech magazine WIRED reported in February that ICE had been eyeing a lease at Research Commons, at 12249 Science Drive, as part of a broader nationwide push to grow the agency’s field office footprint. A commercial listing for the same building shows available suites and pitches Research Commons as a secure, GSA-serviced property, according to LoopNet. That public listing, alongside WIRED’s review of federal lease records, helped trigger renewed scrutiny from campus groups and local elected officials.
When pressed for details, ICE declined to confirm any new lease, and the General Services Administration responded with a standard statement about supporting partner agencies, which did little to settle the issue. Orlando Weekly reports that GSA told Rep. Maxwell Frost’s staff in an email, shown in a screenshot shared with the paper, that the Department of the Army is already a tenant at 12249 Science Drive and that “ICE is not moving into this lease location.”
Lawmakers push back
Central Florida members of Congress have been demanding clarity from federal agencies while also pushing back on broader detention proposals. In a Feb. 6 letter to the Department of Homeland Security, Reps. Maxwell Frost and Darren Soto urged the department to drop any plan to convert nearby warehouses into detention space. “We vehemently oppose an additional ICE detention facility in Central Florida and believe DHS and ICE should abandon this plan,” they wrote, in language detailed in the letter posted by Rep. Soto’s office.
Local officials and legal limits
Orange County officials have publicly rejected the idea of new detention facilities but were advised that zoning changes and temporary moratoria are unlikely to stop a federal lease because of the supremacy clause, according to Spectrum News 13. ICE already lists an Enforcement and Removal Operations field office in Orlando at 9495 Delegates Drive in its own agency directory. Reports of possible expansion have fueled local protests, organizing by student groups, and packed county meetings that keep the pressure on federal and county leaders.
What to watch
Unless GSA or ICE publicly announces a lease, neighbors are left combing through property records and official correspondence for clues about what comes next. WIRED’s look at internal GSA documents, which found that staff were urged to move quickly and, in some cases, to limit public listings, has only heightened questions about how quietly this expansion effort might be unfolding. WIRED and local filings are likely to be the first places where any formal lease activity near UCF surfaces.
