A small group of activists gathered in a covered spot outside Tampa City Hall to avoid the intermittent rain as they called on Mayor Bob Buckhorn to oppose a measure in the Florida Legislature that, if passed, would require city and county officials to turn undocumented residents into authorities.
The bill is targeting "sanctuary" cities and counties, vicinities supposedly making an effort to not make life any more hellish for undocumented immigrants, most of whom have come to U.S. soil to flee strife and poverty, than it already has been. According to the anti-immigration think tank Center for Immigration Studies, Florida has seven such counties, including Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas.
The bill, H.B. 675, was filed by State Rep. Larry Metz, a Yalaha Republican. It recently cleared all necessary hurdles and was supposed to go to the House floor Wednesday, but was stalled. It's one of several anti-immigration bills the legislature is weighing this session, reflecting a nationwide anti-immigrant climate the likes of Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates have perpetuated thus far throughout the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
The activists asked that the mayor resolve to protect immigrants by not enforcing the the measure if it becomes law.
“It's going to create fear, it's going to create a lack of collaboration between police force and the community, where people will not be wanting to report any kind of criminal activity or any kind of crimes because they would be scared that they'll be asked for their documents, for their statuses, whether they're undocumented or not," said Nanci Palacios of the group Faith in Florida We Are Florida.
The bill would mandate, for example, that schoolteachers contact the authorities if they learn that a student or parent did not come to the U.S. using the proper channels.
“If that was to become a law, a lot of the students, most of the time, the first person that they tell they're undocumented will be a teacher, somebody that they trust," Palacios said. "And if they can't even do that, to be able to trust the person that's supposed to be giving them an education, one, it's going to create fear in parents in not being able to send their kids to school because they fear that their kids are going to be reported over to immigration for the simple fact that they're undocumented."
For police to crack down on such residents, she said, local law enforcement agencies will have to spend more time and create more space in order to detain and deport such individuals, individuals who have jobs and pay taxes; mainly throughout the sales tax, but many also file federal taxes, according to the nonpartisan Immigration Policy Center.
“You're talking about a law that would affect a huge amount of the workforce and a huge amount of communities in this state," Palacios said. "And it would also cost the city a lot of money to be able to enforce this law. These are families who are hardworking, who are doing their best to be able to be here in this city, in this state, really, that are going to be affected because they are without status right now.”
Plus, there are mixed-status families that could be torn apart because some family members may not have the right paperwork yet.
“You're talking about children who might be left without their parents simply because there's a law that says that because they're undocumented they can't be here," Palacios said.
It's unclear whether Buckhorn or the City Council will follow suit on the measure, as Broward County did earlier this week.
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2016.