Many sported faux $50 bills on their chests to signify the amount of money the feds can pay local sheriffs' offices (17 of them, including those of Hillsborough and Pinellas) to keep undocumented immigrants in custody for up to 48 hours following a post-arrest release so that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can pick them up for likely deportation.
Opponents to that and other anti-immigrant policies say authorities who enforce them lack humanity, and that they're tearing families apart.
Reverend Andy Oliver of Allendale Methodist Church had a concrete example — the case of Plant City man Luis Blanco, a married father of six (seven, soon) who was recently sent to an ICE facility in Miami to await deportation to his home country, Mexico.
No one knew how things would shake out in his case, but advocates hoped authorities would let him stay on a humanitarian basis since he was the sole earner in his large family.
Oliver's update was not a happy one.
"Sadly, Luis was deported today," Oliver said. "Our immigration system thrives and survives on treating certain people inhumanely. Luis was dropped off at the border, and is currently in Reynosa, even though he [is from] Veracruz."
The distance between the border town Reynosa and Blanco's hometown, Veracruz, is more than 610 miles.
"We stand here today in solidarity with his family, who is going through trauma, severe trauma," Oliver said.
He urged anyone who was interested in helping the family to visit a crowdfunding page set up to help them get by in the absence of their only breadwinner.
While Blanco's case wasn't related to the new agreement between ICE and 17 Florida sheriffs' departments, the policy loomed large for a community that feels most current policies related to immigration are draconian and intentionally target minorities.
"Eventually, it's going to fall," he said. "You cannot hold somebody in jail without a judge saying they should be in jail, at least for the investigation of a crime. So what has been worked out is a way to hold people without sufficient constitutional [justification]. And that should not stand."
A member of a family with multiple undocumented immigrants, Osiris Hernandez said there are some 33,000 DACA recipients in Florida, and that if the impending reversal of DACA occurs, deporting most or all recipients would create $1.5 billion in annual GDP losses.
Yet all those families want is a chance at prosperity.
"Once again, they have failed to protect my family and the families that are part of our community, and once again they criminalize us for wanting more for our communities," she said.
Aida Mackic said efforts to deport DACA recipients and others could have adverse effects for entire communities.
"Victims of crimes of all statuses will be afraid to approach police and report crimes, thus making our communities less safe," she said.
"There's no such thing as an illegal human being. Human beings are not disposable. And what happened to Luis Blanco is sickening. You're disposing of a human being, and look at what you're doing to the family. It's un-American. It's unconstitutional." "Luis Blanco wasn't a criminal. He was a citizen of Hillsborough County for 20 years. For 20 years."
This article appears in Feb 1-8, 2018.