Civil Rights and Immigrants' Rights Organizations Issue a Statewide Travel Alert in Florida
- American Civil Liberties Union of
Florida -
Civil rights and immigrants' rights leaders issued a
travel
alert informing individuals traveling to Florida to anticipate
the possible violation of their rights if Senate Bill 168 and
House Bill 527 become Florida law.
These bills prohibit all localities in the state from
adopting
policies or procedures that limit entanglement with federal
immigration enforcement. They also require each and every Florida
county and municipality to expend already limited local resources
to enforce federal immigration law, including complying with U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) detainer requests
that could expose them to significant legal and financial
liability -- whose costs would ultimately be borne by Florida
taxpayers.
The alert comes amid these bills' steady progress in the
Florida State legislature and cautions both Florida travelers and
residents, especially Black, brown and Latinx communities, of the
increased likelihood of racial profiling, unjust detention, and
possible deportation if these anti-immigrant bills pass.
[...]
In addition to the irreparable human cost these bills
would
create for immigrant communities and communities of color across
the state, these bills would also expose counties and other
government entities to potential legal and financial liabilities
by forcing local authorities to comply with ICE's flawed detainer
system. Last month, a report revealed that in just two years
after agreeing to work with ICE, Miami-Dade County records showed
that 420 people listed as U.S. citizens had false detainer
requests issued against them. Its findings came on the heels of
three lawsuits that have recently been filed against Florida
authorities for holding people on detainers. Two cases were
brought by U.S. citizens -- Garland Creedle and Peter Sean Brown
-- who were held for ICE by Miami-Dade and Monroe County
respectively. The third case is a class action against Miami-Dade
County.
"ICE's broken detainer system has wrongfully disrupted
the
lives and families of Floridians," said Micah Kubic, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida. "If
either SB 168 and HB 527
become law, then we'd find this disruption occurring on a
statewide level. Forcing Florida law enforcement
agencies...threatens the civil rights of all Floridians. The
Constitution guarantees that every person should have due process
and the right to equal treatment, regardless of their
citizenship."
Besides issuing the travel alert, the coalition of civil
rights and immigrants' rights organizations has also issued
information on the negative economic impact of this proposed
legislation and has advised corporations doing business in
Florida of these risks as well as the increased likelihood of
constitutional violations of their clients traveling to the
state.
"It's shameful that the state of Florida seeks to
further
harass immigrant communities and erode public safety," said
Thomas Kennedy, Florida Immigrant Coalition Political Director.
"Taking precious local resources away from law enforcement to
further target Floridian families for deportation comes at an
extremely high financial and moral cost. The insidious attacks
against immigrants on the national level are being amplified by
Florida lawmakers pushing for anti-immigrant policies. It's more
important than ever for immigrants to feel like they can turn to
their local elected officials and police force to protect them.
Instead, immigrant communities are being threatened, profiled,
harassed and detained in greater numbers. Florida lawmakers need
to realize that there will be consequences for attacking our
families. The world is watching Florida right now, and what we do
next as a state will determine whether people will still want to
visit us and if industry leaders still feel comfortable doing
business with us."
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 14 - April 20, 2019
Article Link:
Civil Rights and Immigrants' Rights Organizations Issue a Statewide Travel Alert in Florida - American Civil Liberties Union of
Florida
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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