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On March 30, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan announced she would allow a local ordinance (2025-0147) to pass without her signature. The law makes illegal immigration a local crime, allowing the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to arrest and jail undocumented immigrants for as long as 60 days and requiring local law enforcement to notify federal immigration authorities of their arrest. The legislation says 2,242 non-U.S. citizens were arrested and jailed in Duval County last year.
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Q: Jacksonville Today reader Susan A. is curious how the ordinance works, and whether police can use it to stop anyone and demand proof of citizenship.
“Can the police stop us on the streets and ask us for the documentation to prove we’re here legally? Are we now required to walk around with documentation to prove we were born here, have naturalized citizenship or an unexpired visa?”
A: As City Council members were told during debate on the bill last month, the new law does not allow the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to just stop anyone. Instead, officers can only seek to verify someone’s immigration status, including using fingerprint scanners, if they already have a reasonable suspicion or probable cause to detain them for committing another crime.
Jacksonville immigration attorney Andrea Reyes says no one is required to carry immigration documentation because of the new ordinance. But she is concerned of the possibility that it could lead to targeting of people who look a certain way.
“How do we expect our police officers to be able to do their normal job, (and) then, in addition, learn a whole new field of law and understand the nuances of documented and undocumented without racially profiling people?” Reyes worries.
Reyes spoke with Jacksonville Today for a wide-ranging conversation about immigration this week. These excerpts were edited for clarity and length.
Q: What are your thoughts on Florida’s recently enacted Senate Bill 4C, a state-level immigration law very similar to Jacksonville’s that’s being challenged in court for being unconstitutional?
A: Currently, there is a temporary restraining order that’s pausing enforcement of the state law. There is a preliminary injunction hearing coming up on the 18th. This Friday, the federal court will allow the American Civil Liberties Union and pro-immigrant groups to present their arguments as to why they believe that the bill is unconstitutional.
We’ve seen states in the past try to implement these types of laws that are over-reaching. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently ruled the federal government has plenary power over immigration law. So, we are interested to see how this is going to go because that lawsuit is going to potentially create the baseline for a lot of the other state bills that we’re starting to see pop up.
Q: What would be the impact in Jacksonville if the temporary restraining order is lifted?
A: We have two things: the state law and then we have local Ordinance 2025-0147. We expect for that ordinance to be a part of upcoming litigation in the next couple weeks. It is creating an entire normalization of criminalization of existing immigrants.
I don’t think people understand Jacksonville has long been participating in the 287(g) Program with ICE. We’ve had a memorandum of understanding since 2008, when then-Sheriff (now a U.S. Rep) John Rutherford brought that program to Jacksonville. So, a lot of these bills are completely unnecessary. They are redundant and they are intentionally designed to create a lot of fear to – for lack of a better word – smoke out immigrants.
Q: We’ve heard third-hand stories about ICE being more active recently in Jacksonville. From your knowledge, is there any validity to that?
A: Yes. What’s happening is a little bit different than the first round. We did see a lot of ICE raids in the first Trump administration. This time, they got smarter. They are using the actual system against immigrants.
What we are seeing now, today, is less ICE raids than we are seeing the intentional detention of immigrants who are susceptible.
For example: You have a lot of immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for many years with final orders of deportation – meaning they were previously deported. They did not leave. But, they were checking in with ICE on a consistent basis. They were not a threat to the public. They were not criminals. They didn’t have criminal convictions. They had a family and, perhaps, either they didn’t have the financial means to hire an attorney or they just didn’t have relief to be able to permanently remain here.
Again, these are people who, most of the time, would have a work permit and were contributing. Those individuals were going into ICE check-ins and they were getting picked up and deported within 48 hours to two weeks without getting a fair chance to wrap up their affairs or say goodbye to their families.
We have heard of three separate cases in Jacksonville where ICE has been outside a room and they have detained the immigrant because they had a final order of deportation, even though the purpose of that interview was for them to ultimately get their status.
We have heard of ICE knocking on doors of immigrants who have humanitarian visas, the Violence Against Women Act that gives immigrants special immigration relief for having been victims of domestic violence. We’ve had ICE go to their house, pick them up and deport them.
Q: Earlier this month, you stood with Mayor Donna Deegan when she announced she would not sign Ordinance 2025-0147. Why did you stand beside the mayor at that time?
A: I think it’s important to clarify that the first thing she said is that the sheriff is going to get his fingerprinting machines (which were also funded through the ordinance).
The issue wasn’t the fingerprinting machines but making police officers ICE officers, taking away our law enforcement resources, time and energy and focusing on a problem that does not exist – Jacksonville does not have an immigration problem – and creating this ordinance is normalizing this fear that is consistent with our state law and consistent with the federal administration.
Immigrants are terrified to work. They’re terrified to take their kids to school. They’re terrified of reporting crimes. This is going to have a long-term effect on our community.
It’s not just the immediate person that’s detained and the effect of that family separation. It is the long-term effect of economic loss, the erosion of trust in law enforcement. When you have individuals who are scared to report crimes, you’re going to see an increase in crime.
So, for me, it was really important to stand with the mayor. Obviously, we would have loved to see a veto but understood the reasoning why. Immigrants are a thriving part of our community, and they need to know that there are people who still support them, who are still here to help them and they are not going to be alone during this process.
This is a very scary, terrifying, time for them, for their children. I have had so many consultations with families where the child is in the room because the child needs to understand what’s going to happen, worst case scenario. They are in the room when their dad is detained or their mother is facing deportation because they need to be prepared for what’s happening. The long-term effect of the mental health crisis that his situation is creating – because it is creating that already – is something that I think needs to be talked about.
It is an extremely difficult time to speak up. So, speaking up and choosing to be on the right side of history, choosing humanity, choosing love over fear is a really important part of the work that I am committed to.