JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville councilman, who authored a controversial bill that aimed to ban the use of city funds for services to support undocumented immigrants, condemned the mayor’s decision to veto the proposed legislation.
After the city council failed to gather enough votes on Tuesday night to override Mayor Donna Deegan’s veto, Councilman Rory Diamond heavily criticized the mayor’s decision on Ordinance 025-0138, which sought to track how city, state and federal grants are used for DEI, and services that support immigrants living in the country illegally.
“The mayor chose to say, ‘Hey, Jacksonville is going to be a sanctuary city,’” Diamond, who represents District 13, told News4JAX on Wednesday. “She’s rolling out the red carpet for illegal aliens to get free services in Jacksonville. Very disappointing.”
Deegan announced on Tuesday that she would veto the ordinance, calling it “political theater disguised as fiscal oversight.”
“This bill, in the guise of targeting undocumented immigrants, soaks fear and casts a shadow of suspicion over all immigrants,” Deegan said.
Diamond said the bill was about transparency and fiscal responsibility, and argued that taxpayers deserve to know how their dollars are being spent.
“Nobody knows how much of our taxpayer dollars are being used for services for illegal aliens,” Diamond said. “That’s why the first part of the bill says we want to report on that.”
But Republican Councilman Matt Carlucci, who voted against the bill, pushed back, saying immigration enforcement is not the city’s responsibility.
“If we hadn’t vetoed it, the city in all likelihood would have gotten into a lawsuit over it,” Carlucci said. “It would have cost us a lot of money — the taxpayers — a lot of money.”
He added that while some taxpayer dollars may support undocumented immigrants, the impact is minimal.
“I’m sure there’s some tax dollars going toward this, but it’s not of such significance that it warrants opening a can of worms,” Carlucci said.
Carlucci also rejected the notion that the bill would prevent Jacksonville from becoming a so-called “sanctuary city.”
“We’re not keeping immigrants from being deported,” he said. “If the federal government were to come in and do that, we would not try to stop them.”
Diamond disagreed.
“I can’t think of anything more obviously a sanctuary city than ‘come here and get free services,’” Diamond said.
Despite the current setback, Diamond said the fight isn’t over. He plans to reintroduce the measure as part of the city’s budget process.
“We’re going to vote in Finance Committee and put it in as an amendment for the entire budget,” he said. “If the mayor wants to veto the budget also — all right, well then there won’t be a budget for the City of Jacksonville. But we’ll keep it in there.”
When asked about that possibility during her news conference, Mayor Deegan said, “I’ll deal with that when it comes.”