‘Unanimously speaks loudly’: Alachua County Commission passes non-binding anti-ICE resolution

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the August 11 meeting, the Alachua County Commission passed an anti-ICE resolution 4-0, although two Commissioners initially indicated they would not vote for the motion. Commissioners emphasized that the resolution is non-binding while saying it is needed to address the issues brought up by residents.

Commissioner Mary Alford, who wrote yesterday to a constituent that she did not support the resolution (she wrote, “I know that there are some folks that believe this resolution will help immigrants feel more safe in our community – honestly, I believe that by bringing attention to Alachua County they will be less safe”), was not present during the discussion or vote.

The resolution, which is covered in detail here, was described in the agenda as “expressing community concerns regarding law enforcement practices, affirming compliance with [state laws], and encouraging transparency in law enforcement identification.”

Click here to read the draft resolution.

County Attorney says it’s not a sanctuary city policy, but it may endanger federal funding

County Attorney Sylvia Torres said the resolution “affirms the County’s commitment to compliance with Florida statute 908; that is the one related to sanctuary city policies and cooperation with federal officials in immigration-related issues. It also expresses your concerns regarding potential establishment or expansion of federal law enforcement offices and detention facilities in the county. It encourages transparent identification practices for all law enforcement, and it reaffirms the County’s commitment to constitutional protections and community trust.”

Torres said her office does not “consider it to be a sanctuary city policy… That said, certain concerns have been brought to your attention regarding certain federal funding that may be impacted by the adoption of this or a similar policy.”

Torres concluded, “It should not impact your federal funding, but there is a great deal of discretion in how the federal funding is allocated, and I cannot guarantee you that it will not impact your federal funding.”

Motion

Commissioner Anna Prizzia made a motion to approve the resolution with three changes: 

• Paragraph 4 states, “The Board expresses it is essential to ensure arrest practices — whether immigration-related or otherwise — continue in such a way that are not indiscriminate, based on profiling, or otherwise destructive, recognizing that such actions undermine public confidence, deter cooperation with local government and law enforcement, and disrupt community stability.” Prizzia asked to change “continue” to “occur.”
• Similarly, paragraph 5 asks all law enforcement to “continue operating” in alignment with four requests; Prizzia also asked to change “continue” to “occur in such a way.”
• Paragraph 5.1 asks law enforcement to avoid wearing masks when interacting with the public “except where law or agency policy provides otherwise,” and she asked to remove that because “it feels like all of our agencies should be following the laws that are established when it comes to official identification and agency affiliation.”

Prizzia explained, “I think just saying ‘occur in such a way’ — I know that not all of our law enforcement agencies are using profiling or other things that are considered problematic or really just are awful in terms of the way that they’re working, but I do think that we are seeing that happening, and so I would like to make sure that we’re not saying to ‘continue doing things the way you’re doing,’ because some are doing the things we’re asking them not to do.” 

After a few seconds of silence, Commissioner Charles Chestnut said, “Well, I want to have some more discussion, but I’ll second it for discussion.”

Wheeler: People are afraid to attend a meeting with Rep. Cammack

Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler said she met with Congressional Representative Kat Cammack, “and we were trying to figure out a way where we could bring people from the community to speak directly with her, to understand her role as being on the Ag Committee, where she stood with our farm workers, our industry, the building industry, the tourist industry, and I was trying to work with her to set up an opportunity for people that had contacted me to come speak with her and her team, and I didn’t have any luck getting folks from the community to go with me to do that… because of fear.”

Wheeler said she is also aware of “reluctance and fear coming out of our Sheriff’s Department,… and so that… makes me feel like this is not a good time and not a good thing.”

Impact on grants: “It could happen; it may not happen”

Chestnut asked whether state grants could also be impacted, and County Manager Michele Lieberman said, “Grants are somewhat discretionary on their part. So, you know, we get vetoed funding for appropriation requests… It could happen; it may not happen.”

Chestnut then asked whether the County would “have the funding to support what we’re actually doing without those grants,” and Lieberman said, “We may be able to cover some of those expenditures for a period of time through fund balance and other means, or we may be able to pay for certain things out of a different source — though, of course, that may require a policy decision on what we’re not going to pay from that source… It is millions.” She reminded the board that the Sheriff’s Office also receives funding from federal sources.

Chestnut asked whether the resolution could be “challenged,” and Torres said a letter from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is a possibility, “threatening removal from office, threatening penalties — individual penalties and County penalties.”

Commissioner Anna Prizzia: “We’re just talking about whether or not we’re going to have enough funding to, like, I don’t know, pave a road or not. And to me, those questions are pretty immaterial, when it’s the difference between somebody’s personal safety and… funding that we could potentially find somewhere else or put off a few years, until sanity is restored in this country.”

Prizzia said she thought the “threat of not receiving funding is very hypothetical… It’s based in fear… All of that is speculative, and I think that our attorneys have done a really good job of working on a resolution that walks the letter of the law and makes sure that we’re doing what we’re required to do, and at the same time, does what our residents are asking of us, which is our job as elected officials: to make a statement standing in solidarity with the community that’s facing a lot of fear, and every day facing something that makes them question whether or not they want to go to school, whether or not they want to go to work, whether or not they can… go to the grocery store to take care of their everyday needs… And we’re just talking about whether or not we’re going to have enough funding to, like, I don’t know, pave a road or not. And to me, those questions are pretty immaterial, when it’s the difference between somebody’s personal safety and… funding that we could potentially find somewhere else or put off a few years, until sanity is restored in this country.”

Prizzia said she would go with Wheeler to talk to Cammack or any other member of the area’s state or federal delegation.

Wheeler said she’d heard concerns from Sheriff’s Office employees that people could be removed from their jobs as a result of the resolution: “I feel like I have to support those folks who are working for us at the County who have expressed real concerns about this.” She said she hoped the November elections would “change some of the environment in the state.”

Commissioner Charles Chestnut: “I don’t like bullies; I’ll just be honest with you.”

Chestnut said, “I don’t like bullies; I’ll just be honest with you… And I’m not afraid of losing my position or anything, so that’s not the point.” He said he asked his questions so people would understand why the County may need to do “cuts and stuff” in the future, and he said he would support the resolution.

Chair Ken Cornell: “I also know that [the Sheriff] has asked us not to do this,… and I’ve heard from a number of folks that also support immigrants that have asked us not to do this.”

Chair Ken Cornell said, “As a practical matter, immigrants are contributors, both economically and culturally… I completely also agree with doing the right thing, as leaders and as good people… I also know that our Sheriff, as much as anyone, supports immigrants… And I also know that he has asked us not to do this,… and I’ve heard from a number of folks that also support immigrants that have asked us not to do this.”

Cornell said the resolution would not change federal law, and “it would be less than honest to stand here and tell you that there’s zero risk” of losing federal grants. He continued, “If this board statement, no matter how carefully worded it is, invites a funding fight that takes months to resolve in court,… that cost falls on real people… So I will tell you that right now I’m not in support, and I’m not not in support. I’m not sure where I’m going to land on this.”

In response to a comment from Prizzia that the Sheriff had simply asked them to wait, Cornell said he’d had a more recent conversation, and “[the Sheriff said], ‘I wouldn’t do it.’ The Undersheriff has said, ‘I also would not do it’… We’ve seen a lot of unwarranted attention in the Alachua Chronicle and around the press.”

Public comment

During public comment on the motion, which lasted a little over half an hour, a daycare owner said that for the first time in her 36 years of running a school, parents are now giving her Power of Attorney, “that they have been advised by legal counsel to give me, because they are not sure that they will be allowed to pick up their own children, because they will be detained at the grocery store or at Lowe’s or at the doctor’s office.” Someone on the dais said “Wow” into a microphone during her comments. 

Another said, “It’s not an either/or… People should go talk to Kat Cammack. People should vote. People should do many things. It’s not an either/or. What we’re asking is not an extreme ask.”

Cornell was particularly charmed by an older woman, saying, “Tennis shoes. I see you’re wearing tennis shoes. My mom always told me to watch out for the ladies with silver hair that wear tennis shoes.” He later said he would likely go with her to visit the Baker County detention facility.

Although the agenda and board described this as a “law enforcement” resolution, all of the public comment was about issues relating to the detention of illegal immigrants.

Board discussion and vote

After public comment, Wheeler said she was “trying to understand what this resolution is going to improve.”

Prizzia responded, “Everything that they just said about creating a platform for our immigrant communities to understand that their leaders care about them, want to keep them safe, want to hold law enforcement accountable to following the laws, want to make sure that people are being treated fairly and respectfully and within the letter of the law… That’s my answer to that question.”

Wheeler asked how it helps the County hold police accountable, and Prizzia responded, “This doesn’t allow us to hold them accountable because we don’t have jurisdiction over our law enforcement… We can’t hold the Sheriff, quote, ‘accountable.’… We can’t hold Florida Highway Patrol accountable. We can’t hold ICE, who might be in our community, accountable. But what we can do, as a body, is say what we want them to do, in a very public and in a very official capacity… It’s a clear message to any enforcement agency coming into our community that these are the things that we expect,… and it provides the opportunity for a dialogue, should it not be occurring.”

Cornell said he was having “a deja vu moment, like a wildfire moment… It doesn’t have to be ‘or.’ It’s ‘and.'” He read part of the resolution and said, “If we don’t have community trust, we don’t have anything.”

Cornell read through the ‘Whereas’ statements, commenting as he went: “‘Whereas the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County is charged with protecting health, safety, and welfare’ — that’s our job: health, safety, welfare. ‘Whereas Section 908 prohibits sanctuary policies’ — we don’t control that, but it prohibits it. ‘Whereas the board affirms the county’s commitment to ensure that all residents feel safe seeking emergency and social services reporting crimes’ — that sentence was what really got me going with GINI four or five years ago, that we are less safe when our immigrants aren’t a part of our entire community.”

Chair Cornell: “I’m going to support the resolution, and I wasn’t going to when I first got here.”

Cornell continued, “‘Whereas enforcement facilities in the county could impose direct and indirect demands on county services, infrastructure, and public utilities’ — I don’t want a detention facility in Alachua County… The resolution then has six things: one, ‘support for law enforcement.’ I support law enforcement… Two, ‘commitment to community safety and constitutional protections.’ Yep, I do that, too. ‘Express an urgent concern regarding federal immigration enforcement facility siting.’ I’ve already said I don’t want it sited here, and I’ve heard the community’s fear of that. ‘Concerns regarding indiscriminate or destructive arrest practices.’ I don’t believe our Sheriff is doing that, but I’ve heard firsthand accounts… that maybe other agencies are doing that, and we have concerns about that. ‘Identification of all law enforcement personnel.’ Nothing wrong with that; that builds public trust. And then the last one is that it’s non-binding. It’s an expression of we, as elected officials, who are expressing basically the community that we want to have. So, yeah, I’m going to join Chuck. I’m going to support the resolution, and I wasn’t going to when I first got here.”

Wheeler said, “So you have three votes from this board, and in solidarity with this board and also the community, I will vote with you,” and Cornell responded, “Okay, I think unanimously speaks loudly.”

The motion passed 4-0, with Alford absent.