Bill advances to track city money used for undocumented immigrants

Legislation that aims to identify and prohibit organizations using city-funded services to support undocumented immigrants in Jacksonville now exempts UF Health and delays effects on Kids Hope Alliance. 

City Council committees were mixed this week on whether to advance Ordinance 2025-0138 filed by Beaches Republican council member Rory Diamond. The bill would direct Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration to enforce reporting requirements on those agencies to determine whether city-controlled resources are aiding people with undocumented status.

Council member Terrance Freemen, who supported the bill in the Rules Committee, introduced an amendment to exempt UF Health Jacksonville from the reporting requirement. UF Health has an indigent medical care contract with the city and received local financing for hospital facility projects.

The changes also protect any organization using city-appropriated dollars to support victims of labor and sex trafficking who might be undocumented and brought into the city against their will. 

The amendment also exempts the city’s Kids Hope Alliance from the reporting for one year to give them time to coordinate with the Duval County School District, which receives funding from the agency to support education and youth services.

Freeman said he wants to avoid “unintended consequences” if the bill passes, protect children and “ensure that we’re not putting our medical providers in violation of our law by passing it.” 

Mandarin council member Michael Boylan, who voted against the overall bill in committee, added language to protect city Cultural Service Grants recipients and only prohibit those organizations from “knowingly” providing city funds for services that support undocumented immigrants. 

Ultimately, two of the three council committees that heard the bill agreed to advance it for the full council to take a final vote June 12.

Diamond argues that Duval County voters’ support for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election – Trump won locally 50.1% to 48.7% –  is proof of support for local immigration measures, a focus of the Trump administration. Diamond blames the need for the bill on the immigration policies of former President Biden’s administration.

Only 2% of respondents in the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab latest poll released Tuesday called immigration the most important problem facing Jacksonville.

“We have no idea how many people in our public housing are illegal aliens. We have no idea how many kids in our public schools are illegal aliens, or their parents are illegal aliens. We have no idea who’s getting public assistance or any of these other things. We have no idea. No one is asking the question,” Diamond said. “So we are just in this big question mark, like a lot of other cities and states across the country. So this bill starts to get at those questions.”

He filed the bill in February in tandem with legislation authored by council Vice President Kevin Carrico that made being undocumented in Jacksonville a local offense with possible jail time.

Deegan administration officials have been working to narrow the scope of Diamond’s proposal. 

Brittnay Norris, the mayor’s office director of intergovernmental affairs, told Rules Committee members Monday that the administration wants to alleviate impacts to “vulnerable populations being targeted,” and said Freeman’s UF Health exemption “gets us a step in the right direction.”

“In our mind, it was medical services, it was welfare services for labor and sex trafficking and also not targeting kids,” Norris said.

The mayor’s chief communications officer, Phil Perry, told Jacksonville Today that the administration will review the bill once it’s finalized. 

Boylan noted Monday that there are other organizations in addition to UF Health that receive city funding and provide medical care that could have issues complying with the bill’s requirements if it becomes law. 

Opponents of the bill, including council member Rahman Johnson, said Diamond’s concerns are “not rooted in reality.” 

A bipartisan group of council members in Democrats Tyrona Clark-Murray and Jimmy Peluso and Republicans Boylan and Ken Amaro blocked the bill from passing the Neighborhoods Committee in a 4-3 vote on Monday. 

Republican council member Matt Carlucci and District 14 Democrat Johnson also voted against the bill as it moved through committees this week. 

“Everybody’s having to write bills like this, and they’re uncomfortable. They’re hard. It’s hard to say no to somebody who’s a human being,” Diamond said. “But, at the same time, if we don’t write laws that say laws matter, there are no consequence to the laws in Jacksonville, then we become a sanctuary city and we burden our taxpayers, we burden our police, we burden our fire (department), we burden our hospitals and it becomes a massive problem.” 

Peluso tried to get the bill withdrawn in the Neighborhoods Committee. He told Jacksonville Today that “no amendment can fix the disgusting premise of this bill.” 

“The bill does a lot to expand government in the worst ways,” Peluso said. “We want residents to have a positive impression of government, who are willing to call the police and are not afraid to send their kids to school because of their status or a close family member. All this bill would do is add a major burden on our city departments, increase staff time and place more burden on KHA and other groups that are trying to provide services for our youth and residents.” 

The Rules Committee cleared the bill 5-3 on Monday, with council President Randy White casting the eighth vote, followed by a 5-0 vote Tuesday in the Finance Committee.

In addition to Diamond, Freeman and council members Nick Howland, Will Lahnen,  Mike Gay, Chris Miller, White, and Joe Carlucci have voted in favor of the bill. Carrico is a co-sponsor.

Before voting against the bill, Matt Carlucci said his decision came down to “what if I was in their shoes?” 

“If they’re here and they’re not documented, well that’s for the feds to take care of,” Carlucci said. “It just concerns me that if a child, if a parent of a child, a family needed some assistance, they’re not documented, they’re still human beings that live and coexist with us. And I gotta tell you, many of them provide a heck of a good value in service to our community in all kinds of fields. This is not a liberal, conservative issue.”