Jax Council to debate boosting immigration enforcement, compliance

Two Jacksonville lawmakers are pushing for city-lead restrictions and enforcement on undocumented immigrants, with one of two immigration bills up for City Council committee debate this coming week.

Council Vice President Kevin Carrico’s legislation, scheduled to be go before committees starting Monday, would provide the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office funding for 25 mobile fingerprint scanners and sets new penalties for undocumented immigrants. The hearing will come days after immigrant advocates gathered in and outside City Hall to speak out against both. proposals.

Carrico’s Ordinance 2025-0147 could result in up to 60 days in jail for undocumented immigrants — referred to as “unauthorized aliens” in the bill — for entering or reentering the city.

The bill would also authorize $76,250 for JSO to purchase the fingerprint scanners, which Carrico says officers would use in the field to more easily and quickly identify the immigration status of someone suspected of committing a crime. 

‘Respect and love’ 

Marcia Garcia with the Jacksonville Immigration Rights Alliance says her Latino-led grassroots organization wants to send the message that “a broad swath of Jacksonville … respect and love and welcome immigrants into the community,” regardless of their status. 

“We don’t stand for laws that criminalize [immigrants], that waste our law enforcement resources and create even more distrust and division, and don’t actually keep us safe,” she said. “We do not want our community members harmed and families torn apart and separated because a couple of politicians want to gain brownie points in the eyes of (Gov. Ron) DeSantis and (President Donald) Trump.” 

Carrico’s bill references laws and policies enacted by Trump and the Florida Legislature related to immigration enforcement. DeSantis signed legislation in February as part of Florida’s push to implement Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown. 

The new state laws provide $289 million to hire 50 new law enforcement officers focused on immigration and grants to equip and train local law enforcement officers, according the Associated Press. 

They also increase penalties for crimes committed by immigrants in the U.S. unauthorized. 

Some opponents to Carrico and Diamond’s legislation who spoke at public hearings during the March 11 council meeting said there are redundancies between the local bills and state laws.  

Carrico’s bill

The language in Carrico’s bills says more enforcement is needed because, it asserts, 602 of the 2,442 non-U.S. residents arrested and incarcerated in Duval County in 2024 were processed for deportation by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

It also references a Sheriff’s Office operations that seized 2.6 kilograms of fentanyl and 74 kilograms of cocaine that, the bills says, was liked to the Gulf Cartel of Mexico. 

In addition to the fingerprint scanners, Ordinance 2025-0147 would mandate jail time for people entering or reentering the city with undocumented status — 30 days for the first offense and 60 for the second. The bill also would require local law enforcement to inform ICE and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement of the arrests.

Carrico tells Jacksonville Today the the fingerprint scanners are about efficiency and safety for officers. 

“If that person had previously been arrested and they have a warrant, whether an illegal immigrant or just someone who is not illegal but has a warrant for a violent crime, and they don’t have an ID on, that officer is now in danger because there’s there’s a person who has a reason to flight to the person, a reason to fight, or reason to not comply with the officer,” Carrico said. “If they have that scanner, then they can figure it out.”

When asked about the critiques of his bill by immigrant community groups and others, Carrico dismissed most of the concerns as “liberal-slanted false narrative.”

“If you listen to the commentary, not ever did they say the word ‘illegal’ when they’re referred to immigrants. So they’re trying to make this law an attack on all immigrants, which it’s not,” Carrico said. “It’s not at all. It is an attack on people who are illegally here, have already broken the law and are breaking laws in our community, making it unsafe.” 

The council vice president said the Sheriff’s Office has no plan to do an immigration sweep of neighborhoods or schools or use profiling to make stops.

Diamond’s bill

The second immigration-related bill, introduced by Beaches council member Rory Diamond, is aimed at identifying all city, state and federal grant-funded services that are locally supporting people with undocumented status. That bill will be deferred for two weeks, Diamond tells Jacksonville Today, to allow a focus on Carrico’s bill first.

Diamond’s proposed Ordinance 2025-0138 would require Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration to file a report with council on any city or federal grant-funded local services, including housing assistance and Kids Hope Alliance programs, that are benefiting the undocumented. 

Diamond’s bill also requires the mayor’s office to submit a report by June of the number of undocumented immigrants, if any, who are receiving housing assistance under the city. 

The report would also have to list and explain of all the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices and policies, and list whether all federal-grant-funded initiatives are in compliance with federal and state anti-discrimination laws. 

The bill also prohibits city-funded programs through the Kids Hope Alliance and Cultural Service Grant funds from providing services to people with undocumented status. Passing the bill would allow the city to put a condition on disbursement of funds that the recipients are not serving undocumented immigrants. 

“This is simply an accounting of whether or not the people of Jacksonville are sending their taxpayer money to people who are in the country illegally,” Diamond says. “Jacksonville overwhelmingly supported President Trump and his agenda. This is what they voted for, and we need to implement it on a local level.”

Diamond was absent for his bill’s first public hearing on March 11. He says he was in Washington, D.C., at that time meeting with Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and “advocating for Jacksonville.” 

In an statement emailed Thursday to Jacksonville Today, Mayor Donna Deegan indicated her team is considering whether the two immigration bills overlap with existing state and federal law.

“We continue to review these bills to determine the impact and how they may be redundant to existing state and federal law. That said, Jacksonville will always follow the law, as long as it’s constitutional,” Deegan said. “Law enforcement has a big job. If we are going to add to their duties, we should go after a share of the $250 million in state grants recently announced.”

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Carrico’s proposed Ordinance 2025-0147 is scheduled to be heard in the Council Neighborhood, Community Service, Public Health and Safety Committee at 9:30 a.m. March 17; Rules Committee at 2 p.m.; and on March 18 will be in front of the Finance Committee at 9:30 a.m.