OPINION | The illegal immigration distraction

Way back before the first invasion of Iraq heated up, my dad took me to a military recruiter’s office in the hope of getting me to enlist.

Perhaps I should have; it would have saved me a lot of copy over the years.

I remember very little about that exercise in futility, save a sign behind the recruiter on the wall.

“Wanted: a Good Enemy.”

The placard was notable given the U.S. and the crumbling Soviet Union were in peak glasnost, and a policy discussion for a moment in what was thought of as a post-Cold War time was how to spend the peace dividend.

That wasn’t reassuring to career Naval officers. 

As it turned out, America still went abroad in search of monsters to destroy; like all empires playing out the string, the logical end is overextension.

But our politicians do the same at home also, finding scapegoats and monsters to prove they are of some use and aren’t just playthings for the donor class. 

And the best example is, arguably, undocumented immigrants.

On a state and local level, we see politicians (usually short Republicans) attempting to posture as tough guys in dealing with this issue, with repetitive rhetoric and diminishing returns.

The master of the game has been Gov. Ron DeSantis, who chortled about sending migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard on the state dime when ratcheting up his money-burning performance-art operation loosely called a presidential campaign.

He made the rounds on Fox News and Newsmax and various radio shows where the hosts never asked a critical question or cared particularly about why Florida taxpayers were fronting the money for this stunt. 

And he got his just reward in Iowa last January, when he didn’t even carry a single county, despite bivouacking in the Hawkeye State for months ahead of the caucus collapse.

And now? He’s in the lame duck part of his administration, and whether he wears platform shoes or not, he’s diminished. He doesn’t get the cable bookings anymore. And polling for 2028 shows him way behind J.D. Vance in all surveys.

First Lady Casey DeSantis has floated a trial balloon for a run. But as most observers know, the $10 million rooted to the Hope Florida Foundation from a Medicaid settlement — money used not to help sick mothers and babies but to kill a corporate weed amendment – has strings attached, binding her political future to the ground.

Speaking of Hope Florida, Attorney General James Uthmeier ran the political committee that got the $10 million and fed the Medicaid money passthrough committees for those anti-weed spots. 

He was DeSantis’ chief of staff at that point, and it’s generally understood the AG appointment was a payoff for a job well done.

Uthmeier has an election to run next year if he wants to stay in office, of course, and his preferred method of earning media is to jaunt from one market to the next and detail crimes committed by…undocumented immigrants. 

The implication — ironic in a state full of transplants — is old-school nativism: If it weren’t for those people, the ethnic and cultural others, we’d be safe as houses, able to sleep with our front doors unlocked and our windows open. 

Will this effort make people care about Uthmeier? 

Who knows.

But the goal clearly is to build him enough of a buffer to ward off a primary challenge, clearing the way for an advantage in the general election against the Democratic nominee — more likely than not, former state Sen. Jose Javier Rodrigues, who lost his seat a few years back.

Jacksonville’s local pols are on the same bandwagon, of course, with a couple of bills targeting undocumented immigrants.

First, there was the “Jacksonville Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act,” making it a “local crime” to be illegally in the city.

Now, a second measure:  Ordinance 2025-0138.

That bill, sponsored by Councilman and future candidate for whatever opens up Rory Diamond, is another attempt to submarine Mayor Donna Deegan, designed to make her administration accountable for city resources helping out undocumented immigrants.

It is up Tuesday. It might pass, it might not. 

Regardless, though, the real question isn’t whether the city can rightsize its budget by dehumanizing people who are in the city illegally, but whether it will help Diamond or anyone in 2027’s mayoral race.

Polling, after all, says that the people really don’t like the City Council.

Last week’s University of North Florida poll shows Deegan with 62% approval against 37% disapproval, while the Council is at 42%/52%.

Now, my math ain’t too good, but that’s a 35-point spread.

The hilarious part isn’t the big number but how little Republican voters — the ones who will have to turn out to lift up some political no-name against Deegan in March and May 2027 — like the legislative branch, which is controlled by a GOP supermajority.

While 51% of Democrats approve of the Council, only 41% of Republicans feel the same.

Will ritual defenestration of undocumented immigrants do anything to help these numbers?

That same poll shows 2% of locals (and 4% of Republicans) identify immigration as their top issue, so nope.

Is the play “well, we hate the whole council, but the guy going on Florida Voice radio to rant to a statewide audience about the mayor is the exception”?

We’re approaching the halfway point of Deegan’s first term, and the mayor has the advantage of incumbency and is comfortable in office.

Which is not to say she hasn’t made mistakes; this columnist has pointed out a few of them.

But you can’t beat someone with no one.

And right now, Jacksonville politics looks like a fairy tale: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Deegan’s critics underestimate her and overestimate likely opponents.

There are those who think it can play out just like it did in 2015, when Alvin Brown lost to Lenny Curry as Republicans scared away by Mike Hogan came back home.

Lenny Curry, of course, had prime talent in Brian Hughes and Tim Baker running the operation — two tireless ops who matched up well against the rotating cast running Brown’s reelection effort. 

To be sure, there’s prime talent out there to be hired, particularly in an off-year election.

But even in the age of autotune and AI, you’ve got to have a performer with talent and drive. 

The ones we’ve heard so far are underwhelming. And any political dark horse emerging from the shadows is running out of runway to get going.

Whoever runs, they will need a better strategy than treating illegal immigrants like public enemy No. 1.

Conservative cosplay has its uses, but it’s not enough in itself to sweep a new regime into city hall.