Jacksonville Mayor’s Office Urges Sheriff Not to Enforce Immigration Law

The Democrat mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, Donna Deegan, via the City of Jacksonville’s Office of General Counsel, advised the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office not to enforce immigration law.

“The Office of General Counsel of the, that was appointed by the Democratic mayor, sent a letter to the sheriff or email to the sheriff today telling him, do not enforce the state illegal immigration law and do not enforce the local illegal immigration law that we’ve been on this show talking about,” Jacksonville City Council President-Elect Kevin Carrico revealed when speaking to Florida’s Voice.

“What an overreach and what a thing to do,” he said, predicting the attorney general will weigh in on the matter and, perhaps, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as well.

“This doesn’t seem like a good idea. You know, there was a judge that made some kind of ruling in South Florida, talked about state legislation. She didn’t mention the local ordinance that we passed a couple weeks ago, but our attorneys at the city that thought it was a good idea to tell the sheriff not to do his job [and] handcuff their ability to enforce illegal immigration laws that were passed by this council. And that is breaking news, my friends,” he added.

More via Action News Jax:

In the new guidance, which was obtained by Action News Jax, city attorneys wrote a federal injunction on the state law “would equally apply to the city’s ordinance” because the city ordinance “was modeled” after the state law.

“The reason we passed this bill, one of the main reasons, is it’s a mandate from the President,” said Council Vice President Kevin Carrico (R-District 4), who sponsored the local immigration bill.

This update comes as Florida continues to tackle illegal immigration across the state. Authorities on Thursday announced that HSI Tampa has led several other teams in raids, which resulted in the arrest of more than 100 illegal aliens at a construction site in Tallahassee on May 29. Some of the individuals, according to authorities, were previously deported or had criminal backgrounds.

“The illegal aliens are from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia & Honduras, to name a few. We’ll release more to this breaking story when it’s available,” HSI Tampa wrote.

“Florida leads the way. We will not tolerate illegal immigration,” the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles wrote as other agencies weighed in.

“Over 100 illegal aliens at a Florida job site — some previously deported, some with rap sheets. All of them thought no one would notice,” the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said. “Florida noticed.”

“Jacksonville continues to support immigration enforcement operations across Florida. Today in Tallahassee, our Special Agents and Intel team aided @HSITampa and other federal, state, and local partners in arresting more than 100 illegal immigrants from a construction site,” FBI Jacksonville wrote.

DeSantis weighed in on the successful operation and said the feds are now going after the subcontractor responsible for hiring the illegal immigrants.

“The Feds are pursuing the subcontractor responsible for hiring the illegal alien workers,” he wrote.

This comes as DeSantis has continued to prioritize immigration enforcement in his state. Earlier in May, he announced that his administration “submitted a plan to the federal government to contribute new detention facilities and expanded apprehension efforts to their ongoing mission to reclaim America’s sovereignty.”

DeSantis also touted that 100 Florida Highway Patrol Troopers have been sworn in as Special Deputy U.S. Marshals, allowing them to “execute federal warrants.”