by Ethan Maia de Needell, Rural Women’sHealth Project
Earlier this month, the Alachua County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution originally brought to the dais by the immigrant advocacy alliance Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Inclusion Initiative (GINI), with the support of over 2,500 petition signatures from residents and 17 organizations throughout Gainesville and Alachua County. The petition and resolution demanded our local elected leaders to speak out against the racist and destructive arrests by immigration enforcement in our communities.
This campaign by GINI came after nearly a year and a half into the federal and state mass deportation campaign, with no recognition by our elected leaders on the impact here in Alachua County. Since the beginning of 2025, we have seen the expansion of ICE into our region with the creation of “Deportation Depot” at Baker Correctional Institution (the sister-site to the now-closed infamous “Alligator Alcatraz”) a proposed warehouse detention center in Bradford County, and grants from ICE targeting Gainesville as a potential location for an administrative office.
In the 10-month span that GINI recorded immigration arrests in Alachua County, nearly 60 percent of those who went through our jail before getting taken by ICE had no criminal charge. Often these were passengers in cars on the way to or from work, school, and church. Through GINI’s immigrant-serving partners we also know that many of those taken had some form of pending immigration case, valid driver’s licenses, and even active work permits.
Thankfully, the passage of the Alachua County resolution now joins our community with the growing number of other Florida localities actively resisting. It clearly demands that law and immigration enforcement actions respect our residents’ Constitutional rights, calls for clear identification of law and immigration enforcement agents (no masks), acknowledges the damage indiscriminate arrests have on the community, and recommits to the safety and inclusion of our immigrant neighbors.
Elsewhere, the City of South Miami sued the state of Florida to determine whether their city police were required to join the 287(g) agreement (they aren’t); the Orange County Commission passed an anti-warehouse detention center resolution in March and then moved their jail to leave an agreement with ICE; Bradford County Commission refused an offer to create a warehouse detention center after community outcry; the City of Miami Commission is publicly discussing directing their Chief of Police to leave their existing 287(g) agreement; and this is all without mentioning the grassroots community resistance that has appeared in seemingly every city throughout Florida.
Our resistance is needed now more than ever, as Florida jockeys with Texas for the state with the most immigration arrests. These two states alone made up nearly 20,000 arrests out of the national 50,000 total in July as the mass deportation campaign surges on.
Our state has gained its position primarily through “287(g) agreements” – a type of partnership between ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies that has deputized thousands of officers and troopers to serve as immigration enforcement. Florida accounts for a little over 40 percent of the country’s total number of 287(g) agreements. This model has allowed immigration enforcement to happen in our community under our noses as agencies like the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) turn mundane traffic stops into an immigration arrest.
Having a resolution passed by our Alachua County Commissioners, GINI is now shifting its focus to their City of Gainesville counterparts. Though the proposed language is a bit different from the county, it strikes at the heart of the same issue – the expansion of immigration enforcement into our region and the indiscriminate arrests that have taken our neighbors and traumatized those left behind.
The city’s resolution also places front-and-center the need for Gainesville’s Language Access Plan, a formal policy outlining how the city plans to provide language access and methods to hold departments accountable. When last brought to the City Commission, concerns from the dais were laid out – what does the resolution accomplish, what if this affects federal funding eligibility, and what if this increases immigration enforcement?
To the first question, we acknowledge the symbolic nature of the resolution, but argue that when standing up for the constitutional rights of a city’s residents is somehow controversial – especially in the face of clear evidence those rights are being infringed upon – that is exactly when those rights should be championed. To not address the issue impacting, both directly and indirectly, thousands of residents is to implicitly say that what is happening is okay. It isn’t.
To the second concern, there is nothing within the language of the resolution that violates any state or federal law that would risk funding. This dilemma falsely puts the needs of marginalized communities against each other in an unnecessary binary choice – either we pass the resolution and risk social services funding cuts or we don’t pass the resolution and continue providing services. This self-censorship is exactly what the current federal and state administrations want because there is clear evidence regarding similar resolutions that have not resulted in any funding restrictions.
As an advocacy alliance focused on immigrant safety and inclusion, the last concern is always top of mind. When nearly two years of immigration enforcement go by with no public response from city commissioners, the dissolution of the only immigrant-centered position at the city, and continued obstinance around passing a language access plan, and signs point to a rapid increase in immigration enforcement nationally, the community has been unsafe and the very least elected leaders can do is formally acknowledge their fears and clearly state immigrants are welcome and respected at the city.
Over 4/5s of immigrant neighbors surveyed by GINI agree they want to see elected officials take a public stand against the violation of their rights – if only to show the city and county they live in, acknowledge and welcome them as an integral part of our community. We ask that the community support our resolution when it is placed on a City Commission agenda. Hearing from residents was critical to the passage at the County level, and it will undoubtedly be critical with the City. Any questions can be sent to us at GINI@rwhp.org.