Floridians rally at the Florida State Capitol to support the VISIBLE Act
Tallahassee, FL – Protesters descended on Florida’s state capitol on Sunday, February 15, joining a statewide initiative from the Legalization for All Network to support the VISIBLE Act, a bill in the Florida legislature that would make it illegal for federal agents to hide their faces while preying on immigrant communities.
Sponsored by State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando and Representative Angie Nixon of Jacksonville, who was elected with the backing of the Black liberation movement, the VISIBLE Act would require immigration agents to clearly display their names or badge numbers and prohibit them from wearing masks while on duty.
The Tallahassee Immigrant Rights Alliance (TIRA), a Legalization for All Network affiliate, gathered over 40 protesters outside the capitol despite stormy weather to support the bill, calling on state legislators to protect Florida’s immigrant communities from the racist police terror that Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis have unleashed.
TIRA’s sister organizations in Jacksonville and Tampa led their own actions the same week in a united effort to rally support across the state. Florida’s Republican-dominated state government seems unlikely to let the act pass, but protesters were still optimistic about the rapidly growing strength of the state’s immigrant rights movement.
“Legislative session is really demoralizing,” said TIRA President Joelle Nuñez, “but that’s why it’s so important that we raise support around bills that we wanna see get heard. If it wasn’t for public support, this bill wouldn’t have been written, been drafted, gone through committees, and would never be heard! This bill comes out of a movement that we are building, and so we have to support it in the same way that we support our movement: We’re out in the streets building justice, because politics isn’t just about who’s in office, supposedly representing you.”
Organizers made it clear that the struggle for immigrant rights extended far beyond one bill. “The reality is that the VISIBLE act matters, and it should pass, but it is less than the minimum,” declared Kaiden Rosa of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “We’re at a time when accountability isn’t enough. We need real solutions; we need legalization for all! We need revolution to overturn U.S. oppression of Latin America and end the oppression of immigrants. At this point in our struggle, the people’s mobilization against ICE is the future! Minneapolis has given us a blueprint, and we’re gonna do the same shit here: We’re gonna fight back against 287(g), we’re gonna pass the VISIBLE Act – we’re coming for ICE!”
The 287(g) agreement between ICE and the Tallahassee Police Department assigns designated TPD officers to carry out ICE’s brutal repression of immigrants, and TIRA plays the leading role in organizing the people’s widespread opposition to it.
The struggle over the agreement has been intensifying lately – at the last city commission meeting on January 14, officers tried to illegally confiscate signs from attendees, and Mayor John Dailey ended the meeting early when people refused. The city is now even trying to limit public comment to just 30 minutes per meeting because of the huge crowds that are coming to every meeting to speak out.
“They didn’t tell us that we weren’t allowed to have signs because it ‘disrupts the meeting’ – they did it because they’re scared,” said TIRA member Aedan Benett. “They’re scared of hundreds of people coming to the city commission month after month. They’re scared because we’ll come out to speak regardless of how many times they take 287(g) off the agenda, or cut the meeting short, to say that we will not stand for ICE in our city.”
TIRA will join other community organizations on International Women’s Day (March 8) to march for justice for immigrant women. For more information, visit TIRA’s pages on Facebook or Instagram (@tlh_ira).