Jacksonville passes controversial anti-immigrant bill after multiple amendments
Jacksonville, FL — In a city already burdened by police violence, housing injustice and deepening inequality, the Jacksonville City Council voted late Tuesday night to pass Ordinance 2025-0138, a bill that criminalizes compassion and cuts off vital services to undocumented immigrants.
Despite overwhelming opposition from residents, legal experts, and community organizations, the council chose fear and scapegoating over justice.
Hours before the vote on June 10, over 50 demonstrators rallied outside City Hall for a press conference led by the Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance (JIRA), the Florida Immigration Coalition, and a coalition of grassroots groups, including the Jacksonville Community Action Committee and Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network.
With signs raised high and chants echoing through downtown, protesters demanded an end to the city’s attacks on immigrants and a rejection of what they called a “Trump-style stunt” designed to punish children and families.
“Many of you are not leaders – you’re cowards,” one speaker told the council during public comment. “You arrest activists for demanding a free Palestine, you vote to destroy Black neighborhoods, and now you’re copying Trump’s cruelty to terrorize children. Shame on you.”
The ordinance, introduced by Councilmember Rory Diamond, originally sought to ban all city funds from being used to support undocumented residents, including access to health care, domestic violence shelters, legal services, arts and cultural grants and even food programs. It also attacked children through proposed changes to the Kids Hope Alliance.
Though public pressure forced last-minute amendments to exempt children and select services, the core intent of the ordinance remained intact: to enshrine xenophobia into Jacksonville law and send a message of exclusion.
“While Diamond celebrates this cruelty, we see the truth. A desperate politician who had to gut his own bill to scrape together votes. Now these councilmembers own every consequence, children losing meals and tutoring, immigrant families being forced to seek care only at Shands, and crimes going unreported as entire communities are pushed deeper into the shadows,” said organizer Maria Garcia in a post-vote statement.
This betrayal isn’t happening in isolation. Across the country, immigrant communities are rising up against coordinated repression. In Los Angeles, a full-scale rebellion is underway, with thousands taking to the streets after federal raids and the arrest of labor leader David Huerta. Protesters there are confronting the same state violence we see in Jacksonville – policies that target immigrants, silence dissent and criminalize the basic fight for dignity.
“You’d rather jail protesters, deport parents, and let killers with badges walk free than lift a finger for affordable housing or safer streets,” said one organizer at Tuesday’s rally. “Jacksonville is sick of your hypocrisy.”
While the council was passing this ordinance, it continued to ignore a long list of crises: the beating death of Charles Faggart in JSO custody, the city’s skyrocketing housing crisis, and the daily violence faced by Black, immigrant and working-class communities. What it did prioritize was attacking undocumented families.
As the final vote passed late into the night, the gallery erupted in chants of “Shame!” and dozens of residents walked out of council chambers in disgust. Outside, the protest reignited under the streetlights, with organizers laying out the next steps: demand that Mayor Donna Deegan veto this dangerous and reactionary ordinance; organize to vote out every councilmember who backed it; and boycott businesses owned by those who supported it – including Mambo’s Cuban Café, owned by Councilmember Raul Arias Jr.
“Jacksonville sees through this charade,” Garcia said. “We’ll ensure these votes haunt every councilmember who sided with hate over their constituents.”
