The ACLU of Florida opposes Senate Bill 168: Anti-Immigrant Attempts to Ban Sanctuary Policies and to Require Local Law Enforcement to Enforce ICE Detainer Requests because it raises several constitutional concerns and tramples on the civil rights and liberties of actual or perceived immigrants.
SB 168 requires every Florida county and municipality to expend maximum local resources to enforce federal immigration law and participate in civic liberties violations. Moreover, it does not provide any funding or reimbursement for its costly mandate. Specifically, this bill provides that no state entity, law enforcement agency, local government entity, state university, or representative thereof may adopt or have a “sanctuary policy.”
Such a policy is defined in the bill to include “a law, policy, practice, procedure, or custom adopted or permitted by a state entity, local governmental entity, or law enforcement agency” which limits or prevents:
- Compliance with an immigration detainer requests
- Compliance with a request from a federal immigration agency to notify the agency before the release of an inmate or detainee
- Federal immigration agency access to an inmate for interview
- Investigation of the inmate’s immigration status, and
- Providing a federal immigration agency with an inmate’s incarceration status or release date.
Press
- Sun Sentinel - Miami-Dade's ICE 'detainer' program shows why SB 168 is a bad bill
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Sun Sentinel Editorial - Sanctuary cities bill all about politics, not public safety
- Miami Herald - Why does the Florida Legislature want to deport U.S. citizens?
- Tampa Bay Times - Why local law enforcement should not enforce federal immigration law
- Miami Herald - SB 168 insults Florida’s history as a state that welcomes immigrants
- Orlando Weekly - Senate Bill 168 would hurt thousands of Floridians
- Miami Herald - SB 168 is anti-business, anti-immigrant and threatens the safety of all Floridians
