JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayor Donna Deegan is responding to a Republican city councilman’s effort to prohibit anyone in the country illegally from being in Jacksonville.
Those in the country illegally who enter Duval County would face a minimum of 30 days in jail under the legislation recently filed by Council Vice President Kevin Carrico (R-District 4).
“To make sure that people know that Jacksonville is not a sanctuary city,” said Carrico.
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The local push comes on the heels of nearly identical legislation passed at the state level.
But there’s a key difference.: the state-level crime is a first-degree misdemeanor carrying a mandatory sentence of nine months in jail.
It was an observation not seemingly lost on Mayor Donna Deegan.
“We are still reviewing these bills to understand the impact and how they may be redundant to existing state and federal law,” said Deegan in a statement.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an effort by local lawmakers to mirror state policy.
However, the last time we saw something like this, it was Republicans who opposed it on the basis of redundancy.
In 2023, state lawmakers enacted stiffer penalties for certain hate crimes.
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The following year Democratic Councilmember Jimmy Peluso attempted to pass similar legislation at the local level.
One of the key arguments used by Republicans at the time, like council member Rory Diamond (R-District 13), revolved around the redundancy of the local policy and the assertion JSO would defer to the stiffer penalties tied to the state-level charge.
“You’re always going to go with state law. So, this local law doesn’t do anything. That’s my problem with it. Why just go through this exercise for a law that does nothing?” said Diamond during an interview in May 2024 on the hate crime bill.
We asked Vice President Carrico why the same logic doesn’t apply to his new immigration bill.
He argued, that unlike last year’s hate crime bill, Sheriff T.K. Waters is supporting his immigration bill.
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“I don’t make the decision on how people are charged and what punishments they go after,” said Carrico. “I’m just here to make sure that the laws give the sheriff everything he needs to make our community is safe from people who are doing bad things.”
Carrico’s bill would also allocate $76,000 to JSO for new fingerprint scanners that could be used in the field to identify people who have been determined to be in the country illegally.
In her statement, Mayor Deegan seemed to question the use of local tax dollars, pointing to the quarter billion dollars approved at the state level for local immigration enforcement efforts.
“Law enforcement has a big job. If we are going to add to their duties, we should go after a share of the $250 million in state grants just announced,” said Deegan.
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