Miami.- Jacksonville prepares for the imminent entry into force of a controversial ordinance that sanctions with prison sentences the presence of immigrants without legal status within the limits of that city in the northeast of Florida.
After its approval in the municipal council with 12 votes in favor and 5 against, and after Mayor Donna Degans allowed her promulgation without signing it, the measure lit the alarms in civil rights organizations, but also received applause from conservative state leaders.
Context and content of the norm
The Municipal Council of Jacksonville gave the green light to ordinance 2025-147, which declares minor crime of class B the permanence in the city of any person over 18 without migratory documents recognized by the laws of the United States.
The established penalties are 30 days in jail for early infraction and 60 days in case of recidivism.
The legislation also requires the local Sheriff’s office to notify the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) and the Department of Application of the Florida Law after each arrest made by virtue of this Ordinance.
Motivations and controversy
The drivers of the law, headed by Republican councilors, ensure that the new tool will facilitate cooperation with federal authorities to combat illegal immigration and strengthen public safety. The governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, also declared his support for the norm.
However, critical voices from the council itself and of the community fear that the norm will serve to feed the distrust between the immigrant population, which could avoid contact with the police for fear of being imprisoned.
Several civil rights organizations warned that the city is exposed to expensive litigation and quoted precedents in other states where similar measures were declared unconstitutional.
Next steps and possible challenges
Although the mayor Degana made clear her disagreement by not signing the ordinance, she chose not to exercise her veto right to avoid, she said, a political conflict that distracts her against other urgent issues.
The law would soon enter into force, but an eventual judicial challenge promoted by defenders of immigrants and experts in constitutional law could block it.
A famous case was recorded in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, whose City Council approved in 2006 ordinances that sanctioned owners to rent unwillingly, hired them.
These norms were never fully applied since they were blocked in federal courts for considering them unconstitutional, since the city “He sought to implement his own immigration policy”generating “Unnecessary harassment” to foreigners, according to a federal judge
Meanwhile, Jacksonville is heading to be the first city of the country to regulate the simple stay of an undocumented immigrant in its territory, a step that could rekindle the national debate on the faculty of local governments to legislate in migratory matters.
