1199SEIU Florida Joins Movement to Fight Proposed Anti-Immigrant and Racial Profiling Bill

On August 18th, more than 60 Floridians gathered in Apopka to strategize about how to fight the proposed legislation Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum recently unveiled. The Arizona-style racial profiling bill calls for harsher criminal sentences for undocumented immigrants. It would also allow judges to consider immigration status when deciding whether to set bail.

1199SEIU was one of 30 organizations that participated in the meeting in Apopka, the largest fern producer in the world where many farm workers work and live. Apopka is in one of several Florida counties where local law enforcement entered into an agreement with the Federal Government to allow officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions. These "287 (g)" agreements were first introduced in 1995 in order to decrease crime and deport undocumented immigrants who commit crimes.

The group learned, however, that fifteen years later, the majority of immigrants who are detained and deported in Florida have not committed a crime. Immigrants who are waiting for paperwork to be completed, entered without documents or have overstayed their visas are being charged as criminals for civil violations.

"Rather than decreasing crime or fixing a broken system, bad immigration policies are overburdening law enforcement and causing widespread fear," said 1199SEIU Florida union member, Janelle Manigualt, an LPN at St. Petersburg General Hospital. "I know that people are not seeking healthcare because they are afraid to leave their homes in fear of being picked up by immigration. We get sicker people in our emergency rooms and that's got to end."