JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Dozens of protesters gathered outdoors the Duval County Courthouse on Friday to oppose plans for a brand new immigration detention facility at Camp Blanding.
“We will’t have this in our city, and because it’s right here, we’ll battle it right here. We is not going to cease,” Dan Lipp, a volunteer with the Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance, mentioned
The group’s chants of “Rise up, battle again” echoed across the courtyard as a number of audio system took the microphone to share their ideas on the mission.
The proposed facility at Camp Blanding, presently a Florida Nationwide Guard coaching base, would maintain about 2,000 detainees, in response to Gov. Ron DeSantis. The state has already begun looking for distributors for the mission, although no opening date has been introduced.
State Rep. Angie Nixon, who addressed the gang, criticized the allocation of sources for the detention facility whereas different neighborhood wants stay unmet.
“We’re closing colleges in Duval County,” Nixon mentioned. “There was flooding in San Marco and on Edgewood Avenue the opposite day. You can’t inform me you may’t discover the cash to handle the problems working households in Florida have to be addressed.”
However in a press convention this week, DeSantis mentioned Camp Blanding and related initiatives would lower your expenses.
Even saying that a lot of the funds will probably be reimbursed by federal entities.
“If you spend cash for this, you lower your expenses since you take the stress of hospitals, colleges, prison justice — all of that,” he mentioned. “Implementing the regulation will in the end lower your expenses reasonably than simply lawlessness taking on.”
Katie Chorbak of 50501 Veterans spoke out in opposition to the proposed transformation of the navy set up.
“Camp Blanding is a spot the place troopers prepare to defend freedom. Turning it right into a website to cage immigrants — folks looking for safety, hope and alternative — is a shame,” she mentioned.
The protest comes amid rising controversy over Florida’s increasing immigration enforcement infrastructure, together with the just lately opened facility nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The governor additionally famous that Florida accounts for 15 to twenty% of every day immigration-related arrests nationwide, saying the state is “punching manner above our weight class” in enforcement efforts.
Protest organizers mentioned they plan to proceed their demonstrations, with a rally scheduled for July 19 at 3 p.m. at Camp Blanding.
“Our purpose is to cease them it doesn’t matter what occurs,” Lipp mentioned. “The very first thing to do in stopping them is getting eyes on it and ensuring they’ll’t do it at the hours of darkness.”
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