Florida must protect the rights of our immigrant communities

Your Turn

Norman Olshansky

Guest columnist

Gov. Ron DeSantis has called for a special session of the Florida Legislature to address immigration.

The primary focus of this session, according to DeSantis, would be to 'prepare Florida to lead on the Trump Administration’s deportation program' – which President-elect Donald Trump has already declared will be the largest in American history.

DeSantis wants Florida localities to enforce Federal ICE 287(g) agreements to complement the incoming administration’s announced deportation intentions. The ICE 287(g) program requires state and local law officers to enforce federal immigration law at their own expense.

Historically, however, this program has:

• Proven to be very costly for localities.

• Targeted people with little or no criminal history.

• Led to racial profiling and civil rights violations.

• Resulted in the isolation of immigrant communities.

• Separated families.

• Harmed relationships between police departments and local communities.

As Jews we remember how the 1921 Emergency Quota Act and the Immigration Act of 1924 drastically cut immigration to the United States. They caused millions of European Jews, among others, to be denied entry into the United States and, ultimately, to be murdered in the Holocaust.

Over recent decades, the political rhetoric in our country has turned harshly against all immigrants – and not only toward those who have entered the country illegally or who are ineligible for political asylum. This rhetoric eventually fueled policies that separated more than 5,000 children from their families and put children and adults into cages. which was a violation of basic human rights.

People who claim immigrants are 'poisoning the blood,' – and who refer to them as 'criminals,' 'animals' and 'vermin' – are promoting anti-immigrant hate and parroting propaganda used by Adolf Hitler.

It is inhumane to carry out policies that call for rounding up millions of immigrants – including children who are American citizens – and putting them in internment camps before deporting them. These policies also undermine American democracy and our global moral standing.

The fact is these children have the right to live in the United States, which was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Plyler v Doe – and they also have the right to receive the same public education provided to other children.

Will the Florida Legislature become caught up in the politics of the moment? Or will it support and acknowledge the rights of immigrant families who contribute so much to Florida’s economy and communities?

We must say, 'Never again' to rounding up and deporting children and families.

We must do everything in our power to uphold individual civil liberties and protect children and their families from extreme deportation policies.

And we must stand behind established policies that have prevented the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) from entering our schools, houses of worship and hospitals.

We recommend that our school districts – as well as our state and local government officials – put together appropriate strategies and plans to protect students and require judicial warrants, signed by a judge from a U.S. district or state court, to enter private areas like schools, hospitals and houses of worship.

Norman Olshansky is president of the Suncoast Jewish Alliance in Sarasota.