The rogue federal agencies ICE and DHS which have violently invaded American cities and are targeting our most vulnerable, and have cracked down lethally on peaceful protestors, including with the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in the state of Minnesota, have no place here in Escambia county.

I demand that you terminate collaboration and support for ICE and DHS—such as by refusing access to them and their collaborators to protected spaces like courts and schools, ending contracts and the sharing of lists of employees and students, and clarifying to the public any previous or ongoing collaboration between institutions under your control and influence—to the greatest extent possible; and to take all efforts within your power to protect immigrants and others under threat of state immigration terror and to direct officers of the law under your jurisdiction to make immigration enforcement their lowest priority and to the greatest extent possible to not collaborate with DHS or Florida Highway Patrol (as long as it remains a collaborator of DHS/ICE). Where such collaboration is mandated by Florida law I ask that you make your opposition public and clear and work to change the laws.

It is vitally important that people of all migration backgrounds when witness to a crime or made victim to one themselves be able to call law enforcement without fear of removal. Further more in order for us to have an educated public, all children in our county must be able to receive an education and not live in the shadows in fear of their parents being taken from them.

After our immigrant communities helped us recover from hurricanes Katrina, Ivan, and so many more natural disasters we ought not turn our backs now. Our immigrant neighbors contribute much more to our community than the billionaire oligarchs stoking hatred against them.

I ask that you—instead of aiding mass deportations—apportion legal aid and support to families under threat of deportation and publicly stand with our immigrant community against ongoing state terror from agencies which are targeting citizens and noncitizens alike based on racial and ethnic profiling. Please speak publicly against the onslaught against the rights of immigrants and explain to citizens and noncitizens their rights when confronted by federal agents and speak out against plans to weaponize ICE in targeting our free elections; we do not want to see ICE agents at polling stations or in our communities at all.

Instead of treating all immigrants as criminal aliens I support humane immigration policies such as those advanced by the Democratic Socialists of America and its local Pensacola FL chapter which covers Northwest Florida.