Latest news with #AdelaMiranda
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
State senator walks back restrictions to migrant children's path to residency
Adela Miranda holds a sign advocating for immigrants' rights during a protest in front of the Gadsden County Courthouse on Feb. 24, 2025. She said she immigrated to the U.S. when she was 3 years old. (Photo by Jackie Llanos/Florida Phoenix) Vero Beach Republican Sen. Erin Grall steered away from making it harder for immigrant children fleeing abuse in their home countries to seek residency in Florida. Offering no explanation, Grall put forward an amendment removing all of the provisions in one of her bills, SB 1626, dealing with abused and abandoned migrant children vying for immigration relief. Immigration attorneys representing children fleeing abuse previously condemned the bill, calling it unethical because it would have prevented kids without legal permanent status from gaining residency in Florida if the abuse happened outside of the country. Miami Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia said she had been in talks with Grall to walk back provisions that would have restricted a path to residency for immigrant children entering the country without their parents or a guardian. 'So we want to make sure, at least I'm going to make sure, that children are always safe,' Garcia told reporters after the committee meeting. The amended child welfare bill advanced in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services on Wednesday. Wihout the immigration provisions, the bill would allow the Florida Department of Children and Families to issue provisional certifications for new domestic violence shelters, have more power over exemptions to background checks for child care employees, and extend licenses for family foster homes. Grall had originally pitched the excised language as necessary to close what she claimed was a loophole allowing criminals and gang members to gain legal status, a claim President Donald Trump touted in his first term. 'It's also clear that there is some abuse of the special immigrant juvenile visa by those who have other criminal history, gang activity, that type of thing,' Grall said during the first hearing of the bill on March 14. 'That's what this is really responsive to and to make sure that we are really looking out for the interest of the children that are within the state of Florida.' Although advocates with the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) thanked the lawmakers for the change, they said they were still concerned about a provision giving sheriffs authority over cases of missing children who are supposed to be in custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families. Tiffany Hankins, FLIC's director of politics and policy, said she worried missing kids without legal status would wind up in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, given the enforcement agreements the state's sheriffs have signed with the federal government. The House companion, HB 1301, still maintains the changes that immigration attorneys said would shut them out from representing migrant children in court. However, the bill has not been heard in the lower chamber. At the federal level, the Trump administration moved on Friday to end a contract providing legal help to unaccompanied migrant children. Grall's office did not respond to Florida Phoenix's request for comment. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Statewide immigration enforcement ramp-up prompts Latinos in Quincy to organize
Adela Miranda holds a sign advocating for immigrants' rights during a protest in front of the Gadsden County Courthouse on Feb. 24, 2025. She said she immigrated to the U.S. when she was 3 years old. (Photo by Jackie Llanos/Florida Phoenix) QUINCY – Aracely Cruz-Miranda, a young mother who has called this town just west of Tallahassee home for 25 years, is organizing Latinos in her community through social media as state and local law enforcement shore up coordination with federal immigration enforcement agencies. A constant trickle of rain in front of the Gadsden County Courthouse dampened the protesters' signs and started to wash off their messages during the first demonstration on Monday. Still, spirits remained high, with people dancing to Mexican music and sharing pizza despite fear that many protesting said have consumed community members whose immigration status makes them subject to deportation. In one hand, Cruz-Miranda held an umbrella big enough for three people, signs, a large American flag, and smaller flags to hand out to people. In the other, she held a slice of pizza. She joked — as a mother, she's used to carrying her toddler while holding onto other things. 'I don't want my daughter to grow up in a community that is going to discriminate her skin color,' she told the Florida Phoenix. The demonstration on Monday was the first of many Cruz-Miranda, a Mexican-American born in Tallahassee, plans to organize biweekly. Quincy is a city of nearly 8,000 residents less than a 20-minute drive from the border with Georgia. Just over 22% of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Latino community in the area is tight-knit, Cruz-Miranda said, but the past few weeks have felt hopeless in light of the Republican leaders' dash for Florida to lead immigration enforcement efforts. Cruz-Miranda had another task on Monday. She spoke before the Gadsden County legislative delegation meeting to condemn state and local leaders' lack of solidarity with Latinos in the area, shaking while reading the speech she'd written on her phone. Republican Sen. Corey Simon, Democratic Rep. Gallup Franklin, and former Congress member Al Lawson ran the meeting. 'My community recalls local authorities coming to us and asking for our vote,' she said during the meeting. 'They promised us solidarity and support, but now where is your voice? Not a single webinar on knowing your rights, not a single message of unity, not a single word of support. The silence is unacceptable.' As others in the audience clapped, Gallop said, 'Thank you very much for sharing your comments. They're much appreciated.' Simon looked down at the dais in front of him. During the same meeting, the mayor of Gretna, a city of fewer than 1,400 residents neighboring Quincy, told the lawmakers that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was welcome to use a former elementary school building as a processing center for immigrants facing deportation. However, the city needs $1 million to improve the structure, which local law enforcement uses to train for school shootings, Mayor Gary Russ-Sills said. This bill would impose harsher penalties for immigrants driving without a license Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed agreements deputizing the Florida Highway Patrol, the Florida State Guard, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to interrogate people about their immigration status under the ICE's 'task force model' of the 287(g) program, which authorizes such cooperative arrangements. The governor signed two laws on Feb. 13 distributing $250 million to local law enforcement working with federal officials and bringing harsher penalties for immigrants lacking legal status who commit misdemeanors, such as driving without a license. Latinos in the county have shared accounts of police stops over air fresheners hanging on their rearview mirrors or claims a passenger wasn't wearing a seatbelt leading to inquiries about people's immigration status, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. ICE and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles last week touted on social media traffic stops leading to arrests of people living in Gadsden County without authorization. Cruz-Miranda said she warned people at risk of deportation not to come to the protest. Those present said that although they were citizens or permanent residents, they felt the need to stand up for friends and family members afraid to leave their houses. Nohe Sandoval, who moved from Acapulco, Mexico, to Quincy 25 years ago, said that although he's a permanent resident, he fears being separated from his children. 'Residency is not as strong as being a citizen,' Sandoval said. 'We want to become citizens as soon as we can but, at the same time, we have Mexican friends who came here and haven't been able to get documents. We need immigration reform so we can all be fine. Not all of us are criminals, we are simply workers seeking better lives for our kids and ourselves.' Maribel Rodriguez, another Mexican immigrant who's been in Quincy for three decades, is thankful she became a citizen but opposes the recent laws DeSantis signed giving harsher penalties to people without legal status who commit crimes. She said a lot of American citizens born in the country don't understand the complexities of the immigration process. 'I agree that people who commit crimes should be deported, but there are more good people than bad people. … An American who commits the same crime as a Hispanic person won't be judged the same way for the simple fact that they're undocumented. That is deplorable and sad,' she said. Rodriguez said she worked harvesting tomatoes, in nurseries, and factories before becoming a citizen. Note: Immigration attorneys plan to host a meeting for the community on March 2 at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Quincy. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
