Special Coverage: Immigration Discussion with the ACLU of Florida
May 13, 2025
Miami Dade County– "Florida is coming for America...We can't lose sight of the importance of making sure the nation understands this."
Two Florida Democrat groups located in North East Miami Dade County welcomed ACLU of Florida's CEO Bicardi Jackson for a discussion about immigration in Florida and civil rights in the Florida and beyond. Ms. Jackson delivered an impassioned message about hope for Florida and the nation, but also a warning.
"All of the things that have been tested and tried right here in our state are now becoming national policy. Those same advisors who have been side by side, the scientists are now helping to write what is happening nationally. And we can't lose sight of that, and we can't lose sight of the importance of making sure the nation understands this."
One of the biggest challenges she's faced in her year in Florida and as the ACLU of Florida CEO is "[T]rying to convince people outside of Florida that Florida is salvageable. That Florida was worth the investment."
"When I started here, my mantra has been free Florida Freedom Nation. And I say that because I truly believe this has been the Petri dish had ideas, and probably our greatest export has been regressive policies. And we have gotta stop that. I believe we can free Florida. I really do. And it is important for the rest of the nation to understand its stake in Florida, that what we are seeing right now is one of my peers in another sister organization put on a board recently, Florida is coming for America, and it's Florida is coming for America."
A group of about 40 people gathered to hear Ms. Jackson talk and to ask her questions about the state of immigration in Florida as well as other civil liberties.
"We are living in a day where courage is real and really has consequences," she told the crowd. A member of the crowd responded that people should put that on t-shirts. Courage matters, the crowd agreed.
Ms. Jackson spoke of Freedom Riders and how Robert F. Kennedy Sr., not the Secretary of Health and Human Services, called her father's first wife during the Freedom Rides of the 1960s and scolded her, "Don't you realize you're about to get these kids killed?" The woman replied, "With all due respect, we all signed our last wills and testaments last night." Ms. Jackson elaborated, "If [the students] wanted to be part of a Freedom Ride, they had to write a letter to their parents to explain what they had died for. That's courage."
Ms. Jackson wasn't the only person to speak of courage. Present at the meeting was Laura Kelley, the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party Chair. Ms. Kelley was the 2024 runner up for Florida State House District 111, which covers much of Doral and the surrounding area. Ms. Kelley also spoke of courage and brought passion for Miami-Dade County residents.
Ms. Kelley, an immigration attorney, provided a concrete example of how people can be courageous, "If the police stop you and ask you if you're a US citizen, what do you say? You say, I am electing to remain silent because that's my right. You don't say anything and it's up to all of us who are US citizens to say, I'm not gonna talk to you."
She acknowledged that this tactic might not be safe for everyone, particularly Black residents, but for people like her, she challenged the audience to be courageous.
Displaying courage in the room, Ms. Kelley traversed the sticky subject of political donations. "I know that everybody hates the money aspect of politics and all this work, but you know, that's just, that's where you live in a capitalist economy and everything requires money," she told the crowd.
So does representing immigrants facing deportation. Both Ms. Kelley and Ms. Jackson spoke of the importance of supporting causes financially--not just their personal line of work. One audience member talked about supporting NPR.
Ms. Kelley also invited the group to the 2025 Interfaith Breakfast of Hope on May 30th at 8 AM at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. The former ambassador to Tanzania will be at the Interfaith Breakfast along with people of all faiths.
Another member of the audience had advice for the crowd: "Trust Black women because we've successfully beat this system all the days of our lives, okay? That's why we're still here."
History bears this out, particularly in Florida. Since before the Civil War, Black women have been organizing grassroots power. When formerly enslaved people were freed after the Civil War, Black women were ready to organize Black men to vote. Resisting Jim Crow in the South, Black women helped organize the first statewide Civil Rights movement and get out the vote after the 19th Amendment was ratified. In 1945, Black women helped lead the first mass civil disobedience effort when several Black Floridians waded into the waters of a Broward beach designated for "Whites Only," just hours after Victory in Europe had been declared.
While the topic of the night was immigration and civil rights, the theme was courage.
The ACLU of Florida website has places for people to get on the organization's mailing list, sign up to volunteer and, of course, make financial donations.
