St. Pete Council Member Corey Givens is spreading the word about an online dashboard that tracks law enforcement interactions with individuals who are suspected of having entered the U.S. illegally.
“I look at this every day,” Givens said.
Givens said he’s always checking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s suspected unauthorized alien encounters dashboard.
“After what happened in Minneapolis, we want to make sure that does not happen here in St. Petersburg. The only way we can prevent that from happening is by being accountable and being transparent,” Givens said.
He said many neighbors ask if immigration and customs enforcement is active here.
“They are fearful that ICE is going to come and knock on their doors and take them out of their homes,” Givens said.
During the State of the Union, President Donald Trump emphasized his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration. “We are deporting illegal aliens at record numbers and we’re getting them the hell out of here fast we don’t want them,” Trump said.
“I’m all for cracking down on immigration control, but what I’m not for is the scare tactics,” Givens said.
The dashboard shows how many encounters Florida law enforcement agencies have had since last August.
“You see we have about 16,000 total encounters with ICE,” Givens said.
That doesn’t mean they all face federal immigration charges.
For example, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has had 322 encounters, 48 people were not arrested, 158 are facing federal immigration charges and 116 are facing local or state charges.
“With St. Petersburg Police it looks like we’ve had about 15,” Givens said.
St Pete Police said out of the 15 encounters with people suspected of being in the US illegally 10 were arrested on state or criminal charges and five were referred to ICE.
Right now, St. Pete police officers do not receive funding from ICE and the agency is not trained to do immigration enforcement arrests with ICE.
“What we want folks to know that’s not happening here in St. Petersburg,” Givens said.
Click here for more information on how use the Florida department of law enforcement’s suspected unauthorized alien encounters dashboard.