About 70 people gathered in downtown Orlando on Sunday to pray for the immigrant community rocked amid an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence. Police were monitoring the vigil.
Eight Orlando Police Department vehicles were parked directly across the street throughout the over hour-long vigil, leaving just before it ended. Organizers said the police had never been to any of the other three vigils held in Orlando last year for immigrants. Advocates and organizers say it’s a sign of increasing tension.
“That’s a new thing at any vigil across the state,” said Rachel Siegel, an organizer with The Workers Circle who put together the vigil in Orlando and helps with others across the nation. “There is nothing happening at Dr. Phillips that would necessitate that kind of police presence. … It’s kind of ridiculous.”
Amid the possible deployment of U.S. troops into Minnesota to quell immigration protests, in Central Florida members of Congress and local advocates are warning that Orlando could be next as a surge may already be underway.
In front of the steps of Orlando City Hall for over an hour, the group prayed over butterflies that are handed to immigrants, prayed for the families who have been separated and for Renee Good, the Minneapolis mother who was shot and killed by a federal agent earlier this month. The group also sang, “This is for our neighbors who are locked inside. Together we will abolish ICE,” while many waved flags that read “ICE out 4 Good.” Dozens of passersby honked in support.
Rev. Sarah Robinson, who led the vigil, said holding the event in front of city hall for the first time was symbolic. Previously it took place at Lake Eola. But Sunday marked the fourth vigil that brought together faith leaders and the largest turnout, she said.
“This is the gathering place of the citizenry of Orlando speaking to its government,” Robinson said. “We recognize this is an inherently more political location … but our purpose is prayer.”
The group also read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a landmark document created by leaders of countries across the world and adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948.
“That’s why the UN Declaration on Human Rights is so powerful today. In fact, that was a collective of the whole world after the horrors of World War II saying we can do better,” Robinson said. “It seems like we’ve forgotten that collectively, so this is a moment to remember that commitment.”
Siegel said the turnout was in response to the increase in ICE activity locally amid the rising tensions in Minneapolis. The shooting of Good has shifted people’s mindset and now not only are immigrants afraid but so are the U.S. citizens who are demonstrating for them, she said.
“I had this really scary conversation with my brother … where he said, ‘You have to be so careful,’ he was sobbing,” Siegel said, who attends and organizes demonstrations for her job. “He is worried I’ll get shot, which is a very real fear at this point.”
OPD did not respond to questions about the nature of the police presence at the vigil.
On Friday, Hope CommUnity Center said in a statement it confirmed about 300 people had been booked into the Orange County Jail on immigration holds in the previous 48 hours. A spokesperson for the jail told the Sentinel that a total of 831 people had been booked on such holds since Jan. 1. County Commissioner Nicole Wilson said that number was a shocking total because about 300 people had been booked in December.
Florida has helped immigration enforcement and required counties, including Orange, to sign agreements to cooperate with ICE, and it has deputized the Florida Highway Patrol.
Under the so-called Operation Tidal Wave, which Gov. Ron DeSantis touted as “the largest joint immigration enforcement operation in ICE’s history,” state authorities have arrested more than 10,000 undocumented immigrants across the state.
In a statement to the Orlando Sentinel, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin touted the cooperation of state police with ICE.
“Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country. We do not discuss future or potential operations,” McLaughlin said. “We have had tremendous success when local law enforcement work with us including 40,000 arrests in Florida and more than 550 arrests in New Orleans.”