{"id":117208,"date":"2026-01-14T02:14:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/117208\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T02:14:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:14:42","slug":"dozens-protest-u-s-customs-and-border-patrol-recruitment-event-in-st-petersburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/117208\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens protest U.S. Customs and Border Patrol recruitment event in St. Petersburg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; Dozens of protesters gathered Tuesday afternoon outside a Hilton Hotel, demanding change in response to a two-day U.S. Border Patrol and Customs recruitment event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The event follows a nationwide immigration crackdown under the Trump administration and comes amid heightened tensions after the recent shooting and killing of a Minnesota woman by an ICE agent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe want to be able to show up for them on the streets, in the courthouses where the legislative decisions are being made,\u201d said Harrison Luney with the Voices of Florida Fund. \u201cIt\u2019s our responsibility to show up for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/01\/12\/orange-county-jail-sees-surge-immigrant-detainees-due-ice-repeat-bookings\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/01\/12\/orange-county-jail-sees-surge-immigrant-detainees-due-ice-repeat-bookings\/\">Orange County jail sees surge in immigrant detainees due to ICE repeat bookings<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Luney is part of the Sarasota-based nonprofit Voices of Florida Fund, a statewide human rights organization that provides aid to immigrant communities, particularly in Sarasota and Manatee counties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cOne of our main focuses is being able to provide aid to our immigrant communities, especially in places like Sarasota and Bradenton that have heavy immigrant populations,\u201d Luney said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Deputy Director Tsiday Smyth said many immigrants are unable to attend protests due to safety concerns, making it essential for allies to speak on their behalf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThese spaces aren\u2019t deemed safe for everybody,\u201d Smyth said. \u201cIt becomes our job to use our privilege to protect them and carry their message.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">As nationwide anti-ICE protests continue, organizers in St. Petersburg say demonstrations are expected to continue into Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; Dozens of protesters gathered Tuesday afternoon outside a Hilton Hotel, demanding change in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[58984,58986,45810,58987,202,204,203,199,201,200,5005,58985],"class_list":["post-117208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-border-patrol-recruitment","tag-ice-demonstrations","tag-immigration-crackdown","tag-minnesota-ice","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-st-petersburg-protest","tag-voices-of-florida-fund"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}