surge may already be underway.<\/a><\/p>\nIn 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\u00a0 federal agent earlier this month. The group also sang, \u201cThis is for our neighbors who are locked inside. Together we will abolish ICE,\u201d while many waved flags that read \u201cICE out 4 Good.\u201d Dozens of passersby honked in support.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the gathering place of the citizenry of Orlando speaking to its government,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cWe recognize this is an inherently more political location \u2026 but our purpose is prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s 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,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cIt seems like we\u2019ve forgotten that collectively, so this is a moment to remember that commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s mindset and now not only are immigrants afraid but so are the U.S. citizens who are demonstrating for them, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had this really scary conversation with my brother \u2026 where he said, \u2018You have to be so careful,\u2019 he was sobbing,\u201d Siegel said, who attends and organizes demonstrations for her job. \u201cHe is worried I\u2019ll get shot, which is a very real fear at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
OPD did not respond to questions about the nature of the police presence at the vigil.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Florida has helped immigration enforcement and required counties, including Orange, to sign agreements to cooperate with ICE,\u00a0 and it has deputized the Florida Highway Patrol.<\/p>\n
Under the so-called Operation Tidal Wave, which Gov. Ron DeSantis touted as \u201cthe largest joint immigration enforcement operation in ICE\u2019s history,\u201d state authorities have arrested more than 10,000 undocumented immigrants across the state.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the Orlando Sentinel,\u00a0 Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin touted the cooperation of state police with ICE.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country. We do not discuss future or potential operations,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 70 people gathered in downtown Orlando on Sunday to pray for the immigrant community rocked amid an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140,61340],"class_list":{"0":"post-123303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-orlando","9":"tag-orlando-headlines","10":"tag-orlando-news","11":"tag-roughly-70-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"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123303","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=123303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}