{"id":166142,"date":"2026-02-23T21:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166142\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T21:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:37:07","slug":"faith-leaders-urge-florida-lawmakers-to-protect-immigrants-as-session-nears-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166142\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith leaders urge Florida lawmakers to protect immigrants as session nears end"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) &#8211; Pastors, priests and faith leaders gathered at the Florida Capitol to call on lawmakers to protect immigrants, including pushing for legislation that would require federal immigration officers to show their credentials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">With three weeks remaining in the legislative session, Democrats and faith leaders are invoking shared religious values to encourage Republicans to reconsider immigration policies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Leaders from several faiths criticized bills moving through the Republican supermajority-controlled legislature that would increase restrictions on people living in Florida illegally. Among them is a sweeping elections reform bill that would require local election supervisors to verify immigration status on voter registrations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Sen. Erin Grall, R-Fort Pierce, said the bill uses an existing system to work with supervisors of elections. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt allows us to use a system that works, that has already confirmed this information, to interact with the supervisors of elections,\u201d Grall said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-center article-text\">More Florida politics:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rev. Russell Meyer of the Florida Council of Churches pushed back on the direction of current enforcement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cPeople say there\u2019s an immigration crisis. Let\u2019s be clear, we have a crisis in cruel and harsh enforcement,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Faith leaders are asking lawmakers to instead pass bills that would make it easier for people to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/328\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/328\">identify federal immigration<\/a> officers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Sen. Shevin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, drew a contrast between religious rhetoric and legislative action. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cLeaders who quote scripture on Sunday, criminalize migrant families on Monday, I have to ask a question \u2014 are we practicing the faith we preach or are we weaponizing it?\u201d Jones said. Jones also noted, \u201cJesus himself was an immigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said the current climate has consequences for immigrant communities. \u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Because living in the shadows, especially today, it is not only scary, but it is being weaponized,\u201d Eskamani said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Final committee meetings are scheduled for next week. Bills must be ready for a vote by next Tuesday to remain eligible to become law. Eskamani said efforts to push back on restrictive legislation will continue. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe will be fighting defensively on some of the concerning bills that some are going to come to State Affairs soon, and of course, amending to mitigate harm,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) &#8211; Pastors, priests and faith leaders gathered at the Florida Capitol to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1442,5173,2811,24320,28,30,29,2161,1877,1841,1443,99,4220],"class_list":["post-166142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-cody-butler","tag-dhs","tag-election","tag-faith-leaders","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-government","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-legislature","tag-politics","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166142","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=166142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}