![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Gglm6dq2.jpg\" "\\"Florida")
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Tallahassee, FL \u2013 Protesters descended on Florida\u2019s state capitol on Sunday, February 15, joining a statewide initiative from the Legalization for All Network to support the VISIBLE Act, a bill in the Florida legislature that would make it illegal for federal agents to hide their faces while preying on immigrant communities.<\/p>\n
Sponsored by State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando and Representative Angie Nixon of Jacksonville, who was elected with the backing of the Black liberation movement, the VISIBLE Act would require immigration agents to clearly display their names or badge numbers and prohibit them from wearing masks while on duty.<\/p>\n
The Tallahassee Immigrant Rights Alliance (TIRA), a Legalization for All Network affiliate, gathered over 40 protesters outside the capitol despite stormy weather to support the bill, calling on state legislators to protect Florida\u2019s immigrant communities from the racist police terror that Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis have unleashed.<\/p>\n
TIRA\u2019s sister organizations in Jacksonville and Tampa led their own actions the same week in a united effort to rally support across the state. Florida\u2019s Republican-dominated state government seems unlikely to let the act pass, but protesters were still optimistic about the rapidly growing strength of the state\u2019s immigrant rights movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cLegislative session is really demoralizing,\u201d said TIRA President Joelle Nu\u00f1ez, \u201cbut that\u2019s why it\u2019s so important that we raise support around bills that we wanna see get heard. If it wasn\u2019t for public support, this bill wouldn\u2019t have been written, been drafted, gone through committees, and would never be heard! This bill comes out of a movement that we are building, and so we have to support it in the same way that we support our movement: We\u2019re out in the streets building justice, because politics isn\u2019t just about who\u2019s in office, supposedly representing you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizers made it clear that the struggle for immigrant rights extended far beyond one bill. \u201cThe reality is that the VISIBLE act matters, and it should pass, but it is less than the minimum,\u201d declared Kaiden Rosa of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. \u201cWe\u2019re at a time when accountability isn\u2019t enough. We need real solutions; we need legalization for all! We need revolution to overturn U.S. oppression of Latin America and end the oppression of immigrants. At this point in our struggle, the people\u2019s mobilization against ICE is the future! Minneapolis has given us a blueprint, and we\u2019re gonna do the same shit here: We\u2019re gonna fight back against 287(g), we\u2019re gonna pass the VISIBLE Act \u2013 we\u2019re coming for ICE!\u201d<\/p>\n
The 287(g) agreement between ICE and the Tallahassee Police Department assigns designated TPD officers to carry out ICE\u2019s brutal repression of immigrants, and TIRA plays the leading role in organizing the people\u2019s widespread opposition to it.<\/p>\n
The struggle over the agreement has been intensifying lately \u2013 at the last city commission meeting on January 14, officers tried to illegally confiscate signs from attendees, and Mayor John Dailey ended the meeting early when people refused. The city is now even trying to limit public comment to just 30 minutes per meeting because of the huge crowds that are coming to every meeting to speak out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t tell us that we weren\u2019t allowed to have signs because it \u2018disrupts the meeting\u2019 \u2013 they did it because they\u2019re scared,\u201d said TIRA member Aedan Benett. \u201cThey\u2019re scared of hundreds of people coming to the city commission month after month. They\u2019re scared because we\u2019ll come out to speak regardless of how many times they take 287(g) off the agenda, or cut the meeting short, to say that we will not stand for ICE in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n
TIRA will join other community organizations on International Women\u2019s Day (March 8) to march for justice for immigrant women. For more information, visit TIRA\u2019s pages on Facebook or Instagram (@tlh_ira).<\/p>\n
#TallahasseeFL<\/a> #FL<\/a> #ImmigrantRights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tallahassee, FL \u2013 Protesters descended on Florida\u2019s state capitol on Sunday, February 15, joining a statewide initiative from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-166488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-tallahassee","9":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","10":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166488","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=166488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}