“Chief Moya Folded:” GINI and Activist Leaders Speak Against GPD Policy Requiring Officers to Report Suspected Undocumented Immigrants

Wednesday afternoon, the Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Inclusion Initiative (GINI) held a press conference at City Hall on why the Gainesville Police Department should rescind General Order 82.4, which requires officers to report suspected undocumented immigrants.

GINI has dubbed General Order 82.4 the “Show me Your Papers” policy and has been advocating against it since it was first implemented on August 27.

GINI coordinator Ethan Maia de Needell presented the results of a survey conducted among 98 immigrants in Gainesville and Alachua County. The survey represents immigrants from 15 countries. Survey takers had language differences and varying immigration status.

“The results are damning,” said Maia de Needell. “Racism and the fear of immigration enforcement are the biggest barriers to feeling safe and included in our city, despite claims from city leaders that we are a welcoming community.” 

Maia de Needell added that the survey was taken before General Order 82.4 was instated, and over 80% still said they don’t feel safe when they see law enforcement. 

Over half of survey takers said they would not reach out to police for help if they needed it. Maia de Needell said this should greatly concern GPD and city leaders. 

Former Gainesville city commissioner and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) policy strategist David Arreola spoke to advocate for the rescission of the policy. He said the ACLU of Florida is a non-partisan organization that seeks to safeguard constitutional rights and liberties of Floridians.

Arreola said General Order 82.4 is contradictory to the GPD website, which says they protect, serve, and seek to promote community engagement. He added that it violates 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable searches or detention. 

“It makes us all less safe,” he said. “It increases racial profiling, threatens hundreds of families, destroys the community’s trust and unnecessarily diverts local resources. I want to be clear. Local law enforcement is not required by law to make immigration arrests… General Order 82.4 blurs the distinction between federal ICE agents, whose violent tactics and excessive use of force are well documented, and between local police officers whose job is to protect their communities.” 

Arreola said that research shows the overwhelming majority of immigration arrests are not linked to a criminal charge. “This means that hardworking people going through routine immigration proceedings and posing no danger to the public are being ripped away from their communities and families, often leaving children unsure of their safety or next meal,” he said.

Indivisible member Amy Schwarzer said she wanted to call out the betrayal of GPD and especially Chief Nelson Moya. 

Schwarzer said that Moya acted out of fear and was worried about the consequences of defying Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). She said the policy is not backed by legal authority. 

“We’ve asked time and again for the records showing us the State’s communication with GPD,” she said. “We’ve requested that they provide the rule or law requiring this policy and we’ve been given nothing. So we can only assume that this pressure came down as some sort of vague threat, and Chief Moya folded."

Schwarzer said that Moya claims his hands are tied and that it’s the law, “but in reality all it [has] shown is that he will sacrifice the most vulnerable on the altar of a false sense of security. What other group of people will he sacrifice next?”

Schwarzer called Moya’s actions an act of cowardice but said the community will stand by him through potential retaliation from the State if he rescinds the order. “If you don’t, we will not forget,” she said. “We will not stand down. We will make this city a place where immigrants belong with or without you.” 

The press conference next heard from concerned community member Juan Moya. “Chief Moya is not my relative, as far as I know,” he joked. He is a member of Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Gainesville, which he said advocates for peace and has supported local social projects. 

Juan Moya said the policy is racial profiling. “Instead of the police demanding us to show them our papers, I think we also have the right to ask where are your papers? What are your identities? Why are you persecuting me? Why are you stopping me?... Why are they acting violently?” 

Under Florida public records law, anyone has the right to make a public records request for the personnel file and internal affairs employee resume of a police or corrections officer. 

External vice president of the University of Florida branch for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Haley Pridgeon, also spoke in advocacy of local immigrants. 

Pridgeon said the policy puts police in the position “to guess” if someone is undocumented. 

“I asked the question, what does it mean to be undocumented?” Pridgeon said. “To be without a piece of paper to prove that you are alive in this country. Is it a piece of paper to prove that your worth and value is connected only to the citizenship status you hold inside a border? This policy places GPD and Gainesville in direct collaboration with ICE in their terror campaign across this country. This policy will only serve to break apart families, take people from their lives, and place them in concentration camps to sit and die. Many have died in concentration camps just minutes away from our very cities. We cannot allow our people to be taken away from us.” 

Pridgeon invited community members to a protest at UF today against the UF Police Department's 287(g) agreement with ICE.

Closing out the press conference, Maia de Needell said legal experts have affirmed that GPD is not legally required to report suspected non-citizens. He said they requested public records from several police departments that haven’t signed 287(g) agreements. Out of the 11 that responded, none have created a similar policy, he said.

Based on the survey results, racism and language access are large barriers for the immigrant community. When asked about this during a brief interview, Maia de Needell said that there have been instances where advocates called a city department speaking another language as a way to test the city’s language interpretation program. “People just got hung up on,” he said. “Rude comments, people just being placed on hold and never being responded to.”

Maia de Needell said that GINI intends to speak against General Order 82.4 at the next Gainesville city commission meeting.