Gainesville Shows Up for No Kings 2
Gainesville showed up for the second No Kings protest against President Donald Trump at Cora Roberson Park Saturday morning, with over 4,000 people in attendance, according to organizers who counted.
Several activist leaders spoke at the protest, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) being a primary topic of discussion.
North Central Florida Indivisible leader Jyoti Parmar asked activists to join her in organizing against Baker Detention Facility, saying, "We don't even know who or how many are at Baker Detention Center, which is only about 30 minutes away from you. 30 minutes is not far people. We can shut that sucker down... There's a lot of work behind the scenes to shut down the Baker Detention Center. The most important one is to be very visible to let the people inside know that we are outside fighting for them. That involves protests like this and caravans that we need to do. Just because of the way the Baker facility is set up, we are not able to have a massive loud protest there. We're going to have to rely on car caravans and other creative ways.”
Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Inclusion Initiative (GINI) core member Ethan Maia de Needell said, “Here in Florida, our neighbors are not being taken by the same masked agents we see raiding cities like Chicago and Portland. In our state, people are being swept up and disappeared into the immigration detention and deportation system every day by state and local law enforcement who have either willingly signed deals or felt pressured under direct threat by the state to do so… Throughout Gainesville and Alachua County, we already have had too many families ripped apart by the actions of the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), whose entire agency has been given the credentials to carry out ICE actions… FHP now turns traffic stops, like changing lanes without signaling, into an ICE arrest... Nearly 100 of our Alachua County residents have already been taken in the past two months… Look into it yourselves. The Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement released its own official numbers on ICE arrests over the past two months. What does it show? Less than 1% of the nearly 6,000 people taken in Florida since August have no gang affiliation… What else does it show? They arrested more US citizens than gang members.”
On October 14, at 1:38 pm, GnvInfo screen-shotted data on the Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement website that stated they’ve had 30 “encounters” with United States citizens, as of 3:07 am the same day.
On October 15, at 2:57 pm, GnvInfo screen-shotted data on the Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement website that stated they’ve had two "encounters" with United States citizens, as of 3:06 am the same day.
The data also shows the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, which has signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE, has had 14 “encounters” relating to immigration enforcement.
The data shows Florida ICE authorities have had 1,131 "encounters" with individuals they did not arrest.
GnvInfo emailed the Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement asking what specific criteria needs to be met between an ICE agent and citizen or non-citizen for the interaction to qualify as an "encounter" but they didn't respond.
Retired U.S. History Professor Warren Goldstein said he taught for three decades and never expected that at 74 years of age he’d have to attend a rally because “the U.S. president and his shameless staff and cabinet are mounting a direct attack on American democracy itself.”
"You'd think that after 30 years of teaching, I know a lot about how democracy works,” said Goldstein. “Norms and expectations, like the peaceful transfer of power, like presidents not openly and proudly enriching themselves and their families, like respecting the nonpartisan civil service and the military. Wrong again. We can't take democracy for granted anymore. It turns out that in every generation, we need to relearn the fundamental overarching lesson of the American Revolution, of the fight against slavery, of the fight for civil rights, and the fight for LGBTQ rights. And that lesson is that American democracy is only as strong as we, the people, are going to make it.”
The founder of Bailey Learning and Arts Collective, Terri Bailey, read a poem called Black Fist Raised High.
“Black fists raised high signifies that the fight is on, and we're probably singing a warrior's song because something else has gone horribly wrong and another one of our babies has died.
Black fists raised high are often despised by the oppressor's gaze, and they remain amazed how we always seem to move forward to the next phase despite the latest beatdown.
Black fist raised high, reaching for the sky like Angela Davis’ fro, regal, and surrounded by a halo radiating a golden Soullll glow. You can't miss our shine.
Black fists raised high along with a battle cry means that we tired of this, and we won't quit. Despite hit after hit after hit, we're going to always get up and try again.
Black fist raised high shows no matter how much you try to deny our beauty, our grace, our power, our space, our love, our voice, our healing, our choice. Black fist gonna stay raised high and signify that no matter what, we will always stay fly and continue to rise.
Rise up, people. Rise up.”
