Indivisible Holds Press Conference Against Camp Blanding
The activist organization Indivisible held a press conference against the proposed Camp Blanding immigration detention center at the Gainesville Federal Building and Courthouse Friday morning.
Indivisible is a nonprofit group that formed in 2017 as a response to Donald Trump’s election. The group has several branches around the United States, including North Florida.
Camp Blanding is located in Clay County and serves as the training center of the Floridan National Guard.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced that a detention center at Camp Blanding is in the developing stages, saying the state is in the process of selecting vendors for construction.
The infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” Everglades detention center began holding immigrants less than a month after it was announced, indicating that Camp Blanding may be finished shortly.
Camp Blanding formerly served as an internment camp during World War 2 that housed roughly 4,000 German prisoners of war along with Americans of Asian, Latin and German descent.
Local faith leaders and community organizers voiced their dissent of the proposed Camp Blanding detention center in letters sent to Floridian officials.
Executive Director of North Central Florida Indivisible, Jyoti Parmar, said that before addressing Camp Blanding, she wanted to acknowledge that everyone was standing on the Indigenous land of the Timucua and Seminole people. She said, “While we’re here to speak of injustices to immigrants, let us recognize that this systemic injustice is a continuation of the same disregard of our humanity that is historically and today directed at Indigenous communities. Even today the detention center in the Everglades is built on the sacred land of the Miccosukee and against their consent.”
Parmar went on to say that Camp Blanding is “being built without public input, transparency or accountability. This facility is being built with our taxpayer dollars that are meant for emergency management.”
Westminster Presbyterian Church Pastor Becca Putman said that her congregation has a proud history of serving marginalized communities. She said her church has served as a sanctuary, welcoming everyone regardless of immigration status.
Putman said, “I’m here to lend my voice as a faith leader to speak out against the use of Camp Blanding as an immigrant internment camp. I’m here to say, 'Not here, not now, not ever.'”
Putman went on to say, “Those who welcomed the stranger were said to have welcomed Jesus himself and are deemed righteous. Those who didn’t welcome the stranger are said to be unrighteous and accursed because by turning away the stranger they have refused to welcome the Lord in their mix… There is no way to welcome the stranger in the name of Christ while simultaneously throwing them into camps and behind bars. Not here, not now, not ever.”
Clay County community organizer Echo Nova said, “There are people even in these small-town, largely conservative counties that will not stand for [Camp Blanding]. We don't want it anywhere. Not here, not now, not ever. I invite everyone in Clay, Putnam, Broward, Union, Nassau, Baker, and everywhere else to join this struggle.”
Retired professor Adela Beckerman represented the director of the Jewish Council of North Central Florida (JCNCF), Linda Maurice, as she could not be present due to a conflicting obligation.
Beckerman said, “JCNCF is an umbrella organization to the very Jewish communities of Gainesville, Ocala and surrounding areas. We focus on philanthropic, cultural, and educational activities that enhance the Jewish community locally, regionally, and worldwide. We, the United States, have to remember we are a nation of immigrants. We are the children, grandchildren, and descendants of immigrants… We have entered an era of mean-spirited, heavy-handed, inhumane treatment of immigrants. This is not who we are as a nation or as individuals. The idea of warehousing immigrants is aborted. We know what is being planned. Little access to legal representation, breaking up families, inadequate space, resources, and inhumane treatment. And there's talk about these immigrants being put to work for growers, construction companies, and others who cannot manage… It is ironic that in Alachua County, where so many work really hard to avoid having prisoners serve as slave laborers for the community, we're setting up a detention center that will in effect do that… The Jewish community knows this all too well. Doors were shut when we were trying to escape Europe before, during, and after World War II and the Holocaust. We were labeled and viewed with anti-Semitic labels and tropes, scorned, ignored, not believed… Today we hear awful, derogatory, inaccurate labels and name-calling about immigrants. This is something that we cannot tolerate in our community.”
A local pastor without a church, Jaime Zelaya, said, “I don't have a church to pastor. But before I was ordained, my dad, who was also a pastor, told me, ‘It doesn't matter if you have a church or not; you're going to be responsible for people. Doesn't matter what happens.’ So that's why I'm here because even though I don't have a church right now, I am still responsible for the people of God… Some years ago I met this guy named Carlos. He came to the United States in a very difficult situation. He told me this story, and his eyes turned watery, and there is no doubt that what he was saying was true. He told me when [he] came to the United States, [he got] in a tunnel. [He] was walking in the dark between water, and when [he] finally saw the light, [he] saw officers waiting… He told me [they] started praying. He said [he] didn’t know from where, but it started raining. The rain got so strong—so much water, so much thunder—that the officers decided to go away.”
Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Inclusion Initiative core member Ethan Maia de Needell said, “Those in power use lies to justify this cruel agenda. We are being told to fear our immigrant neighbors. That our safety and well-being as a country are under threat by those who have sought the security and promise of our great country. Immigrants seeking refuge are being disappeared every day on the very land that once belonged to the ancestors of those who were displaced. Our basic rights are being taken from us in real time. Whether you happen to be an immigrant or a citizen who's been deemed by the powerful to be unworthy of those rights. To add insult to injury, our own taxes, along with the state's emergency management funds meant to help rebuild communities suffering from disasters like hurricanes, are being used to fund the construction of these atrocities in our name."
Following the press conference, protesters walked over to the Alachua County Civil Court House for a rally. Parmar said, “The point here is that we're at the federal courthouse because it is a federal push that is putting us in this condition. We are now going to move over to our county courthouse and call for county officials and all local decision-makers to step up and do what the federal system is unable to do. Stand up for immigrant rights.”
Pastor Putman led the protesters in chants before they heard from several more speakers.
Jewish Gainesville resident Gracie Gibson said, “There is an assumption often that the Holocaust began with concentration camps. That is not the case. The Holocaust began as a mass deportation. What happened is the Nazis quickly found that mass deportation is not feasible… so the gas chambers were essentially the ‘last solution.’ People think Anne Frank died in the gas chambers. Bergen-Belsen did not have gas chambers. Bergen-Belsen was a holding camp… She died of disease in an overcrowded and underfunded camp. I think it's clear what is happening. Anyone who is saying we can’t draw comparisons or use the term concentration camp is denying history.”
Party for Socialism and Liberation member Collin Swal said, “The United States has no moral authority to deport anybody regardless of what crime they had, especially without due process. I want to point to the example of Palestine. Every bomb that is dropped on a baby in Gaza—the children, women, and men of Gaza—are United States bombs. We have fully funded the genocide in Gaza. The only difference is now we’ve turned the bombs inwards. We have turned the concentration camps inwards because that's what Gaza essentially is—the largest open-air prison… Now the concentration camps are here.”
Attendees of the press conference and rally were encouraged to show up for a protest at Camp Blanding on July 19 at 3 p.m., located at 5701 FL-16, Starke.
