Press Release: Faith, Community Leaders Launch Campaign to Stop ICE Prison at Camp Blanding
Press Release from North Central Florida Indivisible:
Who: A coalition of North Central Florida faith leaders, community groups and activists
What: Press conference and release of letters to elected officials
Why: Launching a campaign to oppose more immigrant detention centers in Florida
When: 11 a.m. Friday, July 11
Where: In front of the U.S. District Courthouse, 401 SE First Avenue, Gainesville
Local faith leaders from diverse religious traditions will join forces with community organizations and activists for a press conference at the Federal Courthouse in Gainesville at 11 a.m. Friday, launching a campaign to oppose state plans to build a second “migrant detention center” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at Camp Blanding Joint Training Center. The campaign will raise awareness of state plans to expand immigrant internment at Camp Blanding and throughout Florida, and will mobilize public opposition to it. Letters written by coalition members have been signed by more than 25 congregations with 2,400 members, 17 community groups and 100 individuals.
Following the opening of the state’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades, which houses ICE arrestees inside chain-link cages under tents in inhumane conditions, the proposed Camp Blanding facility at a Florida National Guard base about 35 miles northeast of Gainesville in Clay County has gotten less publicity. Many Florida taxpayers do not know that Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to spend their money on it. DeSantis said on Monday that the state is selecting the contractors to build it this week, and intends to open the facility very soon.
The plan for what DeSantis called a “detention center” – in reality, an internment camp for people arrested by ICE, often with little or no evidence of any crime – is “morally indefensible, fiscally irresponsible and harmful” to public health and safety, the coalition members insist. At Friday’s press conference, they will release two letters from faith leaders and community groups, asking state, county and local elected officials to join them in opposing the state’s plans.
Representatives from a variety of faith communities and organizations will speak briefly at the press conference. Visuals will include protest signs, banners and graphics. Copies of the two letters and information about the campaign will be provided.
“Our sacred traditions teach us that every human life is valuable, that strangers are to be welcomed, and that justice is measured by how we treat the most vulnerable among us,” wrote the faith leaders. The state’s internment camps are “not only an insult to these deeply held teachings, but a misuse of public trust and resources.”
“Historically, human rights abuses frequently start out under the guise of law and order,” said Jyoti Parmar, director of North Central Florida Indivisible, a participating community group. “The red flags here are the inhuman conditions that exist in these camps and the targeting of specific communities.”
In a second letter, community members also voiced humanitarian concerns and outrage at the waste of taxpayer money. The two detention centers in the Everglades and at Camp Blanding are expected to cost an estimated $450 million per year to build and operate “with no clear source of funds” identified, the community members and organizations wrote. “At a time when our community faces urgent needs, from recovering from hurricanes to addressing healthcare shortfalls, with millions recently stripped of their insurance,” diverting public funds to this irresponsible and harmful project is “an outrageous misuse of resources,” they wrote.
“Our congregations cannot accept the expansion of this abhorrent and immoral system in our communities,” wrote the faith leaders, demanding that the elected officials stand with Floridians from diverse faiths and backgrounds in opposing the state’s plans. “Do not allow Camp Blanding to become an internment center and stop construction at once.”
The organizations that have signed the letters opposing Camp Blanding are as follows:
Sufficient Spirulina
Morning Meadow
The Right to Freedom Network
Emmanuel Mennonite Church
Nova Catholic Community
Jacksonville Prisons and Police Project
Skunk Ape Liberation Union
FUMC of Gainesville
Indivisible St. Johns County
Florida Immigrant Coalition
Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida - Alachua County Chapter
Jax Mutual Aid Collective
Jax NOW
Florida for All
Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi
Greater Gainesville International Center
Gainesville Interfaith Alliance for Immigrant Justice
Florida Student Power
InterReligious Task Force on Central America
Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
50501 Movement
Clay County DEC
American Friends Service Committee
House of Prism
Congregation B'nai Israel
Party for Socialism and Liberation - Gainesville FL
Farmworker Association of Florida
Defund Oligarchy Blessed by Liberty
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Gainesville
Pax Christi Hudson Valley, NY
Franciscan Justice Circle Mid-Hudson Valley
Beaches Activists Movement
Haitian American Art Network
Peace Corps
dePaz Cabrera Immigration Law
Language Access Florida
GLSEN Central Florida
First United Methodist Church
Baker Interfaith Friends
50501 Veterans
