Lake Worth Beach elected officials are gearing up to renew a contract with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office that has generated significant pushback from community members and advocates amid the agency’s participation in federal immigration enforcement.
For hours at Tuesday night’s meeting, city commissioners debated the proposed 10-year agreement that would cost $15.8 million.
The commission did not vote on the contract, opting to change some of the conditions ahead of a later vote, which could be as soon as next week. Commissioners have also proposed that the contract last for three years rather than 10.
The discussion came days after immigrant advocates in Lake Worth Beach spoke out against the agreement, with concerns over heightened immigration arrests in the community. About 30 people spoke in person or had comments against the contract read into the record at the meeting, including residents and leaders from the Guatemalan-Maya Center and Florida Immigrant Coalition.
Immigrant advocates in Lake Worth Beach worry sheriff contract renewal will lead to more arrests
Over the past year, the city, where just under 50% of the population is Hispanic or Latino, has been a focal point of enforcement operations; the Guatemalan-Maya Center in a news release Tuesday night after the meeting referred to the city as “the belly of the beast” of enforcement. The organizations, in part, want removed or prohibited from the contract any condition of collaborating with federal immigration authorities.
Many who oppose the contract told commissioners that though Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has maintained deputies are not conducting widespread and independent immigration raids, residents are seeing an increased level of enforcement in the city with PBSO deputies involved, witness what they called racially-motivated traffic stops by deputies and a diminished trust in local police.
Recently, two parents were arrested in front of their children, and their 18-year-old daughter Wendy Domingo is now left caring for her four younger siblings. Days earlier, a local bakery owner was arrested after a standoff at his business as dozens of people watched, protested and recorded deputies and federal agents.
Lindsay McElroy, lead immigrant justice organizer for the Guatemalan-Maya Center, during public comment said community members out of fear have been reporting crimes to the nonprofit rather than calling 911. Some Lake Worth Beach residents have been detained after calling law enforcement for help, including one man who called for a welfare check on his daughter and another who called 911 to report a robbery, she said.
“PBSO may not be conducting ‘raids’ as they call them, but they are conducting traffic stops that are done by racially-profiling work vehicles, by scanning license plates and by detaining our community members under the guise of a routine traffic stop, a routine inspection,” McElroy said.
Bradshaw has repeatedly publicly said that his Sheriff’s deputies are not conducting immigration “sweeps,” a position echoed at Tuesday’s meeting by Lake Worth Beach Captain Terrence Carn.
Mariana Blanco, Director of Operations for the Guatemalan-Maya Center, made it clear community members see deputies’ activities differently.
“… We hear that PBSO is not doing these enforcements, but we see something very different. We capture it on video, and we talk to the families, we understand that PBSO is very clearly in this part of the work,” Blanco told commissioners.
Carn said during the meeting that “PBSO is statutorily obligated to assist” partner law enforcement agencies “if and when we’re called upon.”
“But we will not conduct immigration sweeps at schools, at workplaces and houses of worship, and furthermore we do not racial profile. That is not allowed. It’s not tolerated,” Carn said.
The captain also told commissioners the proposed contract does not expand the Sheriff’s Office’s collaboration or relationship with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.
The contract adds five non-sworn Park Ranger Specialists to PBSO’s personnel, with one of the role’s “core responsibilities” being collaborating with Border Patrol. There is no mention of federal immigration enforcement elsewhere in the proposed agreement, though PBSO has deputies trained to act with immigration authority under its 287(g) agreement with ICE.
Mayor Betty Resch questioned Carn about whether deputies ask about a person’s immigration status when they make traffic stops of Hispanic and Latino residents. Carn said if people with “immigration issues” are stopped, “trained” deputies will respond, and it is standard practice for deputies during traffic stops to search people in state and federal databases.
Palm Beach County leads South Florida in local police agencies with ICE agreements
Commissioner Christopher McVoy, who has been a vocal opponent of the agency’s involvement in immigration enforcement, said there’s a “credibility problem with PBSO” and said he has tried to get immigration enforcement data, including statistics of any criminal offenses of residents who are “getting hauled off our streets,” but was told PBSO couldn’t provide it.
“That is an unacceptable answer from a law enforcement agency that is our contractor … You get that information, find a way to get it from the other agencies, or get them the hell out of this city,” Carn said.
McVoy pointed to other local police departments in South Florida and elsewhere in the state that have signed agreements with ICE but have not trained their officers in immigration enforcement or have trained only a few. PBSO has trained more than 100 deputies who can act with some federal immigration capacity.
“There are choices that can be made, by our community, by what we tell PBSO is acceptable and is not. There are choices,” he said.
Commissioner Anthony Segrich, who was generally supportive of renewing the contract, said even if the city were to contract with a department whose officers do not have immigration authority, local officers in their everyday duties still must follow federal immigration laws and work with federal authorities.
“I do hear the concerns of the Guatemalan-Maya Center, I do hear the concerns of the community,” he said. “The question is, and I tried to answer it myself, what is the alternative and does it actually change anything? And unfortunately, the hard truth and reality that people are going to have to face is these are state and federal laws. It doesn’t matter what law enforcement agency you work with, it is the same,” he said.
The revised agreement is on the agenda for the next regular commission meeting Aug. 25.