{"id":14536,"date":"2025-06-25T21:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T21:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/14536\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T21:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T21:26:11","slug":"councilman-who-wrote-controversial-immigration-bill-says-deegans-veto-rolls-out-red-carpet-for-undocumented-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/14536\/","title":{"rendered":"Councilman who wrote controversial immigration bill says Deegan\u2019s veto \u2018rolls out red carpet\u2019 for undocumented migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 A Jacksonville councilman, who authored a controversial bill that aimed to ban the use of city funds for services to support undocumented immigrants, condemned the mayor\u2019s decision to veto the proposed legislation.<\/a><\/p>\n

After the city council failed to gather enough votes on Tuesday night to override Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s veto, Councilman Rory Diamond heavily criticized the mayor\u2019s decision on Ordinance 025-0138<\/a>, which sought to track how city, state and federal grants are used for DEI, and services that support immigrants living in the country illegally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor chose to say, \u2018Hey, Jacksonville is going to be a sanctuary city,\u2019\u201d Diamond, who represents District 13, told News4JAX on Wednesday. \u201cShe\u2019s rolling out the red carpet for illegal aliens to get free services in Jacksonville. Very disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED | <\/b>Councilman applies pressure as deadline approaches for Mayor Deegan to decide on controversial immigration bill<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Deegan announced on Tuesday that she would veto the ordinance, calling it \u201cpolitical theater disguised as fiscal oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill, in the guise of targeting undocumented immigrants, soaks fear and casts a shadow of suspicion over all immigrants,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n

Diamond said the bill was about transparency and fiscal responsibility, and argued that taxpayers deserve to know how their dollars are being spent.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody knows how much of our taxpayer dollars are being used for services for illegal aliens,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the first part of the bill says we want to report on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Republican Councilman Matt Carlucci, who voted against the bill, pushed back, saying immigration enforcement is not the city\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we hadn\u2019t vetoed it, the city in all likelihood would have gotten into a lawsuit over it,\u201d Carlucci said. \u201cIt would have cost us a lot of money \u2014 the taxpayers \u2014 a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that while some taxpayer dollars may support undocumented immigrants, the impact is minimal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s some tax dollars going toward this, but it\u2019s not of such significance that it warrants opening a can of worms,\u201d Carlucci said.<\/p>\n

Carlucci also rejected the notion that the bill would prevent Jacksonville from becoming a so-called \u201csanctuary city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not keeping immigrants from being deported,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the federal government were to come in and do that, we would not try to stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond disagreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of anything more obviously a sanctuary city than \u2018come here and get free services,\u2019\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n

MORE | <\/b>Mayor Deegan\u2019s office says she has concerns about the immigration bill. She will review it and weigh all options<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the current setback, Diamond said the fight isn\u2019t over. He plans to reintroduce the measure as part of the city\u2019s budget process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to vote in Finance Committee and put it in as an amendment for the entire budget,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the mayor wants to veto the budget also \u2014 all right, well then there won\u2019t be a budget for the City of Jacksonville. But we\u2019ll keep it in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about that possibility during her news conference, Mayor Deegan said, \u201cI\u2019ll deal with that when it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Jacksonville councilman, who authored a controversial bill that aimed to ban the use of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,10083,3188,723,409,7310,14633,10177,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-14536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donna-deegan","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-matt-carlucci","15":"tag-rory-diamond","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114746122736376460","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}