{"id":9092,"date":"2025-06-23T22:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T22:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9092\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T22:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T22:11:08","slug":"councilman-applies-pressure-as-deadline-approaches-for-mayor-deegan-to-decide-on-controversial-immigration-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9092\/","title":{"rendered":"Councilman applies pressure as deadline approaches for Mayor Deegan to decide on controversial immigration bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A controversial immigration bill passed by Jacksonville\u2019s City Council is now on the mayor\u2019s desk<\/a> \u2014 and pressure is building. The measure would block city funds from being used to support undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

A split Jacksonville City Council passed the ordinance that would block city funds from going to services for undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

RELATED | <\/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

The measure passed in an 11\u20137 vote, after hours of debate and five last-minute amendments.<\/p>\n

Councilman Rory Diamond, who has been outspoken in support of the bill, has been posting a countdown daily on social media. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really simple bill,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cIt says we need to first know how much money we\u2019re spending on illegal aliens in Jacksonville. And two, it prohibits using taxpayer funding for programs for people who are in the city illegally. The bill requires a report by June 2025 detailing how federal money is used \u2014 and whether the city\u2019s in compliance with anti-discrimination laws.”<\/p>\n

It also includes exceptions for children, pregnant women, domestic violence survivors, and military families.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the mayor signs the bill, it\u2019ll be a clear message that Jacksonville will never be a sanctuary city, and it will protect taxpayer dollars, and it will protect people who are here legally, who need services,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the mayor doesn\u2019t sign it, then she\u2019s putting a big welcome to Jacksonville. We\u2019re a sanctuary city. Come here, you get free services, and there\u2019s no consequences for not following the law, for breaking the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill sparked protests and drew extensive public comment, with most speakers opposing the measure.<\/p>\n

Some believed it would do more harm than good. Others called for the council to focus instead on affordable housing and infrastructure improvements.<\/p>\n

Councilman Rory Diamond says the ordinance is about accountability, not targeting immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor knows exactly what she\u2019s going to do, but she\u2019s trying to, you know, hope that we all don\u2019t pay attention, but we\u2019re paying attention,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

News4JAX reached out to Mayor Deegan\u2019s office for comment. We are still waiting for a response. <\/p>\n

When the bill passed two weeks ago, her office said she had concerns about the bill and would be weighing her options. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A controversial immigration bill passed by Jacksonville\u2019s City Council is now on the mayor\u2019s desk…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,10083,8314,3188,723,7310,10177,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-9092","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-duval-county","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-rory-diamond","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114734975112001655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092","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=9092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}