This bill doesn’t help our taxpayers. It doesn’t help our healthcare workers, our non-profits, our first responders, or our neighborhoods. This bill is not rooted in the common good. It is political theater disguised as fiscal oversight.

Most importantly, this bill puts our city’s legal standing, public safety, public health, and economy in jeopardy. Here are all the reasons why I’m vetoing Ordinance 2025-138-E:

First, it creates legal risk and makes our city a target for constitutional challenges and costly lawsuits. Immigration is the domain of the federal government, not local government. 

Yet here we are facing another bill that takes Jacksonville way out of our lane.

This bill places us in the difficult position of asking healthcare providers and non-profits to determine immigration status, which is neither their role nor their expertise.

The bill also creates a discriminatory scenario where a person may be able to access services at one institution but not another. Imagine being able to receive services at one hospital but being turned away at another down the road.

Second, this ordinance compromises public health and public safety. Nearly 120,000 Jacksonville residents are foreign-born. Most of them are naturalized citizens.

This bill, in the guise of targeting undocumented immigrants, stokes fear and casts a shadow of suspicion over all immigrants. 

It chills access to critical social services by subjecting anyone perceived as “immigrant” to be screened by local agencies untrained to verify their status – a definition that now seemingly changes by the day.
Let me be as clear as I can. When families fear calling the police or fire department, we are all less safe. When people delay medical care out of fear, costs rise for everyone. When shadows are created, that is where danger and disease can thrive. This bill does not save money – it multiplies harm.

Here’s what makes our community safer and healthier, while saving taxpayer dollars. Our efforts to build trust between people and city government. Our investments over the past two years to put more officers on the streets, build more fire stations, and give needed salary raises to first responders. Our programs to get more people signed up for health insurance and provide care pathways for those who lack it.

Third, this bill hurts our local economy. The chilling effect extends beyond public health and safety. Immigrants contribute to our community. They pay taxes. They work hard. They invest in our city. They are entrepreneurs. They are raising U.S. born children. When immigrants stay home, we lose valuable parts of our workforce, local small businesses suffer, and sales tax revenues decline.

Fourth, the bill invents a problem and offers a false solution to sow fear and division. Council members offered no data, no fiscal estimates, and no examples of abuse of city dollars to justify this bill.

And let’s be clear about a false claim that continues to be repeated. Jacksonville cannot and will not become a sanctuary city. In 2019, the Florida Legislature passed a statewide law banning sanctuary cities. Jacksonville will always follow state and federal laws, as long as those laws are constitutional.

What we need at this moment is truth. Not hysteria. We’ve seen the disastrous result of words meant to divide and inflame. It needs to stop. You may not always agree with me, but you know I will put my love for our city first and I will tell you the truth of where I stand.

I stand for accountability, not scapegoating.
I stand for transparency, not theatrics.
I stand for people, not politics.

So here is what I will be doing: One amendment to this bill called for a full report on all city funding to non-profits. That’s public record. Therefore, I will direct staff to prepare that report so we can get the facts.

In the end, this veto is a stand for the Constitution, public health and safety, taxpayers, the economy – and our immigrant community that make up an important part of the beautiful mosaic that is Jacksonville.

We stand at a pivotal moment as a city. How we choose to govern will dictate who we will become in the coming days, months, and years.

Are we a city that leads with principle or one that legislates from partisanship? Will our laws reflect fairness or be driven by distrust? Will our civic conversation rise to meet the moment with unity or give way to fear and fragmentation?

These are important questions that we are answering today. This veto is not just a rejection of a bad bill. It’s a declaration of who we are and who we aspire to be.

It’s also an acknowledgement that people are tired of the culture wars. A recent UNF poll found that only 2% felt this issue rose to the top. They want us to focus on the issues impacting their daily lives, like the ability to afford a home. I believe we can be better when we do it together.

Thank you to the bipartisan group of council members who voted against this bill the first time. I ask you to stand with us once more.

I also want to express my gratitude to Randy White on his last City Council meeting as President. Even when we’ve disagreed, we’ve worked together to find common ground and not one cross word has been said between the two of us.

That’s how we’ve pushed some big rocks across the finish line. Because we put our love for the city first. And I look forward to continuing this momentum with President Designate Carrico.

In closing, I’d like to start where we began. As the City Council considers my veto decision this evening, please ask yourself one more time: “Who does this bill help?” If the answer is still silence, I hope you will listen.

Thank you.