LWVSPA End 287(g) efforts featured in Mother Jones, and more!

This week, The League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area’s Immigration Justice Action Team was featured in a Mother Jones article regarding our organizing efforts against 287(g) agreements and our two simultaneous vigils to shine a light on immigration detention in Florida. Members stood outside the Pinellas County Jail, where individuals arrested under 287(g) agreements are detained, while others traveled eight hours round-trip to the Everglades detention camp known as “Alligator Alcatraz. Outside the gates to “Alligator Alcatraz,” LWVSPA members joined nearly 100 advocates, tribal members, former detainee Justo Betancourt, and his activist daughter Arianne Betancourt in a peaceful vigil calling attention to the ongoing detention of nearly 60 men without due process. We also learned of troubling reports from inside the facility, including one man who has reportedly been held in solitary confinement since September.

We continue our weekly Vigil for Immigrant Justice and look forward to welcoming others this coming Sunday for a special Father’s Day acknowledgment.

Please join us outside the Pinellas Justice Center (14250 49th St N, Clearwater) from 5-6pm. 

Interested in joining the Immigration Advocacy Team? We meet on Zoom on the 4th Wednesday of each month from 5:30–6:30 p.m.

This month, we’ll highlight progress on our End 287(g) campaign, share updates from our Vigils for Immigrant Justice, and lead an interactive data walk-through of Florida’s public tracker of 287(g) arrests, the State Board of Immigration Enforcement’s “Suspected Unauthorized Alien Encounters” dashboard.