County Fight Won

Duval County FL — Jacksonville criminalizes undocumented presence, first US city to do so locally

Duval County, FL FIPS 12031

Current status: Jacksonville City Council passed Ordinance 2025-0147-E 12-5 on March 25, 2025, criminalizing unauthorized-alien presence as a local offense (up to 60 days jail for repeat violations) and mandating JSO notify ICE/FDLE on arrest. Mayor Donna Deegan let it become law without her signature on March 30, 2025. It took effect in April 2025 and remains in force as of mid-2026.

The Fight

In February-March 2025, Jacksonville City Council member Kevin Carrico (with co-sponsors Rory Diamond and Terrance Freeman) introduced and passed Ordinance 2025-0147-E, the “Jacksonville Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act.” The ordinance creates a new city Chapter 605 making it a local crime for a person without lawful immigration status to enter or reside in Duval County — reportedly the first such local criminalization ordinance passed by any U.S. city. It amends Chapter 614 to mandate that Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) notify ICE and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) whenever an arrest is made, and appropriates $76,250 for 25 mobile fingerprint scanners so JSO can verify immigration status in the field for people already stopped on other reasonable suspicion/probable cause.

City Council passed the measure 12-5 on March 25, 2025. Mayor Donna Deegan publicly criticized the bill as redundant with existing federal/state law and containing language she called “hurtful” to Jacksonville’s immigrant community, but declined to veto it — allowing it to become law without her signature on March 30, 2025. It took effect in April 2025.

Because Jacksonville and Duval County operate a consolidated city-county government, JSO functions as both city police and county sheriff — meaning this ordinance and JSO’s existing 287(g) Jail Enforcement Model program (in place since 2008 at the John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Facility) function as a single integrated local-to-federal enforcement pipeline, unusually seamless compared to non-consolidated counties.

Key Details

Ordinance: 2025-0147-E, Chapter 605 (new) + Chapter 614 (amended), City of Jacksonville
Sponsor: Kevin Carrico; co-sponsors Rory Diamond, Terrance Freeman
Vote: 12-5, March 25, 2025 (final passage)
Penalty: up to 30 days jail (first offense), up to 60 days (repeat) for unauthorized presence, served in the Duval County jail
Funding: $76,250 appropriated for 25 mobile fingerprint scanners for JSO
Mandatory notification: JSO required to notify ICE and FDLE on any arrest
Mayor’s response: Deegan declined to sign but allowed it to become law without signature (March 30, 2025), citing redundancy with state/federal law
Existing 287(g): JSO’s Jail Enforcement Model MOA with ICE dates to 2008 — one of the longest-running in Florida — operating out of the John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Facility
State context: Sheriff T.K. Waters was appointed to Governor DeSantis’s State Immigration Enforcement Council (Feb 2025), giving Duval a direct seat at state-level immigration policy coordination
Why it matters: This is a Sabot-style local-criminalization escalation layered on top of an already-mature 287(g) JEM pipeline — Duval didn’t need new federal infrastructure to expand enforcement, it used existing consolidated city-county jail machinery plus a novel local ordinance to widen the funnel into ICE custody. It is a template other Florida cities/counties can copy.

Sources

This research is published at The RAMM — investigative reporting on the detention pipeline.

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