Immigrants and immigration enforcement were the topics of a forum hosted Wednesday, March 4 by Leon County Indivisible—a grassroots group focused on fighting the Trump administration.
Among the speakers was former Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho. He addressed what he says are false claims that ineligible immigrants have been flooding the nation's voting rolls and skewing election results.
"So this whole issue of immigrant voting is a complete canard designed to do something else. It is designed to suppress certain kinds of voters."
Also speaking at the panel was Mara Stopyak, a sophomore student at Lincoln High School who recently led a student walkout to protest the actions of ICE in places like Minneapolis. She’s concerned about how immigration enforcement efforts are affecting her fellow students.
"Seeing my friends be scared to be around certain groups of people or be scared their families were going to get torn apart, it's an issue that affects everyone and not just the people being affected."
Other speakers included Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil. He told the group his agency had been forced by state law to partner with immigration enforcement through a 1087 G agreement, but he says his agency’s involvement is narrowly defined. He says if the governor or federal government tried to push him to take actions he couldn’t abide by, he’s prepared to resign.
