Karl Etters , Democrat staff writer Published 7:02 p.m. ET April 24, 2017 | Updated 4 hours ago

A proposal to create uniform state immigration policies and crack down on cities that don’t abide by new federal mandates passed its final committee stop Monday.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee voted 12-6 along party lines in favor of Yalaha Republican Rep. Larry Metz’s HB 697, targeting so-called sanctuary cities.

The bill would prohibit state and local government entities, including law-enforcement agencies, from having any law, policy, practice or custom that impedes law enforcement from communicating or cooperating with a federal immigration agency.

Among other things, the bill would require any sanctuary policies currently in effect to be repealed within 90 days of enactment of the measure. Starting Oct. 1, agencies could face fines up to $5,000 a day. Appointed and elected officials could face suspension or removal from office for violations.

The hope, Metz said after the vote, is “to establish a state policy where the state government, which does have the authority to compel compliance with federal immigration detainer requests, would make that the law of the state and then it would be required at that point.”

Although what constitutes a sanctuary city is not clearly defined, they’re generally considered municipalities that prohibit or limit police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Examples include police officers who don’t ask those they about their immigration status and county jails that don’t honor federal detainer requests or notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement before an illegal immigrant is released from custody.

Locally, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the county jail, notifies ICE when an inmate with a detainer request is to be released. Inmates are not held based solely on a such a request unless there’s a court order from a judge, which includes a probable cause determination. LCSO’s policy is based on legal advice from the Florida Sheriffs Association.

Metz said there have been issues with sheriff’s offices notifying federal officials who are slow to pick up an inmate within the 48 hours laid out in immigration policies.

That was under President Barack Obama, he said, when there was less of a focus on immigration enforcement.

“We have a new President and a new administration,” Metz said, that is working to clarify the issue of immigration detainers by requiring probable cause be included.

“And that they only issue them if they intend to pick up the individual in the time allotted which is not to exceed 48 hours,” he added.

Numerous organizations are opposing the bill, including the ACLU of Florida, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Kissimmee Rep. John Cortes, the lone Democrat to speak at Monday’s hearing, said he did not want a law that targets certain groups of people.

“I do not want to see the same people getting locked up due to this bill,” said Cortes, who added that he is in favor of immigration reform.

“Hopefully, if this bill passes, which I hope it doesn’t, we don’t just target one entity. Right now we're just targeting Hispanics or brown people and hopefully, this doesn’t make it worse.”

Other members said the measure is more about following the law than targeting certain groups of people.

“This is not about race at all,” said Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood. “If (Florida’s cities) can’t follow state law, the sanctions are an attempt to try to get them really to follow federal and state law.”

But Francesca Menes with the Florida Immigrant Coalition said Metz’s bill was an attempt to legalize the detainers issued to ICE.

That could create an alarming precedent in certain communities and infringe on due process.

“In Miami-Dade,” she said, “we're basically going to be giving authority to our local law enforcement to start targeting my community and going after them and putting them in the holds and not actually following due process on how we’re actually deeming these people are undocumented.”

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/new...oor/100841376/