I'll say it Loud and Clear, "We Are Florida!"

The legislative session in my wonderful, sunny state of Florida began eight days ago with large, ominent shadows of Arizona-like racial profiling bills introduced by senators and representatives alike. Yes, you read correctly. The same legislation that allows Arizona officials to be able to ask any person in the desert state for proper documentation because of the way they look or in the proper vernacular of the law "under reasonable suspicion." Yeah, right. Well, as of right now, there have been 10 to 12 similar bills introduced in both the Senate and House of Representatives that would permit law enforcement here in Florida to be able to do the same thing. They will ask for ANYBODY's immigration papers if they deem it necessary and under any suspicion, even if a person is stopped for rolling a stop-sign or turning left when they were not suppose to. My blood boils every time I hear or read news of the sort, and Florida is not the only state who has advanced proposals like these. At least 20 other states around the country have done the same, with large advancements in states like North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. I am getting heated with every key that I type...
I first became aware of the actual threat to Florida's immigrant population last year in November at the FLIC Congress. It was like a bucket of cold water was thrown in my face. Subhash Kateel, one of the coolest people that you will ever meet, held a presentation on the Arizona SB 1070 law and all of its discriminatory language, and how it was all cloaked in a "It's better for the State" type lingo. The people who write these bills throw in so many useless adjectives and confusing diction that they might as well write in Latin because nobody understands what the hell they are saying. And that is exactly what they want to achieve. The actual senators and representatives do not even read the bills, they get translators to sort through the entire document and tell them the jist of it. Well, to say the least, I was literally blown away with Subhash's demonstration of what was actually going on in our very own state of Florida.
Prior to the SB 1070 workshop, I knew that Rick Scott, our new Florida governor was in favor of a racial-profiling bill such as the Arizona one, but I underestimated the actual ordinance of such legislation. But, Subhash put everything into perspective. Living here in Miami, surrounded by Hispanics and Latinos alike, you think, "Oh, that's never going to pass." However, Miami is NOT the state of Florida. You drive past the borders of West Palm Beach, and the state morphs into a very anti-immigrant, raucous crowd of White supremacist who support racial profiling to its fullest extent. Heck, they even practice it already with countless of raids and stings operated to trap undocumented day workers. I am not trying to generalize the entire population of central and northern Florida, but I believe that I am pretty accurate in the sentiments of the majority of Caucasians in the populations of these sectors of the state. I apologize in advance for those of you who do not fall in this category. Thank you very much for your work and cooperation with the immigrants of our Sunshine State.
Well, its been about four months since FLIC Congress, and this Cerberus guarding those cowardly, racist proponents of these 12 anti-immigrant laws must be stopped. One of the bills already passed the judiciary committee of the Senate late last week and is inching its way to Scott's signature in record speed. But, we will not give up without a fight. Starting tomorrow, March 17th, the shit is going to hit the fan! FLIC's We Are Florida campaign is mobilizing as I write, on its way to the state capitol, Tallahassee, to give these legislators a piece of our mind! Senators like William Snyder, Mike Bennett, and even Anitere Flores, who apparently turned her back on us, should be scared because the immigrant population is pissed and we will NOT have racial profiling condoned and accepted en la Florida! Vamos que se puede! El pueblo unido JAMAS sera vencido! I get goosebumps just thinking of shouting and ranting around the streets of Tallahassee. Sadly, I will not be able to attend because of commitments to my beloved STU Bobcats tennis team since we play three matches in the span of the weekend. But, I will be there in spirit and energy! Like the title states, "I'll say it loud and clear, 'We Are Florida!'" conchetumadreee! Haha, sorry, the Chilean slang had to surface at some point.