Flood control a job for government and citizens
Re: New plan aims to protect Tampa Bay from flooding (July 16)
In her column, Lara Milligan is asking for public assistance. I’m no engineer, but it’s plain to see that new construction makes flooding worse. Cities and counties have to study future impacts more thoroughly or stop handing out permits like candy at Halloween. In Pinellas County, we have acres and acres of unused parking pavement and building roofs. This is unsustainable.
Polluters such as litterers must stop. It’s almost impossible to go anywhere without seeing plastic bags blowing around. These wind up in the waterways, clogging the drains. Someone (I’d love to catch them) tosses litter in our front yard almost daily.
Flood control isn’t just a government job. It’s a citizen job too.
Thank you.
Nickie McNichols
Largo
End local cooperation with ICE
Florida state and local law enforcement must end cooperation with ICE through 287(g) agreements.
We now know this clearly: ICE is carrying out enforcement tactics that raise serious concerns about due process, accountability, and constitutional rights. Across the country, there are growing reports of officers concealing their identities, detaining individuals without judicial warrants, and conducting enforcement actions in ways that undermine public trust and result in illegal arrests, unlawful detainment, violation of a person’s right to due process, and horribly, even death and murder.
Through the national “Talk to Your Sheriff” campaign, community members in the Tampa Bay area are coming together to ask that our sheriffs prioritize public safety and constitutional protections, not participation in federal immigration enforcement.
One of the clearest ways to do that is by ending cooperation with ICE programs such as 287(g) agreements. These agreements deputize local law enforcement officers to act as federal immigration agents, fundamentally shifting their role away from serving and protecting the local community.
That’s why we are calling on our Pinellas County Sheriff and local law enforcement agencies to:
• End participation in 287(g) agreements.
• Stop honoring ICE detainers without a judicial warrant.
• End notification of ICE about release dates.
These are practical, achievable steps.
Across the country, people are stepping up to engage their sheriffs directly, demand transparency, and push for policies that protect constitutional rights and immigrant communities. Pinellas County should be no different.
Joseph Mlinar
Largo