The National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. revealed plans and strategies Wednesday to combat what it calls “lawless ICE operations.”
NBCUSA President Dr. Boise Kimber led the press conference in Jacksonville on Wednesday, where he outlined proposals addressing what the organization describes as “murder, brutality, unlawful arrests, and deportation of people of color” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
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“You must do more than what is going on now,” Kimber urged.
Kimber pointed to California’s “No Secret Police Act” as a model for potential resolution. It’s legislation that would ban law enforcement from wearing masks during operations.
“Let’s be free. Let’s not cover our face. Let’s not hide,” he said.
“For more than a century, Black people experienced the horror unleashed by the Ku Klux Klan that is now replaying across America, unchecked,” Kimber said in a press release announcing the event. “The Klan was a secret society that hid behind masks as do ICE agents.”
In a 1-on-1 interview with News4JAX anchor Tarik Minor on Tuesday, Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters pushed back against these comparisons, defending ICE agents’ use of face coverings as a necessary safety measure.
“They’re under siege for doing a job for enforcing federal law,” Waters said. “There are certain organizations that are following them, trying to dox them, trying to get people to go to their homes to cause them harm.”
Kimber pushed back on the sheriff’s remarks: “That there needs to be a new sheriff elected.”
Waters emphasized that such protective measures are standard practice for officers in sensitive positions.
“Some of our undercover officers here, when they do enforcement actions after they’ve done a long undercover investigation, they wear masks on their face because they can’t be divulged,” he said.
The sheriff acknowledged the politically charged nature of immigration enforcement but maintained that his focus remains on officer safety.
“If I have to weigh the lives of our families and the federal officers that are doing their job or making people comfortable, I’m siding with the side of the lives,” Waters said.
News4JAX reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment and are waiting for their response.