Special Session on Immigration
Governor Ron DeSantis ordered lawmakers into a special session this week primarily to carry out the Trump administration’s illegal immigration agenda. The Florida Legislature met, pushed back against the Governor, and quickly gaveled out of it. Now lawmakers are in their own special session, setting their own agenda, and moving forward with their own plans for immigration reform. Central Florida Public Media reporter Rick Brunson joins Engage with an update on developments.
Preparing for ICE Raids
ICE has conducted hundreds of raids in many cities around the country. Arrests were made in South Florida communities on Monday. Jared Nordlund joins Engage in studio. He is based in Orlando and is the Florida State Director of UnidosUS, a Hispanic Civil Rights Organization that works to remove economic, political, or cultural barriers to improve the quality of life for all Latinos to live out their own version of the American dream. We discuss how his organization is taking action with the expectation of deportation operations.
The ACLU has a guide explaining a person’s rights as an immigrant.
Freeze on Federal Grants Impact on Businesses
The Trump administration is pausing all federal government loans and grants beginning at 5 p.m. today according to an internal memo. While those cuts will not directly impact programs that provide assistance directly to people, the impact on business and people will be felt here. The UCF Business Incubation Program has worked with hundreds of companies throughout Central Florida on development and operational support. Carol Ann Logue is director of the program. She joins Engage to discuss what’s she’s telling Central Florida businesses involved with the UCF incubators.
2025 ZORA! Festival Season
Zora Neale Hurston is a celebrated renowned Black writer who elevated African American literature in a segregated era. She was born in Alabama and was three years old when she moved to Eatonville, this country’s oldest incorporated Black municipality established by African Americans. Hurston’s influence is evident in generations of black writers since the Harlem Renaissance and celebrated today in the literary world and in our Central Florida community. It is ZORA! Festival season in Eatonville, so we asked N.Y. Nathiri, Executive Director of the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, to join Engage and share what to expect at the 2025 ZORA! Outdoor Festival this week.