AVON PARK – People are passing through a metal detector that was set up especially for tonight’s Avon Park City Council meeting on the proposed Illegal Immigration Relief Act, requiring English in city business and fining those who give jobs or housing to illegal immigrants.

Other security measures unusual for a city council meeting here also were being taken by Avon Park police and the Highland County Sheriff’s Department. They included a check by bomb squad members and a police dog.

The act is the only item on the agenda for the 6 p.m. meeting of the five-member City Council. It was moved to the Avon Park Community Center, capacity 330.
City officials expect an overflow crowd.

One man in the audience is John Garcia of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, which is fighting efforts in several cities and towns to pass local laws aimed at what opponents call a federal responsibility.

“If city council members from Avon Park wanted to draft its residents to go to war, they couldn’t do that,” said Garcia, who traveled from New York for the meeting.

Advocates for immigrants, many of whom traveled to Avon Park by bus, outnumbered supporters of the proposal as the crowd gathered for the meeting.

Council members did not return phone calls Monday. Neither did the city manager or the city attorney, who could not be found in their offices Monday afternoon.

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