Mini-Post: The Conch Republic of Key West

Back in the stone age there was something called the Conch Republic in Key West Florida. You ICE was going after immigrants (Sound familiar?) and Key West rebelled! You see in 1982 the Conch Republic was a direct response to perceived overreach by federal immigration. When legal attempts to remove the ICE (Back then it was the Border Patrol) roadblocks. Back then there were checkpoint set up on U.S. 1, Key West Mayor Dennis Wardlow declared the city's independence, proclaiming it the "Conch Republic." 

Now...

ICE remakes Key West

Key News

By LINDA GRIST CUNNINGHAM

June 14, 2025

The North Roosevelt Boulevard Promenade, that palm-lined, tourist-attracting raceway alongside the car lanes, is shockingly empty these days.

Gone are scores of locals on their e-bikes. They were easy to recognize. Destination-focused, wearing the branded uniforms of their local employers, ready for another day of working water sports, construction, landscaping, office, retail, healthcare and hospitality jobs. Same routine for the trip home at the end of the day.

Many are of Haitian, Cuban, Bahamian, Eastern European, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan and Guatemalan descent. Some are born-and-bred U.S. citizens or immigrants with legal status to be here. Some, I am certain, have lived and worked here for years without the requisite paperwork. They are our neighbors, our families, our friends or the strangers whose jobs serve the rest of us, often virtually invisibly.

[...]

Key West and the Keys have always had significant federal immigration presence simply because we are a historic U.S. gateway for Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas. But ICE presence on the island today is noticeably more pronounced than even a year ago — and more aggressive.

I think that is the key word aggressive. They are now behaving like Gestapo! They lead with their billy clubs.

Feeling helpless? Do something that’s both small and extraordinary: Say aloud to those you know: “This is wrong. This is not who we are nor who we want to become.” Do it privately if you must. Do it publicly as I am doing, even in the face of warnings from state and the federal governments that my protests, my words, are grounds for retaliation.

Silence is not an option. I want those e-bikes back on the boulevard — even if they are going too fast.

You don't need to be on the front lines, you need to speak up, silence is complicity... remaining silent in the face of injustice, wrongdoing, or harmful actions is tacit agreement or support for those actions. Choosing not to speak out or take action against something is the moral equivalent to actively participating in it. Speak out against injustice!