![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-30T205354.214.webp?resize=456%2C219&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cSALUTE is an acronym to help us remember what we\u2019re supposed to be documenting. S for the size of the group, A is for action what type of action is taking place. L is for the location. U is for the type of uniforms that are being worn. T is for the time and date and is E for what kind of equipment are they carrying,\u201d said Kimberly Edmond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edmond recently became a legal observer, trained through the ACLU to monitor immigration enforcement without interfering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI start filming as soon as I get there and we maintain the HALO law which is 25 feet and just stay in the background. If we\u2019re told to move back, we move back,\u201d Edmond said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edmond told me that her motivation is personal because her grandchildren are half-Mexican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI never in my life thought I\u2019d have to worry. It just feels hopeless. So, this way you know I feel like I\u2019m doing something that\u2019s going to make a difference,\u201d Edmond said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She is not alone. Legal observer Carolyn Bowman documented when Lakeland police officers and Polk County sheriff deputies, who work in partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, detained a man in Mulberry who was driving home with his family, leaving relatives shaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had to endure the grandmother crying, weeping uncontrollably, using the word \u2018coraz\u00f3n\u2019 repeatedly,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bowman told me she has seen firsthand the fear immigration enforcement can cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou got people afraid to go to work, you got people afraid to go to the grocery store, you got people afraid to go to church. Out of fear of ICE,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their work has taken on a new urgency following the deadly shootings of legal observers Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt blew my mind. It also made me realize that maybe now people will start to wake up because before when it was all migrants dying, people were looking the other way,\u201d said Magdalene D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Magdalene holds prayer vigils every month for people who have died while in ICE custody. She told me the deaths of American citizens has sparked a surge in legal observer interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I was doing these vigils, it was only 10 people coming. After Renee Good died, we had 70. Then also an explosion of interest from what I\u2019ve heard in legal observer training,\u201d Magdalene said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the situation here does not compare to Minnesota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI look forward to those that want to observe those that want to legally protest. We welcome that. That\u2019s what our constitution is all about, but there\u2019s really not much to observe here.We don\u2019t have the environment for what you\u2019re seeing in Minnesota because we cooperate with ICE and quite frankly, we\u2019re not doing anything different here than we\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But immigration attorney Jean Pierre Espinoza said some enforcement practices raise concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe practice of ICE of covering their faces and not disclosing their IDs is not a right practice. It\u2019s debatable if the rights of the people that are detained are violated or not. That would be something for the course to decide,\u201d Espinoza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Polk County, nearly 50 trained illegal observers now stand ready, telling me they will continue showing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry that those people lost their lives for this. I know that when I\u2019m out there, I\u2019m probably putting myself in danger but there\u2019s the saying, \u2018give me liberty or give me death\u2019 and that\u2019s the saying I stick by,\u201d Edmond said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As violence escalates elsewhere, legal observers in Polk County said their work is more important than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Local volunteers say violent immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota are pushing more people in Polk County to take action. As concern grows, dozens of residents are stepping up as legal… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDFcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wMS0zMFQyMDUzNTQuMjE0LndlYnA_Zml0PTQ1NiUyQzIxOSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgQ291bnR5IHJlc2lkZW50cyBiZWNvbWUgbGVnYWwgb2JzZXJ2ZXJzIGFtaWQgSUNFIGZlYXJzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.gAocR0GYTWRTGyIURjMJmTvFG-FobMxWcfUv98JzLoUMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":61983,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-30T205354.214.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13432],"class_list":["post-61982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-residents-become-legal-observers-amid-ice-fears"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61984,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61982\/revisions\/61984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}