Darla Bonk (Ward 6) of the Fort Myers City Council (center) tears up as she votes against a motion to participate in the 287g policing program at the March 17 city council meeting. To her left is Diana Giraldo (Ward 2) and to her right is Liston Bochette (Ward 4). (Image: FMCC)
March 23, 2025 by David Silverberg
For 92 years, since 1933, Americans have not had to fear their government.
That was the year that President Franklin Roosevelt said in his inaugural address that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Roosevelt took office in an atmosphere of fear; fear of economic and social collapse. He himself had to overcome fear in his personal life when he confronted the loss of his legs to polio. He inspired Americans to face adversity with the same confidence he had to instill in himself to struggle against the ravages of that terrible disease.
In 1941 he again emphasized his opposition to fear when he made “Freedom from Fear” one of the four fundamental freedoms for which the United States stood, along with freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, and freedom from want. Then, he was thinking of freedom from fear of international aggression.
Americans have had moments of fear since then: fear of war, nuclear annihilation, Communism, terrorism, disease. But the United States government, made of, by and for the people, has not deliberately used the inculcation of fear in the people it governs as a deliberate tool of state.
Until now.
President Donald Trump has used threats and intimidation—the inculcation of fear—throughout his time on the political stage, whether threatening violence against protesters at his rallies, or inciting a mob to attack Congress, the Capitol building and his vice president, or disparaging migrants and immigrants.
Where other presidents would use public threats sparingly and only as a last resort, for Trump the use of threats and intimidation is a first response, his default mode. It’s his immediate, reflexive reaction when facing a challenge, whether from foreign actors, domestic opponents or uncooperative judges.
In the past his threats were just bloviating on Twitter or he used them against celebrities, business rivals, unpaid contractors, or local officials insisting he adhere to the law. But now, as president, he is setting the national tone and establishing the model for behavior. As he himself once said in projecting his feelings onto his opponents, his primary emotions are “hatred, prejudice and rage.”
He has taken the presidential bully pulpit and turned it into a pulpit for bullying.
Coupled with the presidency’s formal, constitutional power, he’s creating a national mood of intolerance, intimidation—and fear.
That mafia-like atmosphere of menace is pervading American society. It’s falling most heavily on migrants and foreigners, for whom Trump is showing an almost psychotic hatred. It’s also manifest as officials down the chain of government ape Trump’s attitudes and approaches.
No one is immune, not even heavily Republican, Trumpist Southwest Florida.
The case of Fort Myers
On Monday, March 17, the seven-member Fort Myers City Council deadlocked on whether or not to give the city’s police officers immigration enforcement training under the 287(g) program.
Established by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, the program allows local law enforcement agencies to work with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directorate of the US Department of Homeland Security. Local law enforcement agencies can detain suspected undocumented migrants and perform other immigration enforcement functions, which are constitutionally under federal authority.
In the current atmosphere of widespread deportation raids that are seen as increasingly indiscriminate, 287g has become a controversial program. Since each local jurisdiction has to individually approve involvement in it, it has sparked intense debate at the local level.
When it came up in Fort Myers, three members of the City Council voted against the training: Diana Giraldo (Ward 2), Terolyn Watson (Ward 3) and Darla Bonk (Ward 6). Three voted for it: Liston Bochette (Ward 4), Fred Burson (Ward 5), and Mayor Kevin Anderson. Another councilmember, Teresa Watkins Brown (Ward 1), attended remotely but was ineligible to vote, hence the evenly split vote.
The vote followed a passionate and intense discussion, driven by palpable fear. Although the program means only that local police will be trained to handle immigration cases and cooperate with ICE, speakers at the meeting worried about raids and mass deportations. They expressed concerns about racial profiling, improper detentions, disappearances, unwarranted surveillance, illegal arrests and persecution of Fort Myers’ Hispanic population and just general anti-immigrant attitudes.
The council members who voted against the program were sensitive to those concerns.
Addressing Police Chief Jason Fields, Giraldo, an immigrant and the first Latina to serve on the Council, said, “The city is not just us sitting here, it’s the people who live here. To support you, chief, to support the intent of the city, I can’t stand behind this. As an immigrant, though this is not going to affect me particularly [as a full citizen] I have been in that position and…I can’t even express how heavy this is to my heart and my mind, knowing that the majority of us that come as immigrants, we don’t come here to commit crimes. Of course there are crimes out there, people who commit crimes but everybody needs to be accountable for it regardless of whether they are legal or not. But this notion that all immigrants have a motive and we’re chased after, it’s just something I just can’t…” and she choked up and couldn’t continue.
Bonk followed her: “The last thing I want is anyone in our community feeling that we are not hearing a very deep concern that has been nationally put at our feet from many people who have become piranhas about the issue, that we have to be very careful at the local level,” she said.
In the pre-vote discussion she became increasingly distraught as she spoke and finally broke into tears. “You cannot begin to imagine how this affects me,” she said, weeping. “The argument—and I know there is no malice meant to it—that we would risk federal or state funding if I don’t sign up for this… . It is a tumultuous day and age and this is a day I hate to be in this seat, but my city is not for sale.”
(The 2-hour, 51-minute March 17 meeting can be seen in its entirety here.)
Because the Council deadlocked, the motion was defeated.
That brought swift, outraged threats from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has made hostility to immigration a cornerstone of his governorship and Attorney General James Uthmeier, who served as DeSantis’ chief of staff before being appointed attorney general.
DeSantis posted on X: “The 287 (g) program trains local law enforcement to aid ICE. Florida will ensure its laws are followed, and when it comes to immigration—the days of inaction are over.” Then in a direct command to Fort Myers he stated: “Govern yourselves accordingly.”
Initially, Uthmeier announced that his office would investigate the vote and the individual council members who voted against the program.
Subsequently, he posted on X: “Today, I sent a letter to the Fort Myers City Council.
“Sanctuary policies are illegal in Florida. Your vote last night makes you a sanctuary city.
“Fix this problem or face the consequences.”
In the letter he sent, Uthmeier provided his legal reasoning and detailed his threats to bring civil and criminal charges against the Council members and have them removed.
In addition to the legal warnings, there were extrajudicial threats. In a subsequent town hall, Bonk confirmed that she had received death threats because of her vote.
In addition to DeSantis and Uthmeier demanding obedience, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.), a Trump-endorsed candidate for governor, piled on. Fort Myers is in his congressional district.
“These officials that don’t understand their role, which is to implement a federal and state law, not circumvent and create sanctuary cities,” he said in an interview on the conservative NewsMax channel. “They simply need to be removed from office. They’re not going to follow the law. It’s that simple.”
He continued: “These Council members need to understand they have a responsibility to execute and implement state and federal law not to run against it, not to create a sanctuary. In my view, that’s a dereliction of their duty and their oath of office, and if they don’t reverse course, they should be removed.”
The Council reconvened in a special meeting on Friday, March 21.
Once again there was passionate input from the public overwhelmingly opposed to 287g, in fact to the point where people had to be gaveled down and order maintained. Members of the public still expressed fears of ICE and anti-immigrant measures and the speakers were overwhelmingly opposed to the agreement.
But this time the meeting was very different from the previous one.
The atmosphere had altered and council members were calmer. No one had changed more than Bonk. She went from a weeping, remorseful politician to a steely, resolved civil official and an angry one at that.
“Last I checked, this is still a republic,” she acidly observed. Regarding her comments on March 17 she said: “Expressing emotion is not a sign of weakness in leadership but of strength and for that I will not apologize, ever.”
She said she had not gotten answers from the city attorney to her previous questions about the 287g program but had done research on her own among state agencies, cities and attorneys who volunteered their advice.
Though she said she didn’t “harbor a sense of anger,” she directed a calm, relentless fury at City Attorney Grant Alley, who she said hadn’t provided the Council with the advice it needed to make an informed decision.
“I must express my grave concern that there was a significant dereliction of duty on the part of my city attorney. We as council members were put in a position of voting on a matter that was not within our legal authority or jurisdiction,” she said.
“It is the duty of our city attorney to guide this Council clearly, lawfully and thoroughly, especially when our decisions carry legal, financial and physical implications. The silence last Monday night placed each of us in jeopardy.” Addressing him directly, she said: “In this matter you failed us.”
But Bonk also defended her right to skepticism.
“Let me be clear: asking a question does not equate to disloyalty to my country,” she declared.
“Seeking understanding does not equate to weakness. And upholding the law includes questioning it when necessary to ensure that we act within it.”
She continued: “To those who misrepresented my actions, mischaracterized my words or weaponized misinformation I urge you to continue to get your facts straight. I will continue to uphold my oath and I will continue to represent Ward 6 with integrity, transparency and courage. I will continue to ask the hard questions, not in spite of my responsibility but because of it.”
Another vote was taken and this time all members of the Council voted to approve the program.
(The 2-hour, 54-minute March 21 meeting can be seen in its entirety here.)
After the vote was taken, Donalds gloated on X: “Fort Myers will never be a sanctuary city. Today, City Council members UNANIMOUSLY reversed course to allow @ICEgov coordination with @fortmyerspolice. Thank you to everyone who helped us pressure them into taking corrective action & ensuring the security of our SWFL community.”
Analysis: Fear and consequences
The new national attitude of fear was on full display in the Fort Myers debate. Everything was pervaded by fear; the residents’ concerns, the council members’ votes, the debate and discussion, the reaction and the final decision.
For immigrants, migrants and other residents of Fort Myers, the fear was of indiscriminate, racially-based persecution that would know no legal bounds.
No matter how much the police chief tried to reassure the Council and the public that the program was limited and bound by law, he couldn’t cut through the fear driving the opposition. Despite all his responses, 287g was seen as the immediate, tangible tip of the spear of a Trump-generated effort that increasingly appears to be heading toward ethnic and racial “cleansing.”
One Fort Myers resident, Christina Penuel, put it very succinctly in a letter to the editor published in the neighboring Naples Daily News on March 23.
“I’m not confident that our local police force wouldn’t take advantage of ICE’s broad language and lax training. We live in a very safe community and adding some terrible ICE program isn’t going to make it safer,” she wrote. “The ICE program is nothing more than thinly veiled racism aimed towards out Spanish population. We can decide as a community what we need and Fort Myers doesn’t need ICE.”
Speaking up like that was the only thing people could do given their limited leverage and ultimate powerlessness.
The council members responded to these constituent fears with their initial votes. They had their own concerns too. Furthermore, they were well within their rights and duties as elected public officials in casting their votes based on their individual and independent assessments of the issue even if, as Bonk stated, they were not given the full information they needed to make a fully cognizant choice.
But in an atmosphere where threat, menace and intimidation are the operative attitudes rather than rational discussion, respectful disagreement and dispassionate analysis, the immediate reaction to their vote, regardless of its legal legitimacy, was to issue threats and those threats were made to induce fear—“pressure,” in Donalds’ language—and through fear impose compliance.
Donalds’ approach was very instructive and illuminating. He didn’t really have a dog in this fight and could have stayed out of it without consequence. But aping Donald Trump, his endorser and the person to whom he owes any chance of the governorship, his immediate reaction was to jump in with threats to the city, the Council and the individual council members. What was more, his demand that they be removed was reflexive and unthinking.
It demonstrates that if elected he will be a very Trumpist governor in both policy and approach. Floridians can expect him to bully and browbeat officials, cities, towns, counties, lawyers—and individual citizens—into submitting to his will, just as Trump is trying to do to the rest of the country. Florida will become a state ruled by fear—even more so than now.
It is notable that the zeal for enforcing the law shown by DeSantis and Donalds in the case of Fort Myers on its most powerless and vulnerable residents, somehow does not extend to a 34-count convicted felon who has escaped punishment for his crimes, who incited a riot, attempted to overturn an election, overthrow the legislative branch of government, allegedly stole secret documents and sought to improperly alter election results, not to mention was found liable for sexual assault and whose collaboration with Russia has been well documented—and who presents an immediate and present danger to the public on a vastly greater scale than any possible migrant in Fort Myers. In his case, they have not made a peep about the majesty of the law or the need to vigorously enforce it.
(It also bears mentioning that if DeSantis and Uthmeier really want to crack down on a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, they should look at Collier County’s “Bill of Rights Sanctuary” ordinance, passed in 2023. If they’re going to be consistent, this one, which aims to place Collier County outside the “commanding hand” of the federal government, should be on their radar.)
A republic of fear?
In 1989 a book was published titled Republic of Fear.
It was written by Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi writer and academic, under the pseudonym Samir al-Khalil. It detailed the way Saddam Hussein and the fascist Ba’ath Party took over Iraq and imposed a regime of threat, menace and deadly violence on that country.
It opened with a man named Salim being taken from his house for no discernible reason by men with no discernible authority, with no warrant or justification. Nonetheless he doesn’t resist when he’s taken to an office, interrogated closely and then told to vacate his home immediately, which he does. After a time he’s allowed to move back. He never learns why he had to leave, who ordered him out or why he can return. It’s just the way things worked in Iraq.
And throughout the ordeal, Salim is in a state of fear, a state that Makiya made clear extended to all of Iraq and all Iraqis. Fear was simply how Saddam Hussein governed.
Fear is how all dictators govern.
Now fear is spreading outward from the Oval Office as President Donald Trump pursues retribution against all enemies, real and imagined; against prosecutors who charged him, against political opponents who dared to challenge him, and against judges who resist him to uphold the law.
The fear being used to impose this domination is trickling downward and outward and no place is immune, no matter how obscure or remote, as the case of Fort Myers has shown. At least these councilors who voted their conscience only faced removal and their city only faced a loss of grants and legal retaliation. In places like Iraq and Russia dictatorial retaliation has been and is deadly and permanent.
Under the nearly 250 years of their independence, Americans became perhaps the most fearless people on earth, securely confident in their values and inalienable rights, overcoming fear to settle a wilderness, explore the heavens, defeat Fascism, build a democracy and welcome people from all places and races. It’s what made America great.
Right now, unlike in Roosevelt’s time, there is more to fear than just fear itself. It has a name and address. But as Americans have conquered fear before, if they’re going to preserve themselves as Americans, this new fear must be confronted—and conquered in its turn.
Liberty lives in light
© 2025 by David Silverberg