Liberal Ruthie Schlabach aims to block border resolution

By John Labriola - Elements of Citrus County’s political establishment, backed by the leftist Citrus County Chronicle, are attempting to derail a border security resolution sponsored by Citrus County Commissioner Diana Finegan.

Finegan pulled the resolution from the commission’s Oct. 10 agenda to rework the language and bring it back at a later date. The original resolution, which the Citrus County Republican Executive Committee endorsed and asked her to sponsor, needed updating because it asked Gov. Ron DeSantis to take some actions that he already had against illegal immigration.

Finegan says Commission Chairwoman Ruthie Schlabach is now trying to block her reworked resolution from being voted on at the commission’s upcoming meeting on Nov. 14.

Schlabach has instructed staff to keep the resolution off the agenda because Finegan missed the Friday 9 a.m. deadline for submitting an item. 

But Finegan will ask commissioners to override Schlabach’s decision and put it back on the agenda when the meeting convenes at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Finegan said the deadline has not been strictly enforced in the past and believes politics is at play.

“Commissioners have not always abided by that. As long as it’s before the agenda is printed, it’s [been] fine,” she said.

The speculation is that Schlabach, a darling of the Chronicle and liberal Chamber of Commerce, wants to avoid voting on the border resolution because a “Yes” vote would upset her liberal elitist friends, while a “No” vote would risk angering Citrus County’s overwhelmingly conservative voting population ahead of next August’s elections for county commission. 

The debate over the border resolution heated up last month when Commissioner Rebecca Bays, in widely criticized remarks, claimed that supporting stronger border enforcement was dangerous because it could upset terrorists. 

More than 8 million illegal immigrants have poured across Biden’s open border since January 2021 as part of the Democrat Party’s project to replace America’s current population with hordes of welfare-dependent Third World invaders viewed as likely future Democrat voters.

Finegan’s updated resolution, which lists the impacts of Washington’s open border policies on Florida and Citrus County and calls on Congress and the federal government to address the problem, comes just weeks after former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy became the first House speaker in history to be ousted, largely over his failure to act on the Biden border crisis.

“On behalf of the people of Citrus County, we call on the Federal Government to secure our borders and fix the immigration crisis that allows illegal immigration, including criminals and terrorists, propagates drug smuggling and human trafficking, and strains the resources of taxpayer-supported government at [the] local, state and federal level,” Finegan’s resolution states.

The resolution also encourages DeSantis, the Florida Legislature and the sheriff's office to take further steps to fight illegal immigration.

The Chronicle has attacked Finegan more than once for introducing her border resolution, arguing that illegal immigration is a “divisive” national issue and downplaying its effect on Citrus County. 

The Chronicle’s position has been undercut by its own recent reporting on an alarming rise in crime in Floral City, where a woman last week became the victim of an armed carjacking by three apparently homeless migrants who were later arrested near Tallahassee. 

More than 40 counties in Texas and other states have passed border security resolutions similar to what Finegan is proposing.  

Residents can speak their minds about the issue during the Public Comment period at the beginning of the commission meeting at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, in the Citrus County Courthouse, 110 N. Apopka Ave., Inverness, FL 34450.

Those unable to attend the meeting can contact commissioners at the emails addresses below:

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