- This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St.

Petersburg, Sarasota.

[music] - Coming up, a nationwide protest movement is sweeping the country.

No Kings drew thousands of demonstrators throughout Tampa Bay, Florida, and beyond.

In Washington, the Supreme Court hears a case that could reshape birthright citizenship.

What are the major implications for Florida's immigrant communities?

And in St.

Petersburg, a luxury tower moves forward despite majority opposition.

We look at how it happened and what luxury development is doing across the Tampa Bay region.

Florida This Week is next.

[music] Welcome back, everybody.

I'm Lissette Campos.

Joining us on the panel today is Victor DiMaio, Democratic political strategist.

Kathryn Varn, reporter for Axios Tampa Bay.

Travis Horn, Republican political consultant and CEO of Bullhorn Communications.

And legal expert Tara Newsom.

Plus, don't miss our thought leader.

Later in the show, we see why she says that mentorship may be the most underused tool in women's careers, how she's working to change that one connection at a time.

We begin with President Donald Trump's immigration agenda.

It's being put to a major Supreme Court test.

Opening statements in Trump v. Barbara were heard on April the 1st.

It's a case that has the potential to transform the nature of Florida's culture and economy.

It stems from an executive order the president signed on Inauguration Day last year.

The president's executive order-blocked by lower courts since last year, directs federal agencies not to issue or accept documents recognizing U.S.

citizenship to children whose parents are in the country unlawfully or temporarily.

That includes the visa waiver program, student and work visas.

The core question: Does this executive order violate the birthright citizenship clause of the Constitution's 14th Amendment?

It's the phrase in the middle-six words-the administration is asking justices to interpret, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside."

Trump's Solicitor General is arguing that the phrase, "Subject to the jurisdiction thereof, renders the citizenship clause applicable only to persons completely subject to the U.S.

political jurisdiction."

A child, they argue, is not.

A child ties are with the parents, who presumably will return to their home country once their temporary status ends.

That, according to the Solicitor General, where the child's parent is in the country illegally.

They argue the parent cannot establish the requisite allegiance to the U.S.

while simultaneously violating its law.

The Supreme Court case, originating in New Hampshire, has major implications for Florida.

More than 1,600 Cubans were repatriated in Florida last year, once immune to immigration enforcement, even when undocumented Cuban immigrants are now in legal limbo, with all pending naturalization, residency and asylum applications on hold by Homeland Security.

Florida's Venezuelan population also bracing for a potential second hit.

Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration's termination of their Temporary Protected status, also known as TPS.

It's a deportation protection and work permits that Venezuelans have had since 2021.

According to the Congressional Research Service, Florida has more than 225,000 Venezuelan TPS holders.

Another group impacted are the so-called Dreamers.

These are undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S.

prior to 2007, when they were children raised and educated here under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA.

19 years later, they are adults and most have kids of their own.

Born in the U.S.

across all immigrant groups, equally were households have mixed immigration status.

The fear of family separation is rising.

The prospect of losing birthright citizenship for their children born in the U.S.

is weighing in the balance.

And Tara, as the constitutional expert here, I'd like to start with you.

How will the justices proceed in this very high profile case?

- I think they need to tread very carefully.

Remember, this is a court that is steeped in originalism, strict constructionism, and the origin story of the 14th amendment is really important.

It was post-Reconstruction post-Civil War, part of the cachet of the Civil Rights amendments, the 13th prohibition against slavery, 14th birthright citizenship, equal protection clause and due process.

And then, of course, the 15th amendment empowering black men, the right to vote.

The origin story of the 14th amendment is supposed to be guiding this originalist SCOTUS.

They have to tread lightly, though, because there has been a long standing tradition that we interpret the 14th amendment.

Those first few words to say if you're born in the United States, you're a citizen.

It was only a few decades after the 14th Amendment's ratification that this same conflict was tested.

We know that case to be Kim Wong Ark-very similar circumstances to what is before the court right now.

And the court 6 to 2 said, hey, listen, we are going to look at the original meaning of the Constitution to say, if you're born in the United States, you are a United States citizen.

That was actually codified by Congress decades later.

And so there's this understanding that this is what it means.

This is the real problem for the Supreme Court.

This is a fringe idea put forward by a gentleman named John Eastman.

And if you remember who John Eastman, he was the lawyer that represented Donald Trump during the insurrection.

And he actually floated this with Bill Barr, the attorney general at the time of Donald Trump's first administration, and it was swatted down as completely unreasonable and unconstitutional.

And this seems like because John Eastman, in this fringe idea of embracing a different understanding of the 14th Amendment, he never got paid for his work for Donald Trump.

Maybe this is his payback to have it go all the way up with the Solicitor General in front of SCOTUS.

But if SCOTUS necessarily decides this way.

It has grave consequences for a voting electorate that has, in the last election, voted Republican.

- Travis, I'd like to ask you your opinion.

I mean, in the precedent case that goes back to 1898 in the U.S.

v. Wong Kim Ark, that child was born to Chinese parents.

But those parents, according to the case work, they were permanent domicile and residence.

They were foreign nationals.

But they did.

They were in the country and they were permanent residents.

- Is that something they were calling sojourners?

You know, it's this is such a fascinating case and there's so much there's so much political to it.

We were we were going back and forth in the green room, having a vigorous conversation about it.

It was not all of it for the air.

Right.

But but I'll tell you, it's, um, it's really interesting.

I was fascinated, I listened to all the entire argument.

Um, Trump has made a very much a political play on this.

And he, he actually, of course, he went to the Supreme Court, unlike any president ever before sitting president.

I'm not sure that's.

- Going to be in the Supreme Court.

- I'm not sure that's a great idea.

I'm not sure that he's going to look back on it and think it necessarily was a great idea.

The court could take this as an opportunity to push back and say that, you know, that article one doesn't have the power to do that.

And I think, of course, that's what the assertion was that led up to this, which is that he could, you know, do an executive order.

I also, I was I was really disappointed that they didn't take an opportunity to maybe make a broader sweeping argument on a national security basis was, you know, we've got Chinese Communist Party members who supposedly fly their kids here, Russian oligarchs fly in there, baby mama's here to Miami to have babies.

It's all this conversation.

And I thought the implication was originally when he issued the order was it was a national security problem, right?

Or could be.

And I could see where the framers, the originalists, the original framers of the Constitution wouldn't have envisioned that given modern technology and travel certainly wasn't still wasn't envisioned when they entered, you know, enacted the 14th amendment.

- That's some of the problem with an originalist perspective.

And we can't unpack the different judicial philosophies.

But of course, women, men without property, black people were not intended in the original jurisdiction of the Constitution.

Of course, the 14th amendment tried to change that with the equal protection clause.

But listen, you seem.

- To be the originalist.

- Here.

I gotta tell you, it's one of the language.

One of the interesting things that Travis brings up is that this politically has a whole nother meaning.

And I think that we both agree on that, that this, the outcome of this isn't just legal and will be dire consequences for many Americans, not just the 2.5 million in Florida, but it will also set a precedent.

And whether or not the court can actually look at the language and the outcomes and make peace with that is something that we're really watching to see.

- Well, as president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus, I deal with these people every day.

So I... - What do you mean these people?

-Well, the people who are on these and the TPS people, the Venezuelan people, even Cubans that have been.

- Impacted by this.

- And there are people all at all different levels of immigration status.

You know, Cubans that have been here for 20, 30 years and never gotten their papers.

They're dragging a well out of the closet and taking her back to Cuba.

"Where are your papers?"

"I don't have any."

So bye-bye.

And there's a lot of people who thought they were safe that are not.

And people are people.

The Hispanic community.

Right.

That I deal with every day, day-in and day-out throughout this whole area.

They're just scared to death because this.

- Is a sophisticated crowd.

- Lawyers and people who've been in politics for a long, long time observing this.

I was watching or listening to the proceedings today and thinking of it as, what does a layperson think?

And I thought to myself, they must hate lawyers.

They must really hate lawyers.

Oh, geez.

- If they're listening, these guys can I just because.

- Lay people never know.

What I'm saying is they never envisioned a day where someone would just maybe swim across the river, pop out a baby, and all of a sudden they're a citizen.

- I saw people with dignity first off.

First of all, people, dignity is exactly what they did over there.

- So Eastman, I think, lost his license for the stupid argument.

Secondly, it's for 250 years.

You don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure it out.

It says, if you're born in the USA, you're a citizen.

You can, you can, you can find it on.

- The Declaration of Independence is based on natural law.

Some people believe the rate of migration is a natural right.

Of course, most countries decide that they shouldn't have open immigration, but that's what the 14th amendment says.

If you're born here, so be it.

I think most people that are watching are really wondering why the heck our president is going all the way to, "SCOTUS," Supreme Court, with something that's settled law.

The Supreme Court is supposed to be a stabilizing agent of our country.

We have 50 states, 94 district courts, 13 Court of appeals.

This is going to be upsetting the entire apple cart for this entire judicial system.

So I think most people are wondering, how did we get here.

- Why did we get here?

We'd be making new laws.

- Certainly something that we will all be following.

And we do expect the Supreme Court to issue their ruling by early July.

So we will all follow that.

We'll have you come back and talk about that.

Our next story, of course, is a protest movement that's sweeping the country.

It's called No Kings.

Take a look.

Last weekend, a third No Kings demonstration came to more than 3000 sites nationwide.

Florida had more than 60 locations, with Tampa Bay seeing some of the heaviest activity.

Rallies were held in Hillsborough and Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota counties.

South Florida also hosted events from Miami's Little Havana to Fort Lauderdale and Sunrise.

I'd like to start with you, Travis.

Tell us your thoughts as.

- It doesn't.

- Sound very decentralized.

You know, these big groups, these big leftist groups are funneling money into it.

It's not this organic thing that just came about.

It was all driven by the sorrows of the world and those types of organizations.

- That are behind it.

Well, you know.

- It's funny because I'm still waiting for Soros's check.

You know, supposedly I'm paid to go show.

- You out.

- There.

No, I wasn't, I was.

- I was out there with I was out.

- There.

I was out there the last time I had.

And it was.

And listen, you're your Trump buddy.

Showed up with their flags too.

You know Trump, Trump people showed up too.

And to counter-protest.

I don't know.

Well, but the fact of the matter is people are just generally frustrated.

This is their opportunity to get all this steam out of their system.

I'm all for it, right?

And we supposedly live in a free country where people can express how they feel.

And this is our opportunity.

But I'm warning I'm warning you, this is a harbinger of things to come 100%.

This is including the special elections.

- If you've got a bunch of elderly boomers who are who are upset out there.

- We have no, no, that's that's.

- The bulk of the crowd.

- We had two special elections that just happened here in Florida.

And they were and they were bloody for the Republicans.

- So that wasn't that.

- Wasn't let.

- Me let me.

- Hop in.

- Protests and polls are indicators of a midterm election, right?

Protests, second largest protest, no matter what the numbers are.

We saw it.

I was out there with students who wanted to experience democracy in a nonpartisan way.

And you know who we saw that was different than the first two note kings.

We saw Republicans who had antiwar signs.

So the.

The protest was growing in a nonpartisan way, so I don't think Republicans necessarily anticipated that.

But polling.

Listen, Republicans are polling at 36% favorability going into a midterm election with this kind of the second largest protest.

That's a rocky road to the midterm elections.

And no amount of manipulating third party registration, no structural advantage for Republicans is going to necessarily interfere with that.

- Well, I mean, just a point of fact, too.

It's not just boomers.

I mean, I've been out to a couple of these and it's certainly all age ranges.

And I think something interesting I've noticed is that there's all kinds of folks saying that they this is the first protest they've been to, or at least I didn't go to Saturday's.

But at least at prior protests, I've covered.

- So poles and protests translate into voters in the midterm elections, so we'll.

- Know in November.

I'd like to say there's no king.

The fact that you can go out and protest, there's no king.

- Right.

- So with that, we're going to move on to our next segment.

It is really a packed show.

St.

Petersburg appears to be in an identity crisis known for arts, beaches, affordability, while the area is wrestling with rapid growth that many residents feel is totally out of step with the culture there.

A proposed 21 story luxury tower called The Pelican is built.

The building is moving forward despite noted opposition from residents and historic conservation groups preserve the recently appealed an earlier Commission approval because developers want to make the building even higher.

Now, despite a majority 4 to 3 against the new plans, the Pelican will move forward.

Opponents needed a supermajority to overturn the earlier decision of the commission.

The possible deciding council member was absent from this development.

Issues aren't limited to St.

Pete, though.

The Tampa Bay Times this week highlighted Water Street.

$4 billion in development has given way to high end apartments, restaurants and retail.

Proponents say it signals a growing, vibrant city, but critics argue that Tampa is about so much more than luxury living.

Kathryn, I'd like to start with you.

You've done a series of stories recently on the whole crunch of housing affordability.

How what are you hearing from folks in the community?

- Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of questions about the these luxury condo developments that have been going up in St.

Pete and we've seen them in Tampa as well.

I mean, we have the branded Waldorf Astoria on the way in St.

Pete.

We have 400 central, which is the tallest building in the city now.

Um, the Pelican um case was apartments, but they are billing it as sort of upscale, you know, luxury living.

And they haven't, I haven't seen any indication of what the rents will be.

But you know, there's a question of, of, you know, where are the people who actually, you know, service the city, going to live, you know, your service industry workers, your, you know, school employees, etc.

that can't afford these places.

And, um, it's sort of creates a tension in a city that, you know, is really valued for the arts and had some grit to it had a little bit, um, you know, just had a little bit of that, that, that gritty like this is an undiscovered place, you know, and.

- And we at Florida This Week have heard from, uh, groups that represent young professionals in the region across all different counties who say that they are, they feel as though they're being forced out to move further and further away because they cannot afford to buy homes or pay the rent in the areas that are so that are very vibrant that everyone wants to be a part of.

- No, I hear that a lot from readers as well.

And that was certainly some of the response to the story.

Um, so, you know, it's, it's creating an interesting tension in St.

Pete.

just, you know, people, residents are, you know, asking residents have brought up, you know, how does this continue to keep happening?

Who is approving these projects?

Can the city do anything to stop it?

And that's why I wanted to highlight the Pelican case, because it really shows the limitations of what the city can and can't do to stop development like that.

Um, you know, part of the council argued that, you know, if it, if this project meets the requirements under city code and policy, then they should be able to build it.

That's how development works.

But the other part of the council and Preserve the 'Berg, the historic preservation organization, argued, no, you have discretion.

You can use your discretion to say, no, we don't want this kind of development.

Scale it down.

You know, I think there was a lot of agreement that this particular block in town should be redeveloped.

But should it be redeveloped to this magnitude?

And so I think that's something I want to keep.

You know, digging into more is okay, what is on the books and what could potentially residents and council members change if they wanted to, to try to pump the brakes?

- Look, I'm not a young hospitality worker, but I can't afford it either.

I moved recently and I looked at the downtown towers here in Tampa.

The for one thing, the HOA fees and the fees that they pile on you are something that I'm just not willing to pay.

And I'm not willing.

- To make 3 to 5 grand a month for a little 500 square foot apartment.

I don't know who the heck would.

- Afford crazy and $700 plus HOA fees, so I don't know who's paying.

I'll be interested to see what the rents will be over there.

- And there's a story behind the story, which is, I think what you're really getting to, which is representation.

There were people every day, St.

Petersburg people showing up at these city council meetings, and they were not funded by big money.

They were themselves showing up and wanting representation and wanting to impact democracy.

And I think the hard part about this isn't just the gentrification.

I mean, I'm a St.

Pete college professor.

Okay.

I'm watching my students have a hard time staying in Pinellas County.

They're moving out to just come to school in.

It's tough for educators, firemen, people like that to stay within the city limits.

But the bigger part of the story was that the city Council wasn't listening to local residents.

And what does that mean about representative democracy?

- Or in the case of the Pelican, the city council did listen to local residents in a procedural.

- It was a procedural, procedural hiccup that didn't allow the supermajority to allow it to go forward.

We were talking about that.

- One of the big problem is there's a fund called the Sadowski Fund that's supposed to fund affordable housing statewide, which is set up when I worked for Bob Graham.

And sadly, every year the Republican majority has sapped billions of dollars out of that money that's supposed to go to pay for affordable housing.

And so there's less and less money every year to be able to fund projects that can afford to, you know, the school teachers, policemen, firemen, they can't even afford to live in the city.

- They work in the city.

The city has the St.

Pete and Pinellas County have partnered to, to, uh, cut the ribbon on several affordable housing complexes in the city and county.

So that is happening as well.

It's just not at the same pace as, you know, your private market rate development.

- Well, thank you again.

We really appreciate having you all come in and share your experiences and your perspectives.

It helps for our viewers to see issues from all different sides.

So we thank you.

Thank you again to our panel.

We have Tara Newsom, we have Kathryn Varn, we have Travis Horn, and we have Victor DiMaio.

And don't forget, Florida This Week isn't just on TV.

You can catch us online, visit and share our website wedu.org/floridathisweek.

And you can also find us on YouTube.

That's the WEDU PBS channel.

Be sure to subscribe and share us in our Thought Leadership series.

We turn to a workforce skill that's most underused by women.

Our next guest says that is mentoring.

Meet Amy Summers.

She founded Pitch Publicity twenty-three years ago in Tampa Bay and has been fueling the growth of her company with a remote team since 2010.

That decision has created opportunities for college students from across the country to work at her PR firm in 2020.

She became a pioneer of remote working, launching INICIVOX, a virtual platform for mentorship.

Welcome, Amy.

It's so nice to have you.

You're also a proud alum of the University of Florida.

You've got a new book out, "Lift Ten: Mentorship Touch Points to Empower Your Team and Accelerate your Career."

Um, I'm kind of shocked to hear that you say that women underuse mentoring.

Why, in your experience, why do you believe that?

- I'm not even sure if it's just women, because I think men might also have this issue or this problem of underutilizing mentorship.

I think it probably has more to do with what you've been exposed to.

Um, I have observed that women sometimes tend to wait for invitations because that's kind of how we were brought up.

You know, we had to wait to be asked on a date.

And when I was in high school, my mom said, no, you're going to call the boys and ask them to go to prom.

So it depends on what you were exposed to.

But I think that women often tend to wait for an invitation.

And so mentorship doesn't really work like that.

You have to take initiative and you have to ask to be part of something.

- Explain to our viewers what the name of, "INICIVOX," means and how many college students you've been able to work with because of this.

- Yes.

So I started a INICIVOX later on when I realized I could only take so many students on as interns and mentor them.

And INICIVOX means to, "Inspire hrough voice."

And it was just my idea that like, we can get mentorship from anything.

We can get mentorship virtually from podcasts, from reading books.

So many leaders are putting so much content out there nowadays.

It's so easy to find, you know, we're way past the time of having to go to coffee with somebody, although we think that we often default to think, oh, we have to go to coffee to someone, but you really don't.

There's so many opportunities to learn from others and it's all around us.

So INICIVOX is a virtual platform that is just allows people to tap into any advice at any time.

- So if you're at an organization that doesn't have a formal mentorship program, what are some tangible things that we can do to be a mentor to someone in a way that's really important?

That's, that's really transformational.

- The first step really is to just be aware, open your eyes.

And if you see somebody that's a few steps ahead of you and they have a skill that maybe you haven't developed yet, you know, that's the person that you want to go up to and say, hey, I'd really like to help you out on a project.

So don't wait for them to ask you to, to be mentored, you know, go to them and say, how can I help you?

And before you know it, you'll be being mentored by them.

They won't even realize they're mentoring you.

But you have to be, you have to ask to be part of something.

And then on the flip side, for someone who really wants to mentor somebody, you need to keep your eyes open at work.

You know who has potential, but maybe just doesn't have access right now.

What can you do to give them more access?

Um, can you bring them along to an important meeting or to a lunch and just expose them to more opportunities?

- Now, when I first met you, you were pitching story ideas to me on Positively Tampa Bay and our Taking Action Against Domestic Violence campaign at 28 Tampa Bay, the ABC affiliate.

And so even back then, mentors were always part of your equation.

In your book, you talk about a Tampa Bay, uh, college mentor that you had, April Sosa.

Tell us about April.

- Yeah.

So I have lots of stories and left, um, about different mentees that I've had in their stories.

And one story you mentioned, April Sosa.

She is a Tampa Bay native here.

She also she came back to work here, but she went to University of Florida.

When she was done at school, she realized that she didn't have the internships that she needed to really land a job.

And so she interned with me for literally, literally like 2 or 3 months.

But that's all it took to really launch her career.

And now she's working at PWC here at Tampa Bay.

And I'm doing really well.

But her first TV studio was actually ABC Action News.

I brought her along with me and we, you know, she met you and she was so impressed by that.

And I recently interviewed her on my podcast and we talked about that story and what an impression that left on her because it really, it took what she was doing on the phone, pitching journalists and made it real.

- Well, congratulations on the book.

We're so excited.

You know, I want to make sure that our viewers also know that it's no mistake that the person that Amy selected to help her promote this book nationwide is the owner of the company.

The owner was is a former mentor, Ladora Brown.

So congratulations.

What a full circle moment.

Amy's book is now available nationwide.

It's lift ten mentorship touch points to empower your team and accelerate your career.

[music]