The congressional showdown over payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits continues after the GOP-led House voted Tuesday against a Senate bill approved over the weekend.

Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo tells The Florida Independent that as an immigrant and an advocate for comprehensive immigration reform he abhors the proposed immigration detention center to be built on a lot surrounded by his city.

Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis said at a recent community forum that his city does not have a vote in the decision to build a proposed immigration detention center in his area, but PolitiFact Florida rates his claim “mostly false.”

Pembroke Pines elected officials confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and residents of Southwest Ranches and Pembroke Pines will meet this Saturday to discuss a proposed immigration detention center.

The Southwest Ranches Town Council announced Thursday night that a meeting between Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Corrections Corporation of America and Broward County residents who oppose a proposed immigrant detention center will be held on Nov. 5.

Residents of the town of Southwest Ranches and the cities of Pembroke Pines and Weston who oppose a federally funded and privately managed immigration detention center in their area will attend a town meeting tonight to call for the resignation of the mayor and town attorney of Southwest Ranches.

With more than 100 residents demanding a stop to the construction of an immigration detention center next to the city of Pembroke Pines, commissioners on Wednesday night approved a motion to renegotiate its contract with the town of Southwest Ranches to supply water and sewage to the detention center.

Detention Watch Network today launched its “Dignity, Not Detention” campaign, calling on Congress to repeal the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which mandates the detention of undocumented immigrants. The law was signed by President Clinton 15 years ago this week.