.png "A screenshot from the Jan. 22 Village of El Portal, Florida, Planning and Zoning meeting video shows Councilman Anders Urbom closing one eye and miming a gun-aiming ‘wink’ as he repeatedly uses the N-word, while Councilperson Anna E. Lightfoot-Ward, seated beside him, looks down. This came after Urbom launched into a diatribe from the dais against ICE and Customs and Border Protection.")
A screenshot from the Jan. 22 Village of El Portal, Florida, Planning and Zoning meeting video shows Councilman Anders Urbom closing one eye and miming a gun-aiming ‘wink’ as he repeatedly uses the N-word, while Councilperson Anna E. Lightfoot-Ward, seated beside him, looks down. This came after Urbom launched into a diatribe from the dais against ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
Screengrab from Village of El Portal meeting video
An El Portal meeting quickly devolved after a councilman launched an expletive-filled attack on ICE and U.S Customs and Border Protection, using a racial epithet in his rant.
The incident began when Councilman Anders Urbom, speaking during the Village’s Jan. 22 Planning and Zoning committee meeting, described witnessing a traffic stop on Biscayne Boulevard by Border Protection agents.
Urbom told the committee members, who are the village council members, and attendees he had been traveling north on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami when he saw a Border Protection agent in a parking lot conducting a traffic stop.
“It just seemed odd that a CBP officer was doing a traffic stop,” Urbom said, adding that he pulled into a nearby KFC parking lot and began filming.
Urbom described the encounter as civil, saying the agent did not handcuff the person being detained and allowed the person to keep his cellphone. Urbom said the federal agent ultimately left with one of two men, while the other remained with the vehicle.
After the agent departed, Urbom said he approached the man who stayed behind and asked why they were stopped. Urbom claimed the agent used something minor as an excuse, pointing to the multiple registration stickers many Miami-Dade drivers place on their license plates.
Urbom’s remarks, captured on the village’s meeting video, then spiraled.
He said “every white person in this country who voted for Trump” is racist, using the N word in his rant. He then mimed holding a gun, and later raised his arms as though holding a long gun, the video shows. He unleashed profanities at ICE and CBP, including “motherf——” and “f— ICE.”
Urbom is the newest member of the Village Council, elected in 2019. Mayor Omarr C. Nickerson put the brakes on the outburst to which Urbom responded, “It’s over, it’s over,” the recording shows.
Vice Mayor Darian Martin, who is Black, condemned Urbom’s use of the racial epithet.
“I do think it is horribly offensive for that word to be mentioned in any context,” Martin said. “I do say that as a white man you [Urbom] should not be saying the N word in any context and I take great offense to it and I think that you owe us an apology,” he added, drawing applause.
Urbom replied that he would apologize, but said he meant no offense to anyone other than “the white Christians who voted for Trump,” according to the video. Urbom’s remarks came during the “Good and Welfare” portion toward the end of the meeting, an agenda slot typically reserved for informal, non-voting comments and general community updates.
Urbom did not reply to an email asking about the incident. His online bio on the Village’s website says “his main priorities are public safety, public works (including tree trimming, swales, and septic-to-sewer), and traffic plus pedestrian/cyclist safety.”
The next El Portal City Council meeting is 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27, at Village Hall, 500 NE 87th St. Residents who want to weigh in can do so during public comment.
Theo Karantsalis
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