Immigration Crackdown: Measures Would Make It Tougher For The Undocumented To Live And Work In Fla.

By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix

April 24, 2023

With the Legislature soon winding down, state House members Monday for the first time took up a proposal cracking down on illegal immigration — an initiative Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for in February.

Overall, dramatic measures (in HB 1617) would make it tougher for undocumented immigrants to live and work in Florida.

The legislation would:

A proposal to repeal a 2014 law allowing for in-state tuition for undocumented students, or “Dreamers,” is not in the House legislation, though DeSantis had originally pursued that issue. GOP leadership have been evasive in responding to questions about whether such a measure would make it into the legislation this session.

The House legislation is being co-sponsored by Jacksonville Republican Kiyan Michael, whose son was killed in a car crash in a vehicle driven by an undocumented immigrant in 2007.

Democrats on the House Commerce Committee, led by Miami-Dade County Rep. Dotie Joseph, filed seven separate amendments to the measure. None were adopted. After a three-hour debate, the legislation passed in a party line vote. The legislation would have to be approved in the full House as well.

There were a several members of the public who came before the committee Monday to oppose various provisions of the bill, such as the E-Verify mandate. The Legislature in previous years has floated such a proposal, but has never gone all the way with it, usually due to opposition from the business community.

“Reliability of the E-Verify system can be problematic,” said Adam Basford, with Associated Industries of Florida, who appealed to the committee that if the bill does pass, that it be delayed beyond the scheduled day of implementation of July 1.

Christie Arnold, with the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, also questioned the veracity of the E-Verify system. “The system does face multiple challenges, including widespread inaccuracies, system generated errors and employer misuse,” she said.

Some public speakers blasted the House committee, saying the GOP members were simply rubber-stamping a proposal to fuel DeSantis’ likely run for president in 2024.

“This bill is being pushed for the governor’s presidential ambitions,” said Jackson Oberlink, with the group Florida Rising. “It is clearly a manufactured crisis and a political talking point for the governor. This legislation will lead to further inhumane treatment of immigrants in our state.”

Neisha-Rose Hines, a policy strategist with the ACLU of Florida, questioned the provisions that would make someone criminally liable for transporting an undocumented immigrant. “This could quickly turn Florida into a vigilante ‘show me your papers’ state,” she said. “Where private citizens demand proof of immigration status from people before providing transportation in order to stay clear of the bill’s penalties.”

But after hearing hours of testimony, some Republicans on the committee pushed back.

GOP Rep. Joel Rudman, who represents parts of Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties, discussed how his wife had gone through the immigration process legally.

“For someone like me to sit here and hear all of this deference, and all of this latitude and all of this sympathy for people who skipped the process, they didn’t do any of that,” he said about the undocumented in the U.S. “There is a difference between doing things the right way and the legal way, and skipping the process altogether and going about it through an illegal manner.”

Osceola Democratic Rep. Kristen Arrington countered that because there are some immigrants who are fleeing repressive governments, “they don’t have the opportunity to go through those proper timelines when it’s life or death for them and their children.”

While this was the first time a committee in the House had heard the immigration bill, its Senate equivalent has passed through one committee in that chamber and will go before the Fiscal Policy Committee on Tuesday before going to the full Senate for a vote.

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