Florida lawmakers crack down on illegal immigration

President Donald Trump emerged as the biggest winner as the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a suite of measures aimed at strengthening enforcement against illegal immigration. Quickly signed into law by the governor, the wide-ranging plan toughens penalties for crimes committed by undocumented immigrants; creates a statewide immigration enforcement panel; imposes the death penalty for undocumented immigrants who commit first-degree murder or rape children; and makes it a state crime for undocumented immigrants to enter the state. “Today the state has passed the strongest legislation to combat illegal immigration of any state in the country,” DeSantis, flanked by Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, and House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, told reporters Thursday. A part of the main bill (SB 2-C) creates a State Board of Immigration Enforcement made up of the governor, agriculture commissioner, attorney general and state chief financial officer. The board will coordinate immigration enforcement activities with federal officials and dole out $250 million in grants to local law-enforcement agencies to assist federal enforcement efforts. Decisions made by the board would have to be unanimous. Senate sponsor Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican who is close to Trump, said the bill provides what the president needs to strengthen enforcement of illegal immigration, an issue that is a major plank of the president’s second White House agenda. “In short, senators, President Trump is asking for more badges, more detention beds for criminals awaiting deportation, and a laser focus on catching criminal illegals who violate our laws,” Gruters said before the Senate voted 27-10 along party lines to approve the bill. Democrats focused debate Thursday on a part of the bill that will eliminate in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrant students in colleges and universities. Providing the tuition break was a priority of Republican legislative leaders a decade ago. With Republican supermajorities in both chambers, Democrats futilely attempted to amend the bill to allow students who have already started studying at colleges and universities to pay in-state tuition rates until they graduate. “We are undermining the investment our state has made in these students, because they are our future leaders. They are our innovators,” Rep. Marie Woodson, a Hollywood Democrat who was born in Haiti, argued. “They are in our communities. They are not committing any crimes. They are in schools trying to have a better tomorrow.” But Rep. Kiyan Michael, R-Jacksonville, implored lawmakers to pass the bill. She said her son, Brandon, 21, was killed in a 2007 car crash caused by an undocumented immigrant who had been deported twice. "We know we have to do something," Michael said. "We have to do it now." The issue is "personal for me," Michael added. "I'm a real mama who misses her child every day," she said. The House voted 85-30 to pass the bill, which also includes significant changes to a 2023 law that created the “Unauthorized Alien Transport Program” within the state Division of Emergency Management. Lawmakers in 2023 steered $12 million to the agency, bolstering DeSantis’ efforts to relocate undocumented immigrants to places such as Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Under the new law, the state agency could transport migrants out of the state only if federal immigration officials “specifically request assistance,” cover the costs of the travel and oversee the operations. “The governor can no longer on his own go and grab people somewhere and fly them off to another jurisdiction anymore, correct?” Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, D-Sunny Isles Beach, asked during debate on the proposal. “He can't do anything related to illegal immigration outside of the state of Florida, to be clear, unless he's given permission to do so by the federal government.” Sen. Randy Fine, a Brevard County Republican who helped shepherd the legislation, said the plan requires the governor’s office to cooperate with federal officials. “The entire premise of the bill that we have designed is that we are in a supporting role to the federal government, that we are here to help Donald Trump with his illegal immigration agenda, not to get in the way of it,” Fine said.

Immigration penalties

Another bill (SB 4-C) seeks to impose mandatory death sentences for undocumented immigrants convicted of first-degree murder or raping children. The new law also makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants over age 18 to “knowingly” enter Florida “after entering the United States by eluding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers.” Critics of the plan argued that the death penalty provision is unconstitutional and, along with other parts of the legislative plan, will be challenged in court. “All of this has been driven by the majority’s desire to please President Donald Trump. They have no regard for the state Constitution, no regard for the federal Constitution, at this point. They don’t care that many of the issues covered in this bill are currently on appeal with the United States Supreme Court. They are moving forward because they serve one master, and that is Donald J. Trump,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, told reporters after the House’s 85-29 vote in favor of the criminal-issues bill. DeSantis also signed what is known as a memorial (SM 6-C) that seeks guidance from the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about immigration enforcement efforts. Memorials are resolutions that are not laws. The approvals of the legislation Thursday culminated three special sessions in two weeks on the immigration issue. The efforts got off to a rocky start last month after DeSantis called a special session without backing from Perez and Albritton. Perez and Albritton on Jan. 27 convened the special session called by DeSantis but snubbed the governor by quickly ending the session. They then quickly launched their own session and passed a measure that would have given Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson control of immigration enforcement — an idea that DeSantis criticized. DeSantis and legislative leaders, along with their allies, publicly sniped over the plans before reaching agreement on the measures that passed Thursday. Perez and Albritton called the third special session Monday. “We all had one common goal, and the goal was to solve for the crisis of illegal immigration through the vision of President Trump. We may have had different ways of how to get there but at the end of the day, those are discussions that were healthy, or necessary and make democracy way better,” Perez said at the bill signing.