What the heck is going on in Florida? GOP-run Legislature wimps out, DeSantis vows to veto ‘garbage’ immigration bill

A war over immigration has erupted between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s GOP-dominated Legislature.

The beef started last month when DeSantis called for a special session of the Legislature to pass a bill that would “increase penalties for illegals, enhance cooperation between local and state authorities with federal immigration authorities, and more,” according to The Federalist.

But instead of complying with his request, Florida state House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton called the governor’s demand a “stunt” and passed their own immigration legislation.

There’s just one problem: Their bill is much weaker. Worse, it contains a provision that would strip immigration enforcement authority from DeSantis and grant it to the state’s Agriculture Commissioner, Wilton Simpson.

The problem with Simpson is that he owns a large egg farm and has previously indicated that he uses illegal labor on it. That’s presumably why he complained that another immigration bill pursued two years ago could produce “unintended consequences” for businesses like his.

But there’s more.

“During his time in the legislature, Simpson notably supported measures giving temporary driver’s licenses and in-state tuition rates to certain foreign nationals,” The Federalist notes. “As Senate president (2020-2022), he also fought DeSantis over the governor’s veto of a congressional map approved by the GOP-controlled legislature.”

Instead, DeSantis moved forward with his own map that “netted Florida Republicans four additional congressional seats on Election Day [2022] and essentially helped the GOP win the tiny House majority,” according to Politico.

Dovetailing back to the latest bill battle, DeSantis has made it clear he opposes the Legislature’s bill.

“That’s like the fox guarding the hen house,” he said recently of the bill’s idea of turning Simpson into the state’s immigration czar. “I’ve never seen our base react more negatively on an issue than what the legislature is trying to pull right now. It is like 99 to 1 in terms of opposition.”

“There is no justification for doing this if you actually want to enhance enforcement. The purpose of the provision is to stop enforcement. It weakens current law and practice significantly. Florida becomes a de facto sanctuary state. This is a betrayal of the voters,” he added.

DeSantis is backed by officials from Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV), who’ve said that the Legislature’s bill would handcuff their immigration enforcement efforts.

“This [bill] would take [away] our ability to interact with DEA, ICE, what have you, and that full spectrum of federal law enforcement, and we would have to go through an additional layer of an agency, through the office of immigration enforcement,” FLHSMV Executive Director Dave Kerner told lawmakers last week. “This language is very limiting.”

Listen:

Despite being a former Democrat, Kerner was recently praised by DeSantis aide Christina Pushaw for his 180 on immigration:

Perez, the state House Speaker, has pushed back by claiming his bill is tougher on illegal aliens than DeSantis’ bill.

“Our legislation gives the death penalty to any illegal immigrant that commits murder, that rapes children, his does not,” he recently told The Floridian. “I would say that our bill is tougher on crime. Our bill automatically increases the penalty to whatever the maximum is for an illegal immigrant who’s part of a transnational gang. His does not.”

“The bill that every single Republican except the one voted for is weak? I respectfully have to disagree. I am able to compartmentalize personal feelings from reality. I disagree with the governor but there is no way for me to see his point of view when he states that this is a weak bill on illegal immigration,” he added.

Vivek Saxena

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