TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Florida’s state Senate and House of Representatives passed a bill addressing illegal immigration during its special session on Jan. 28.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has already suggested that it is dead on arrival and doesn’t have enough support to override his veto.
The tensions between Tallahassee’s executive and legislative branches, both controlled by Republicans, have been intensifying, after leaders of the state Legislature rejected the governor’s call to convene a special session to address the issue on Jan. 27.
Instead, they launched their own session and passed the bill. Both sides insist they have the tougher bill.
The governor expressed frustration during a roundtable discussion with reporters present on Jan. 29.
“Everything I proposed is stronger than what the legislature has done, and I don’t have any pride of ownership,” he said.
“I don’t need any credit. I hope that they will do strong policies. Maybe they can do stronger than ours. They can have 100 percent of the credit. But the reality is, we’re not going to accept weak policies.”
The roundtable included Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Director Dave Kerner and Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey, who expressed concerns about how the bill’s changes would hold them back from effectively capturing and deporting illegal immigrants.
They were joined by Nikki Jones, an “Angel Wife” who shared how her husband was killed by a drunk-driving illegal immigrant with multiple traffic violations and who was released under a revolving door policy.
DeSantis has said the Legislature’s plan fails to require maximum state and local law enforcement participation in the federal government’s deportation program, as well as provide sufficient resources to those lower levels. The governor also said it fails to recognize voting and registering to vote as an illegal immigrant as a severe enough crime with adequate punishments.
Meanwhile, an identical bill in the House passed with 82 of the 120 state representatives voting yes.
The bill would make the agriculture commissioner the new “Chief Immigration Officer” in charge of the new Office of State Immigration Law Enforcement.
The bill states that person would be “the exclusive liaison between the state government and federal immigration agencies regarding federal immigration laws and matters directly related thereto.”
“We’re already working together,” highway safety chief Dave Kerner told members of the press, citing a multi-agency operation taken on Jan. 28.
Kerner said that the bill prohibits relationships between federal, state, and local agencies since all communication between state law enforcement and a federal immigration agency would now have to go through the Office of the Agriculture Commission.
DeSantis said the bill was weaker than policies already in place across the state, and accused the Legislature of wanting to “neuter the interior enforcement” already underway.
“The only reason you do that is because you want to make Florida a de facto sanctuary state,” he said. ”This bill takes us backwards from where we are right now. There will be fewer deportations of illegal aliens.”
The governor noted that the bill’s text mentions “agriculture” several times but has no mentions of “deportation.” He said it would create a conflict of interest since much of the Agriculture Commission opposes immigration enforcement policies like e-verify.
“Given how people have come and worked illegally in that industry is like the fox guarding the hen house,” he said.
The TRUMP Act was the only bill introduced in the Senate on Jan. 27 after the leadership of both chambers agreed to immediately close the special session called by DeSantis sine die, meaning without setting a date for reconvening. This shut down several bills ready to be introduced. Then the legislators reconvened on their own.
That surprise session swap came after House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican from Miami-Dade County, refused to call state representatives back to the State Capitol, declaring the actions to be “premature.”
State Sen. Jay Collins, a Republican from Tampa, Florida, was one of the 16 who voted against the bill.
“The TRUMP Act puts the President in full control, armed with all the tools needed to execute the most aggressive illegal immigration crackdown in our nation’s history,” Perez said.
“The TRUMP Act delivers the harshest penalties in the nation for illegal aliens, criminal gangs, and terrorists—including an automatic death sentence for capital offenses like murder and the rape of a child. The Governor doesn’t support these harsh penalties—the TRUMP Act makes criminal illegals pay the price.”
After passing the bill, the House adjourned sine die, ending the session without addressing other matters DeSantis wanted to take up this week.
Those bills include reforms to the state’s petition initiative processes, condo relief, and elements of disaster relief such as replenishing the My Safe Florida Home Program.
