DeSantis Signs Illegal Immigration Bills After Disagreement With Legislature

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sept. 17. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Florida Legislature has delivered on legislation concerning illegal immigration during its special session, passing two bills in both chambers after hours of debate and receiving Gov. Ron DeSantis’s signature on Feb. 13. 

“Florida leads the way yet again, as we have done on issue after issue over these many years,” the governor said at a press conference, calling the bills ”the strongest legislation to combat illegal immigration of any state in the entire country.”

“We here in Florida have a responsibility to be strong partners with the Trump administration as it seeks to restore the rule of law, remove illegal aliens from our communities, and protect public safety,” he added.

The bill signings come after weeks of public disagreements between DeSantis and the newly elected legislative leaders, which began with Speaker of the House Daniel Perez rejecting the governor’s first call to convene a special session in January. The speaker and Senate President Ben Albritton decided to immediately close the governor’s special session and call their own, which produced a heavily criticized bill that was ultimately rejected.  

DeSantis signed the new bills in the company of both Albritton and Perez. The three leaders celebrated the laws as a shared victory and a signal of GOP unity ahead of the regular session.

“At the end of the day, what happened over the last 10 days leading to this event today is all about Floridians, and what I know is this: Going forward, once this is implemented, Florida families, Florida children, Florida grandchildren, fathers, mothers are going to be safer,” Albritton said, thanking the speaker and governor for coming together and manifesting the new laws set to take effect.

Speaker Perez expressed his gratitude to the governor and senate president, as well as all of the House select committee members.

“We all had one common goal, and the goal was to solve the crisis of illegal immigration through the vision of President Trump,” Perez said. ”We may have had different ways of how to get there, but at the end of the day, those are discussions that were healthy, were necessary, and make democracy way better after the conversation has been had.”

Senate Memorial 6C, which was brought up first, urged the Department of Homeland Security to provide training and guidance opportunities as well as “maximize the state and local law enforcement agencies’ impact in assisting the federal government in combatting illegal immigration.”

It was adopted by the Senate in a verbal vote and was then adopted by the House in a vote of 85-27. A memorial is a resolution that does not have the force of law.

Next came Senate Bill 4C, which will make it mandatory for any illegal immigrant convicted of committing a capital offense, such as child rape or murder, to receive the death penalty. It will also create criminal offenses for entering the state illegally, with increasing prison times after each repeat offense reaching a mandatory minimum sentence of two years.

The Senate approved with a vote of 27-11. Later, in the House of Representatives, Democrats argued against the bill extensively, with some speaking out against the death penalty.

The minority brought forward eight amendments to this bill, including attempts to add special protections for people from countries like Venezuela and Haiti who had been granted temporary protected status. However, the Republican supermajority rejected the proposed changes, and the bill passed with a vote of 85-29.

Last came Senate Bill 2C, which, among other things, will automatically mandate the maximum penalty for any illegal immigrant convicted of a crime who is a gang member, and will require pretrial detention for illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes. Jails will be required to inform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the immigration status of their inmates.

The bill will make it a felony to vote in a U.S. election as a noncitizen, or to assist or encourage a noncitizen to vote.

It will also create the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, staffed by the governor, attorney general, chief financial officer, and the commissioner of agriculture. That board will have an eight-member council made up of law enforcement leaders tasked with advising on how to better cooperate with ICE, and recommend strategies such as how to increase detention bed numbers and facilitate the training of local law enforcement.

What drew the most pushback from both chambers was the elimination of in-state college tuition waivers for illegal immigrant students who are already in school.

Amendments were proposed in both chambers to ensure that those students already in school could finish the journey they started. They were all struck down.

The bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 27-10, and it passed in the House of Representatives 85-30.

The special session was adjourned by the House of Representatives before DeSantis addressed members of the press.

The Florida State Senate is scheduled to convene for the start of the regular session at 12 p.m. on March 4. The House has yet to release its schedule.