EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Same wolf, different sheep’s clothing.

That’s how California resident Luis Vega sees Florida’s Senate Bill 1718. It’s a law toughening penalties for those transporting undocumented immigrants, forcing mid-size employers to verify the immigration status of workers, refusing to recognize driver’s licenses issued by other states to the undocumented and directing state law enforcement to share information with federal immigration authorities.

“First, we had California’s Prop 187 […] Then Arizona’s SB 1070. Now Florida is attacking our people with SB 1718. We cannot allow this cancer to continue,” Vega said. “It is not fair to those who do the hardest jobs – farm work, construction – or the people who put the food on our table.”

Vega and 18 other pro-immigration activists upset with the legislation that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis backed set off in their personal vehicles last Friday on a cross-country ride. The drive began in San Diego aiming for a final stop in the capitol in Tallahassee. The goal is to be there when the law takes effect on July 1.

They’re calling for activists from all over the United States to join them on the march and final rally, and on American consumers to not buy any product made or grown in Florida. The boycott begins on June 30 and ends after the Fourth of July. The point is for businesses not to back DeSantis and like-minded legislators or face the consequences.

The “Todos Somos Florida” (We Are All Florida) caravan stopped in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Tuesday morning and in El Paso in the afternoon.

Gathered at the Piedras Street offices of the Border Network for Human Rights, some caravan members made their case and, at times, vented their anger at DeSantis.

“Why this caravan? Because the millions and millions of immigrant workers are fed up!” said Juan Jose Gutierrez, another California activist. “We are fed up because despite our work, despite how we produce this country’s wealth, and because we pay taxes […] instead of gaining more rights we are losing rights. Like my mother would say, ‘we are walking backwards like the crab.’”

The activists accused DeSantis of pandering to Republican Party extremists in a bid to gain his party’s presidential nomination. Politics aside, the rhetoric is creating animosity against migrants, legal immigrants and Latinos in general, Gutierrez said.

“They see all of us as illegals even if we are (U.S.) citizens, even if we are (legal) residents, even if we have a work permit. In the mind of the racists, of those Nazis disguised as democrats, we are all illegals,” he said. “They paint us as terrorists, they paint us as narcos, they paint us as criminals when the only thing we do is make this country great with our work. …”

The activists acknowledged some in the caravan only plan to drive a limited distance, but said they are expecting others to join them in San Antonio and Houston. That’s when the caravan’s final leg on Interstate 10 takes them through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and then Florida.

Caravan members are responsible for their own expenses, as participants don’t want to be identified with any organization, Vega said.