FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (NewsNation) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing some of the toughest immigration legislation in over a decade, calling on state lawmakers to pass an extensive package that would toughen the state’s immigration laws.
Among other things, Florida Senate Bill 1718 would make it a felony to transport or hide undocumented immigrants, including those who are family members. It would also require hospitals to report a patient’s immigration status to the state.
The package has already garnered strong opinions from both sides, and many believe the proposals are the most extreme state-level anti-immigration bills since 2010. That’s the year Arizona lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1070 — referred to by critics as the “show me your papers” law — which authorized law enforcement to request immigration paperwork of those they suspected of being undocumented.
DeSantis has been pushing state lawmakers to pass the bill, arguing that Florida has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on health care for undocumented immigrants.
“Florida is not a sanctuary state and we will uphold the rule of law,” DeSantis said.
Critics called the bill “extreme” and believe immigration policies should be left to the federal government.
However, the bill is expected to pass within weeks because the GOP has a supermajority in the Florida legislature.
Some experts think the bill could backfire on the governor and could impact crucial voters in the state.
“Many of the immigrant communities in South Florida are, in fact, individuals who left left-wing governments — Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela — and here they have become rather conservative voters and a form a part an important part of the Republican Party locally,” Lisandro Perez, a professor at John Jay College, said.
Perez continued, “It actually will hurt DeSantis I believe in some of the communities that he’s counting on for support in a presidential election.”
DeSantis said the proposals were in response to what he calls President Joe Biden’s “open borders agenda.”
Florida has seen a sharp influx of migrants from Cuba and Haiti in recent years. The Sunshine State is home to an estimated 772,000 unauthorized immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute. It also has the largest immigration court backlog in the country with more than 330,000 cases pending as of January.
