Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, launched a package of new initiatives Thursday aimed at cracking down on undocumented immigrants, including expanding E-Verify, an administrative system employers must use.
At a press conference in Jacksonville (northeast Florida), the governor, who is emerging as a possible candidate for the White House in 2024, criticized the immigration policies of the president, Joe Biden, saying that they are causing an “influx of drugs and other problems” on the southern border of the country.
With a sign behind him reading “Biden’s Border Crisis,” DeSantis announced a series of his priorities that, he said, must be taken into account by state legislators, and will aim to crack down on the undocumented in Florida. .
The package presented by the governor under the name of “Florida’s fight against Biden’s border crisis” includes “improving” sanctions for human trafficking, and considers transporting, hiding or harboring aliens as a “third degree felony”. illegal, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
Among other measures to “discourage illegal immigration in Florida,” hospitals will be required to collect data on the immigration status of patients and submit periodic reports on the cost of care provided to illegal aliens.
“With this legislation, Florida continues to crack down on illegal alien smuggling, preventing municipalities from issuing identification cards to people here illegally and ensuring that employers hire US citizens or those here legally,” he said. DeSantis in a statement.
Florida law currently requires all public employers to use E-Verify, a system administered by the US Department of Homeland Security, but private employers are not required to use the system.
Florida’s two houses of Congress have a Republican majority, so many of the governor’s initiatives are expected to go ahead in March, when the Legislature meets.
On February 16, several immigrant organizations expressed their concern about the recent expansion in Florida of a program for the relocation of undocumented immigrants that could give rise to arrests motivated by racial profiling in this state and the rest of the country.
The SB 6B law, which after its approval in the Florida Legislature was signed by DeSantis, allows the transfer of immigrants who are not necessarily in Florida to other parts of the country, as occurred with the shipment of nearly fifty undocumented immigrants from Texas to Massachusetts.
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