DeSantis signed a bill into law that creates new hurdles for undocumented workers and patients in Florida. It provides $12 million to relocate migrants to blue states
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- DeSantis signed a bill into law to crack down on undocumented workers in Florida.
- It imposes new data collection on hospitals and makes it illegal for undocumented workers to drive.
- The legislation includes $12 million to relocate migrants to blue states.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping bill into law Wednesday that will make it harder for undocumented people to work in Florida, even though the measure fell short of his demands.
The measure is set to be coupled with $12 million in the state budget to relocate migrants from other states, following a controversial political stunt by DeSantis last year in which he authorized a plane carrying Venezuelan and Colombian migrants to fly from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
DeSantis boasted about the stunt during a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday, saying officials in blue states expected border states to "grin and bear" the care of an influx of migrants.
The sweeping changes just signed into law ban undocumented people from driving cars even with licenses from other states, ban localities from issuing IDs to undocumented immigrants, impose tougher penalties on people who knowingly bring undocumented people to Florida, and require private employers to use e-verify — a system that checks prospective workers' residency status.
Hospitals will be required to ask patients for their residency status, and to collect data for the state on how much they spend providing healthcare to undocumented immigrants.
DeSantis is widely expected to mount a presidential run now that Florida's lawmaking session has ended. Should he do so, he would face off against former President Donald Trump, whose hard-line, anti-immigration rhetoric and actions whipped up his base and led to numerous lawsuits and public backlash.
DeSantis has framed the policies as a direct response to President Joe Biden's immigration policies, saying the president turned a "blind eye" to the issue. He stood behind a lectern Wednesday with a sign that read "Biden's Border Crisis. The sign used the Biden campaign logo.
"We have got massive problems at our southern border with Mexico," DeSantis said at Wednesday's press conference. "This is something that is the responsibility of Joe Biden. This is a responsibility he has defaulted on, really from day one of his presidency."
Last year Border Patrol made nearly 2 million arrests of people who were crossing the border illegally, and an estimated 11 million people are living in the US while undocumented. An estimated 800,000 Floridians are undocumented.
DeSantis signed the immigration measures into law a day before before the federal Title 42 is set to expire. The controversial, Trump administration-era policy, which began during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, returned migrants to their home countries or sent them to Mexico. Migrants have been apprehended 2.8 million times since the policy started, show data from US Customs and Border Protection.
The federal government expects that more than 12,000 people could try to cross the border every day after Title 42 ends, up from roughly 7,500 today.
Biden announced a crackdown on illegal immigration in January, saying the federal government would deny entry to people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela if they bypass official ports into the US from Mexico.
While the signing marks a legislative victory and priority for DeSantis, it did not include one of the governor's top asks: the repeal of a provision that allows children of undocumented immigrants to get in-state college tuition rates when they've attended a Florida high school for three consecutive years.
Florida has one of the lowest costs for public colleges and universities in the US: less than $5,000 on average for in-state students who attend four-year institutions, according to US News & World Report.
Lieutenant Gov. Jeanette Nuñez originally introduced the bill allowing in-state tuition for children of undocumented immigrants when she was a state lawmaker representing Miami. US Sen. Rick Scott, DeSantis' predecessor in the governor's mansion, signed the bill into law.
Scott told reporters in February that it would be "unfair" to take away in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants.
"They didn't come here on their own volition," Scott said in Tampa, according to Politico. "It's a bill that I was proud to sign. It's a bill I would sign again today."
The repeal never surfaced during the lawmakers' session, even though Republicans have a supermajority that has largely been deferential to DeSantis.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/oNc1X0p
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