Florida Gov. DeSantis Signs Immigration Bill

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Facts

  • Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Wednesday a multi-faceted immigration bill while also taking the opportunity to criticize the Biden admin.'s border policy ahead of his expected announcement to run in the 2024 Republican Primary Election.1
  • The bill — which comes as the Title 42 immigration law is set to expire later this week — provides $12M to transport migrants to other states in what is an extension to DeSantis' "Unauthorized Alien Transport Program," which was signed into law in February.2
  • This relocation practice garnered widespread attention in September when DeSantis flew nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard.3
  • The legislation will also require state hospitals accepting Medicaid to ask patients about their immigration status, ban local governments from spending tax money on community ID programs, and implement the federal E-Verify system to check the immigration status of employees in private businesses of over 25 people.4
  • Bringing an undocumented immigrant into Florida will also now be a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and $5k in fines. While the Deputy Director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Renata Bozzetto, claimed the bill has "many problems," the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee hasn't reported any immediate constitutional issues.5
  • The Republican supermajorities in both the state House and Senate did, however, decline to implement DeSantis' call to repeal a 2014 law extending in-state tuition to undocumented students who grew up in Florida, also known as "Dreamers."6

Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2CBS, 3POLITICO, 4Washington Examiner, 5Bay News 9, and 6Daytona Beach News.

Narratives

  • Republican narrative, as provided by The Western Journal. Biden's border crisis is about to become an even more dangerous reality as Title 42 ends. Whatever weak remnants of immigration order that have remained under his administration are about to be wiped out by an even larger surge of illegal crossings. Lawmakers throughout the US must take their cue from DeSantis.
  • Democratic narrative, as provided by CNN. DeSantis' immigration laws will not help the border crisis and will likely be found unconstitutional. Several states, such as Alabama, Georgia, and Arizona, have tried to enact similar laws that were defeated in the courts, and DeSantis — attempting to win over Republicans before 2024 — cannot simply take US-wide immigration policies into his own hands.