Apparently, Gov. Ron DeSantis would have detained and deported his own great-great-grandmother, an undocumented immigrant fleeing from poverty and violence in Southern Italy in 1917. Her story is remarkably similar to the stories of countless migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central and South America today. Local Immigration lawyers Chelsea Nowel and Ananis Makar joined Shelley for an overview of the new punitive and disruptive Florida immigration laws that threaten the Florida economy and treat undocumented people with a complete lack of dignity.
Florida’s New Immigration Laws
At DeSantis’ urging, the Republican Florida legislature passed new laws that sharply crackdown on the ability of immigrants to work in the U.S. The laws are expected to have a wide-ranging impact on industries critical to the Florida economy. Some farming and construction workers are already too scared to go to work and are considering leaving the state which will cause an enormous staffing crisis for the agriculture and construction businesses. Among other things, the laws also instituted new penalties for transporting undocumented immigrants to Florida, imposes new requirements on companies with 25 or more employees to check immigrants’ status for employment in the Federal E-Verify system, and it makes out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants void in Florida. The law also adds another $12 million to the “migrant relocation” program that DeSantis used to round up immigrants in Texas and fly them to Martha’s Vineyard, and just yesterday, DeSantis announced that he intends to send state law enforcement officers, hundreds of state troopers, police and National Guard members, plus boats and planes, to the U.S. Southern border at the expense of Florida taxpayers.
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