MIAMI – Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to sign a new law to strengthen his program to relocate immigrants in a move that the advocates of undocumented migrants have criticized.
Florida Republican lawmakers passed SB 1718 on Tuesday to allocate $12 million to the program that was designed to protest President Joe Biden’s policy.
The law, which Florida Democrats defined as anti-immigrant, will also require businesses with 25 or more employees to use E-Verify to confirm eligibility.
“The bill could have been a lot worse than it is,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski said. “Unfortunately, it still has some teeth.”
The law will also prohibit local governments from funding organizations that issue identification cards to undocumented migrants and invalidate their use of out-of-state driver’s licenses. It will also require hospitals that accept Medicaid to include a question about citizenship status on their intake forms.
“That is very much a concern because it will create fear and keep our communities from accessing health,” said Tessa Petit, of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, an organization of more than 65 organizations and over 100 allies.
The law will also criminalize anyone person or organization caught providing transportation to undocumented immigrants into the state of Florida.
“It’s an interesting piece of legislation in that it solves nothing it purports to address,” said Randy McGrorty, the director of Catholic Legal Services. “The only people this bill seeks to address are people who have not been inspected by the federal government.
“Everyone at the border has been inspected and re-released to pursue an asylum claim.”
The pandemic restrictions on immigration expire on May 11, so the Biden administration recently announced 1,500 active-duty troops will join the 2,500 National Guard members to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Biden administration is preparing to open immigration processing centers with the help of Spain and Canada in Guatemala and Colombia to prevent illegal immigration and human trafficking.