Florida’s new immigration laws are filled with fear of profiling, mistrust

Brayan de Los Rios said it’s getting harder for him to achieve his goals.

His sales at Brandon’s Latin Touch Spanish grocery store have dropped by more than 30% since January. He fears many Hispanic clients have stopped coming as they fear new immigration policies from Tallahassee and Washington, D.C.

He believes that social media attacks and video reports indicate that immigrants arresting people without legal status in shopping malls and near neighbours are alienating customers.

“I don’t know how long I can keep going. Delos Rios, 41, said:

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed new, strict state law last week that would make Florida “the country’s most powerful state for immigration enforcement,” he wrote on social media. The law promotes President Trump’s demand for stricter immigration rules, including strengthening border security, termination programs that help immigrants gain legal status, and large-scale deportation orders.

But local advocates and nonprofits in Tampa responded with deep concern about Florida’s new immigration law. Some people say the law contains important loopholes and inconsistencies, such as not adding resources to enhance or add electronic verification to enforce and monitor inter-company compliance. . Others predict that new laws will generate more uncertainty, selective enforcement and potential racial bias, even against those with legal status.

Elizabeth Gutierrez, the founder of a nonprofit enterprising Latino, nurtures workforce training and opportunities for ethnic minorities and Hispanic women, and state governments have gone by and addressed urgent state issues. He said he was not there.

“Florida’s anti-immigration laws are harmful to the safety of families, businesses and the public,” Gutierrez said. “We’re not going to address the state’s most important needs, such as creating higher pay jobs or building homes that all Florida residents can buy.”

Florida’s new law, approved Thursday, puts nearly $300 million aside for immigration enforcement, and previously dreamers (students whose parents brought to the country) at public universities and in-state Repeals the law that allowed you to pay tuition fees.

The new provisions also require the death penalty of immigrants living in the country who commit capital crimes and have established a new crime to enter Florida after they have illegally arrived in the United States. The new law did not require more businesses to use E-Verify, a system that checks workers’ legal status.

Alayne Unterberger, executive director of Tampa-based Florida Community Research Institute, said these new state laws are not only unnecessary, but could separate people from their families regardless of their legal status. I did.

Unterberger said many Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, have already been arrested by immigration enforcement agents. She said 40% of children in Hillsboro County public schools are Hispanic or Latino, and many struggle with mental health issues during the pandemic. The new laws, she said, simply adding to these issues, caused more problems later on.

“Florida had options, but we decided to create a crisis when nothing happened. The policy of asking employers to racial profiling while requiring electronic testing, real intentions instill fear, and massive “We send a clear signal that it’s about creating trauma,” she said. Immigration: “Regardless of legal status.”

According to the Pew Research Center, the nation’s largest unauthorized immigrant groups are in California (1.8 million), Texas (1.6 million), and Florida (1.2 million). Together, these states make up 41% of the country’s illicit population.

Florida ACLU’s Legislative Director and Senior Policy Advisor, Cara Gross, said Florida laws strain state relations with the immigrant community of their owned and tax-paying and tax payments, promoting a climate of “fear and mistrust” He said he is ready to do so.

“By implementing some of the most punitive immigration policies in the country, Florida is sending a clear message that the immigrant community is not welcome,” Gross said.

According to Gross, one of the most immediate and damaging effects of the law is the erosion of trust between immigrant communities and national institutions.

“The drastic nature of the law is necessarily the race and ethnicity that are perceived as immigrants based on skin color, voice accents, neighborhoods where they live, or restaurants and businesses they frequently go to. “It leads to profiling. ” she said.

Juana Rozano, a health outreach worker with the Florida Farmers Association, said the new law would cause more harm than the 2023 immigration bill, SB 1718.

Companies with 25 or more employees that require hospitals to report immigration status, block local identity programs for fraudulent immigration, cancel out-of-state licenses, criminalize immigration without legal status, hospitals need to report immigration status, and e-verify is now mandatory.

“We will soon realize that one of the biggest political mistakes is being made against the entire community,” Rozano said. “I’m really sad.”