TALHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — The state legislature is now at the halfway point of the 2025 legislative meeting, and as the end approaches, Tallahassee lawmakers are calling for immigration reform.
Before the legislative meeting began, lawmakers met three special sessions on immigration.
A key discussion in these sessions was whether states need to strengthen to verify workers’ citizenship through the federal system E-Verify. The conversation continues now.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republicans, and even some Democrats on the Capitol, all are calling for more stringent worker citizenship eligibility requirements.
Several bills have been introduced from Senators Jason Pizzo (D-Sunny Isles Beach), Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) and Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole).
This week, for the first time, one of them started moving.
The Bernie Jack House bill will require all private employers to use e-verify handed over from the first committee stop. But before receiving majority support, lawmakers and citizens shared concerns about the law, saying it would put an unnecessary deficit on small businesses.
“I’m looking specifically in my district on either side of the bay. Small businesses that may not know that may not get this. Why are we not punished?” said President Michele Rayner (D-St. Petersburg). “Are you open to the bounty era of education? Do you ensure that people who probably want to do the right thing will be punished for probably not knowing the law?”
If an employer fails to use the e-verify system, the bill will allow a 30-day non-compliance window. If the company does not continue to comply – fines will start to stack up.
“I think there’s a better way to do this. If we can postpone this and do more education on the front end, I think we’ll be in charge of Rayner’s points. “$1,000 a day, $1,000 can put the business down.”
Democrats say there is a better way to do this, but Republicans argue that these requirements are necessary to ensure that Florida jobs go to American workers to people who are not in breach of the Immigration Labor Act.
“They can go and become green card holders. They can have a work visa. They can be here with some kind of status. So, not just because you are an immigrant, you are not allowed to work. This is about fraudulent aliens. “If one of these individuals slips through the cracks and commits a crime or an accident and harms any of our own, that’s a problem. It’s a problem because it’s a preventable death. It’s a preventable accident if you simply enforce the law.”
