TALHASSEE – Gov. Ron DeSantis Thursday brings two broad immigration bills to lead a wave of new requirements aimed at President Donald Trump to be properly positioned to help identify and support immigrants. I signed the law. Illegal country.
“The whole thing about this bill was designed to help the Trump administration with their plans,” said Sen. Randy Fein, a Melbourne Republican who co-hosted the Senate bill.
The bill’s provisions, written after the governor threatened to reject various immigration laws passed last month, will strengthen individual criminal penalties based on the immigration situation and provide information on detainees to local law enforcement agencies. Share with federal immigration officials and require that Desantis be permitted. Supports immigration and customs enforcement in the possibility of deportation efforts.
The new requirements will be price tagged to implement different aspects of the state’s immigration enforcement efforts to implement different aspects of the state’s immigration enforcement efforts. Sharing county and state detention beds with ice.
“Today, Florida Legislature has passed the most powerful law to combat illegal immigration in every state across the country,” DeSantis said to enthusiastically enforce new Florida laws just before signing the bill. I promised.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s changing in Florida.
Strengthening criminal penalties based on immigration situations
Florida creates new state-level crimes for immigrants who are illegally in the country and immigrants who come to the state.
To be charged with a new offence, an individual must be 18 years of age or older, and law enforcement must certify that he “willfully” or attempted to enroll in Florida. by immigration officers. ”
If convicted, they will face a nine-month forced sentence behind the bar.
Democrats and representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida feared this week that new national crimes will lead to the arrest of immigrants in countries that have not committed crimes, and that their arrests could be the result of the He said he is doing so. Racial profiling.
Local law enforcement officers face challenges when carrying out new state crimes, according to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, voice of Tallahassee’s influential law enforcement agency. It will.
The new measures will also intensify all misdemeanor crimes committed by people in the country illegally. It applies to misdemeanor crimes such as driving without a license or partying small-scale home drug and alcohol-consuming homes.
Illegal and forced death penalties for domestic immigrants
Under the bill, immigrants who are illegally present in the country for capital felonies such as murder and sexual abuse of young children must be sentenced to death, remove the discretion of the jury and challenge existing constitutional precedents. there is.
This provision is almost certain to face legal challenges. In the 1970s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that forced sentences were unconstitutional because ju judges deprived the ju judges of their ability to consider on an individual basis.
Senators in Melbourne recently said the death penalty requirement was a priority. Trump recently signed an executive order calling for federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for “capital crimes committed by foreigners illegally present in the country.”
Trump’s order leaves the ju judges’ ability to consider exacerbating and reducing the factors behind the trial. The Congress’ proposal is not the case.
More cooperation with ICE at the local level
Local law enforcement agencies must notify ICE if they illegally detain immigrants in the country and provide known information about detainees, including photographs and fingerprints.
Florida sheriffs and top corrections officers must provide information about the immigration status of each inmate when a federal immigration agency requests information.
The new bill also requires that all Florida sheriffs and top corrections officers register with the federal immigration program known as 287G by April 1. Under that program, correctional officers are trained to perform some of the functions of federal immigration agents. their detention facility. This includes interrogation and investigation of detainee immigration status.
Florida law already requires local law enforcement to retain immigrants who have been detained for up to 48 hours when federal immigration agents send requests for a particular individual detainee. Masu. However, the new bill would make it easier to detain immigrants within the country for long periods of illegally detaining immigrants.
Some sheriffs publicly said last year that playing an active role in immigration enforcement is offensive, citing issues of trust in the communities they are tasked with protecting. The new bill will create some exceptions for victims of crime, but Republican lawmakers and DeSantis say their goal is to stop all immigrants who have come illegally to the country from coming to the state. He repeatedly states that there is.
Abolish tuition benefits in the state
Students who live in Florida illegally in the country will no longer be able to reduce their tuition fees at public universities and universities in the state.
Democrats and several Miami Republicans wanted to continue providing in-state tuition fees to such students who have been in schools for the next four years, but the majority of Republicans agree with the effort. I did.
This means that from July 1st, students living illegally in this country will no longer have access to their interests. Students who have enrolled in school will need to be reevaluated for eligibility at that time.
Desantis requires permission to transport immigrants
The governor has no one-sided authority to transport immigrants anywhere in the country under the program he once used to fly immigrants from Texas to Martha’s vineyards and California.
Currently, Desantis must obtain permission from US immigration and customs enforcement before doing anything with the program. Transportation efforts must also be reimbursed by the federal government and under ICE’s “direct control and supervision.”
The Desantis office has declared the changes to be an extension of the program. This will allow Florida to deport immigrants if they have ICE requests and payments.
If the federal government wants the state to help deport the country, the fines said it has the tools to do so.
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Reporter Romy Ellenbogen contributed to this report.
