Tallahassee.— Led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has presidential ambitions, the Florida Legislature is considering a comprehensive package of immigration measures that could be the toughest on undocumented immigration in any state in more than one decade.
The measures are expected to pass in weeks because Republicans have supermajorities in both Houses; The proposals are part of what DeSantis describes as a response to President Biden’s “open borders agenda,” which he says has allowed an uncontrollable flow of immigrants crossing into the United States from Mexico.
The proposals could expose people to criminal charges for harboring, hiring and transporting undocumented immigrants; they also require hospitals to ask patients for their immigration status and report it to the state, invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants, prevent undocumented immigrants from being admitted to a Florida bar, and instruct the Police Department Florida to help federal authorities enforce the country’s immigration laws.
DeSantis has also proposed eliminating the in-state tuition cut for undocumented students and Obama-era DACA recipients who were brought to the country as children.
The tuition law was signed into law in 2014 by his predecessor Rick Scott, who is currently a Republican United States Senator.
The new measures represent the most far-reaching state immigration legislation since 2010, when Arizona, a border state that was the nation’s busiest corridor for human smuggling at the time, passed a law requiring police to apply to people to withhold proof of their immigration status if they suspect they may be in the country illegally.
