More than 200 laws and regulations passed by the state Legislature and endorsed by him Governor Ron DeSantis They entered into force in Florida from this Saturday, July 1. The legislative package has put the Florida state, the third most populous in the country, in the focus of national attention and not exactly with encouraging looks.
This is a shock that will impact numerous spheres of economic, social, educational and family events in Florida, converted into a laboratory of extreme conservatism that could generate dire consequences for institutional functioning, the exercise of civic liberties and public coexistence. in the territory.
The laws range from right of citizens to bear arms without having to declare it and the use of public bathrooms only according to the sex of birth until the prohibition for the purchase of properties in “frozen zones” of the state for citizens of certain countries, with an unnecessary limitation for Cuba that actually ends up affecting Cubans residing in third parties. countries, because 62 years ago the embargo prevented those transactions from those based on the island.
But the main piece of controversy is the so-called Florida Immigration Law (SB1718)the most severe proposal in restrictions and sanctions against the undocumented that has been imposed in the American nation in more than two decades.
The list of restrictive clauses is as extensive as it is dangerous for the rights and well-being of each individual in the state and -as expected- just hours after its activation, powerful organizations have announced that they will challenge it with a lawsuit in federal courts. due to its unconstitutional nature.
The lawsuit will be led by the Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans for Immigrant Justice and the American Immigration Councilon behalf of the Florida Farm Workers Association.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people are on the streets this weekend in Tallahassee, Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville and Miami to protest the legislation.
Who does this legislation affect? Is it just a primer on persecution against undocumented immigrants or does it have consequences for other citizens legally established in the state? Does it have implications for newly arrived Cubans who choose to live in Florida?
A simple review of the document is enough to realize that this law can impact all of us in some way, and the consequences will be seen more quickly than we think.
For now, for weeks hundreds of families and agricultural and construction workers have been stampeding from the state for fear of the announced regulations, and the chain of stumbling blocks for economic and productive development in daily events is going to hit equally pockets and common sense.
Businesses with more than 25 employees will be required to comply with the federal E-Verify system., which determines the individuals who can legally work in the United States. Employers who fail to do so face various penalties, including possible revocation of their employer license.
State and local government entities will be prohibited from doing business with companies that transport “unauthorized aliens” to Florida, unless they are being transferred to facilitate the “detention, removal, or departure of the person from this state or the United States.” So airlines, bus companies and independent contractors can continue to move undocumented immigrants within the state on behalf of the federal government, but could risk losing a state or local contract.
The mobility of undocumented immigrants by their own means will also be affected, since may use licenses issued in other states if they are going to drive in Florida, and if they cannot prove that the permit was obtained with legal status in another state, they will be prohibited from operating vehicles in this state.
Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia have regulations that allow the issuance of driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, but DeSantis’ commanding officers will not recognize them.
Permanent residents or US citizens who protect, conceal or travel in the same vehicle with an undocumented person, may be charged with a third degree felony and face sentences of between five and 15 years in prison. So, if a family member or acquaintance calls you that they arrived in the state through irregular routes, by sea or by land, and they have not registered with the authorities, then think twice before giving them your first hug.
And, almost nothing: Hospitals with patients enrolled in the Medicaid program will have to include a question about immigration status on intake formsand make quarterly reports to the Florida Department of Health with details of the number of patients in each category who received emergency care or who were admitted.
It is estimated that some 770 undocumented immigrants reside in Florida, considered in this category those people who did not have any type of registration or admission when entering the United States. In the case of Cuban immigrants who arrived through the southern border or made landfall through the Florida Keys and received a document, be it I-220A, I-220B or parole, they would not be subject to this legislation. but it does count another group of Cubans, who oscillate between 8,000 or 10,000 people, that they would be in the state without having registered when they arrived in the country, and remain in total limbo.
With these compulsive ingredients for the hunt for the undocumented, it will be understood the state of panic that the legislation has unleashed in immigrant communities, as well as the prudent containment that employers and citizens in general are reflecting in the face of a completely unprecedented panorama.
The battle is barely opening the floodgates, but the effect of the mere enactment of the law is being felt in sectors such as agricultural work, construction labor, services in cafeterias and restaurants, moving businesses and the whole panorama of operations where the strength of the immigrants is decisive.
The lawyer has expressed it clearly Kate Melloy Goettel, Legal Director of Litigation at the American Immigration Council: “Florida’s anti-immigrant law perpetuates harmful stereotypes and fosters an environment of fear and hostility. This misguided legislation not only targets immigrants and their families, but also jeopardizes the fabric of Florida communities as well as the state’s economy.”
The context of political tensions and legal disputes in which the implementation of the Florida Immigration Law and the rest of the scaffolding of regulations promoted by a state Legislature in which its Cuban-American members have mostly given their vote to draconian proposals cannot be ignored. , forgetting their own origins.
Florida is also the scene of bitter lawsuits, in the style of the DeSantis vs. Disney case; forced flights of immigrants under questionable legality; absurd book bans that include works by literary luminaries such as Toni Morrison y Margaret Atwood, and biographies about the baseball star Robert Clement; and ridiculous anthologies like the expulsion of teacher Hope Carrasquilla from a Tallahassee school for showing her students Michelangelo’s David in a Renaissance art class.
In the background of these outbursts and legal ramblings are the DeSantis Presidential Aspirations, determined to win the support of a band of voters affiliated with extreme conservatism and who claim to defend freedoms and rights while suppressing the voices of plurality and the legitimate exercise of difference.
The Immigration Law and the other statutes that can already be applied from dawn this Saturday in Florida now face their true test outside the halls of Tallahassee: the pure and hard reality in each community.
We will soon know if they will serve to make the promising Sunshine State work better and favor the lives of its residents, which is the premise of well-being and citizen harmony, or prolong the daily problems that continue to remain in no one’s jurisdiction.
