Florida Republicans push Trump-style immigration bills
Alexandra Glorioso Published 12:59 p.m. ET March 19, 2017 | Updated 5 hours ago
TALLAHASSEE — Emboldened by President Donald Trump, conservative Florida lawmakers are backing bills that target undocumented immigrants and some refugees by denying in-state tuition, forcing local governments to assist immigration authorities and requiring employers to make sure they only hire legal residents.
Many of the bills have been offered in past legislative sessions, but some Republicans now say Trump’s Florida victory shows how a hardline immigration stance can be a positive even in the Hispanic-heavy Sunshine State. And it could draw more conservative voters to the polls.
“It’s not that Trump changed the constituency’s mindset. Trump just tapped into those voters,” said Rep. Carlos Trujillo, a Miami Republican who added that “before Trump came onto the scene, there have been lawmakers championing these issues.”
Immigration advocates say two of the seven bills they’re watching most closely this session were first filed after Trump began his presidential campaign in June 2015. One of these bills has a House companion for the first time.
Rep. Larry Metz said he was more hopeful his legislation, which is more severe than the first time it was filed, would pass this year because of the political climate that Trump has created.
“I think there’s more appetite for enforcement of the rule of law than there was a few years ago, and willingness to support that now has increased relative to previously,” said Metz, R-Yahala.
The seven immigration bills offered this year would upgrade penalties for violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants; strip five years of state funding for local governments that don’t comply with federal immigration authorities and fine them up to $5,000 a day; make re-entry into the United States by undocumented immigrants a third-degree felony; repeal previous legislation supported by Gov. Rick Scott that gave in-state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants; increase background checks on refugees; end the state’s participation in a refugee resettlement program; and require employers to make sure employees are documented.
At the start of the year, Senate President Joe Negron publicly supported legislation that creates harsher penalties for violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
“I do think that some enhanced penalties are appropriate in that circumstance,” said Negron, R-Stuart.
Despite Negron’s support, the Senate has traditionally been the death chamber for hardline immigration proposals that often originate in the more conservative House. In 2011, for instance, a proposal to bring a “papers please” Arizona-style immigration bill faltered in the Senate amid outcry from agricultural interests, Catholic bishops and immigrant families who argued the legislation legalized racial profiling. It was also eventually weakened in Arizona.
The next year Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was defeated by Barack Obama, who won a historic share of the Latino vote — a feat political pundits and immigration advocates chalked up to the GOP nominee’s vocal support of “self-deportation” for immigrants. In 2014, Scott — who had campaigned on passing an Arizona-style immigration bill in 2010 — signed the bill giving undocumented immigrants known as “DREAMers” in-state college tuition rates.
Then came Trump and his openly hostile rhetoric and actions against undocumented immigrants. Today, no immigrants are protesting in the state Capitol. There is nary a notice from the special interests who banded together to kill the hardline proposal in 2011, even though many state leaders are financially preparing to run for higher office.
Trump has signed sweeping executive orders that seek to achieve many of the same policies state lawmakers are pushing. His policies punish local governments known as sanctuary cities that don’t comply with federal immigration officials and ban refugees from six countries with high Muslim populations.
Federal judges have blocked Trump's temporary travel bans while they consider if they unconstitutionally discriminate on the basis of religion.
Advocates are making the case that Trump's policies are encouraging Republican lawmakers around the country to file bills that unconstitutionally discriminate, including the bill by Metz that would penalize sanctuary cities on the state level.
“This bill ultimately can’t be enforced without legalizing racial profiling,” said Francesca Menes, a Democrat and the policy director for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, during a House criminal justice subcommittee last week before the bill passed. “Because how do you know (the immigrants) are actually undocumented without targeting particular communities that are the most vulnerable?”
Menes said the state couldn’t force local governments to comply with federal immigration officials and that some cities around the country are suing Trump's administration over its threat to strip funding if they don't cooperate.
“As the Trump administration has come in, Republican elected officials throughout the country feel emboldened to introduce laws that are clearly unconstitutional,” Menes said later in an interview. “Texas filed a version of the sanctuary cities bill following the national conversation.”
But Metz defended his legislation, saying it has language that prohibits racial profiling. Menes and other advocates are taking the legal argument too far, Metz said.
“We’re not creating any immigration standards that are separate and apart from the federal immigration laws. We’re trying to bolster that system with state cooperation,” Metz said.
Similar legislation has also been filed in Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, Iowa, Idaho and Pennsylvania. Trump won all of these states.
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