State legislators unlikely to deal with immigration reform in 2012 session

tcpalm.com
By Jonathan Mattise
Posted December 4, 2011 at 7:26 p.m.

With budget and redistricting drama sure to clog up the 2012 state lawmaking session, Rep. William Snyder thinks the Florida Legislature's best chance to enact immigration reform might have come and gone with his bill's demise last May.

Since state immigration reform efforts flopped in the 2011 session's waning days, Senate and House leadership have stuck to their holding patterns. Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, maintains his chamber's bill, which did not include an employment verification requirement, would be a strong step forward. On the House side, chamber leadership contends the E-Verify component was crucial to make reform efforts meaningful.

"I don't think they fully addressed the issue in the way that the majority of Floridians wanted it addressed," Snyder said.

The bill Haridopolos' chamber passed would have cut off illegal immigrants from state benefits, allowed law enforcement to deport convicted criminals here illegally and required checking the legal status of job seekers at state career centers. Haridopolos said he wants to pass it again.

"I would hope the House would join us in that common sense effort and pass that early in the session," Haridopolos said. "I believe we'll pass a bill similar to that this year, and hopefully, the House will take it up."

Snyder said the House is ready with its immigration bill from last session, if the Senate can file something that works for his chamber.

With about a month before the session's Jan. 10 start, no immigration bills have been filed in either chamber and the Legislature already has a full plate of priorities.

The once-a-decade requirement to redraw congressional and state district lines is expected to extend deep in session and into overtime, in the likelihood that the Florida Supreme Court has to clear the new maps. The process also leads up to an uncertain election year where candidates won't be as familiar with their new districts.

Lawmakers also face an almost $2 billion shortfall in crafting next year's budget, which they're constitutionally bound to finish during session.

Because of politics and time constraints, that likely leaves little chance for a tumultuous topic like immigration reform to move forward.

"(House Speaker Dean Cannon) is setting a clear tone that, because of redistricting and because of a bleak budget picture, we have very limited opportunity to vet and vote on controversial issues, such as immigration," Snyder said.

"The Speaker agrees — the time to pass comprehensive immigration was last year. We had the time, the House had the political will, we moved the bill early in the process. Senate waited until the last minute."

During immigration debates spearheaded by Snyder, the Capitol's halls and committee rooms teemed with praying and chanting protesters last session. What resounded even louder for many lawmakers, however, was vehement opposition from top business lobbies like the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Snyder's bill called for all employers to check new hires' legal status and allowed law enforcement to look into the legal residency of anyone who is a suspected criminal. But it never reached the House floor for a vote after the Senate passed a bill with neither of the House's two key provisions.

In the Senate, an amendment that required checking new workers' status with E-Verify died on the floor. But the remaining provisions passed, and Haridopolos said they still make for a strong bill on their own.

Snyder said the Judiciary Committee he chairs will largely focus on rewriting Florida's human trafficking law, which he said is a top priority of Attorney General Pam Bondi. There are two different bills about trafficking, Snyder said, and his committee would combine them into one proposal that models state penalties more closely after federal guidelines.

The bill would also focus on victim rights, and bring the same amount of attention to trafficking for labor purposes as sex trafficking warrants.

The committee plans to have a workshop on the issue during the final committee week, which starts Monday.

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