Thread: FL Passes Plan Outlawing Human Snuggling

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 3398.story

Lawmakers pass plan to outlaw human smuggling
By Tonya Alanez | Tallahassee Bureau
1:03 PM EDT, April 28, 2009
TALLAHASSEE - In an effort to crack down on human-smuggling operations in Florida, lawmakers on Tuesday created a state statute that would outlaw such activities and give local law enforcement arrest powers.

Senators on Tuesday unanimously passed a law that would make human smuggling a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail for each person smuggled.

The new state law is aimed to serving as a deterrent preventing tragedies at shore and sea where numerous Haitians, Bahamians and Cubans, bound for the United States drown each year.

"Florida's shores have long been used by smugglers," said Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland. Her bill, SB 502, is an attempt, she said, to help "unfortunate refugees who are thrown into Florida's waters by criminal smugglers."

More on Legislature unanimously passes plan to create state law against human smuggling House Bill 123, sponsored by Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, passed unanimously in the House Friday.

"We have so much coastline and we're a destination point for smugglers," Snyder said. "So this bill makes perfect sense."

But immigration advocates have expressed concern that the new state law is so broad that anyone driving in a car with undocumented immigrants could be arrested.

"First of all, legally, the state doesn't have a right to do this. It's a federal issue," said Randy McGrorty, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities Legal Service in Miami. "I really think in many ways it's a cover for anti-immigrant people to make political points and that they're not serious about the issue."

Up to now, human-smuggling cases had been handled on the federal level with local law enforcement only able to detain suspects until federal authorities arrived.

State law had prohibited only human trafficking -- defined as recruitment and/or transportation of migrants into the country through coercion or fraud for exploitation -- but not human smuggling, which is considered a consensual transaction.

The new state law would take effect Oct. 1 and would give local law enforcement on-scene arrest powers, allow them to obtain witness statements and preserve crime-scene evidence.

This is 2009 and just getting human smuggling laws. LOL

I don't know how long it will stay on the books due to offending the Cubans. Years ago they all used to risk their lives and come on rafts. Those days are long gone and they are almost all smuggled in now on go fast boats. They get brought in and reunited with relatives then after that they show up on a beach like they just got here. You seldom even see a boat because it is staged in the majority of the cases.

Thanks, swatchick! That is a priceless typo and do not change it! I started to wonder if they were dumb enough to outlaw parental snuggling with the kids on the couch.
Florida is getting more sane as with their hundreds of miles of unpatrolled borders, and hundreds of tiny airport runways from the drug smuggling days still existing in rural areas. There was such a tiny airstrip in Rotonda, (outside of Port Charlotte) before they began developing. And about five years ago, I went with a friend to Steinhatchee, and we also explored Jena, right across the river in Dixie County. We drove for a few miles down the Road to Nowhere, perfectly paved straight through marsh land and perfect for landing small planes. And the company I worked for in Ft. Myers owned a lot of undeveloped land on Pine Island which was waterfront and while the property was fenced and gated, the gate was continually crashed through, undoubtedly to meet boats with drugs or illegals. We also had a renter on a waterfront property home that paid in cash and had his large go-fast boats on the deep-water dock, paying in cash religiously every month--until he was arrested for drug smuggling.
I feel Fla. going Dem in voting is an aberration.

I have had an illegal tell me why walk when you can fly.

"I went with a friend to Steinhatchee..."

Ah, Steinhatchee, where the favorite cash crop are catching those square groupers!

Tallahassee is still a liberal place for government. It's just that most state reps have been elected republican for a while now and most are not the rino type or follow the mistakes of the national party. Many are actually looking out for the citizens of this state.