TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Legislature is going back to Tallahassee starting Tuesday to make changes to recently-passed — and contentious — legislation to crack down on undocumented immigrants.
Republican legislative leaders said they’ve had productive discussions with Gov. DeSantis and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
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“We are building on the technical assistance from the White House to advance and implement strong policies and provide critical resources to support President Trump’s efforts to combat illegal immigration efficiently and effectively," according to a memorandum released by House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton.
Lawmakers will be asked to vote on three bills.
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HB-1C is the main bill. It creates a state board of immigration enforcement that is made up of the Florida Cabinet. All decisions must be approved unanimously. This is a departure from the bill the legislature approved last month, which made the agriculture commissioner the statewide immigration officer.
The bill also gives $250 million for a grant program to help pay for law enforcement officers involved in Homeland Security immigration operations, and gives the Florida Department of Agriculture funding to hire additional law enforcement to support interdiction activities. The state also will build a new station along the I-10 corridor in North Florida to curb illegal immigration activities.
The bill keeps some of the other provisions of the bills approved last month, like improving coordination with ICE, keeping undocumented immigrants accused of crimes in jail, and creating a state immigration enforcement council that will be led by local law enforcement agencies.
The bill also creates a new program to transport undocumented migrants, but it will only be done at the direction of the federal government, and the state must be fully reimbursed.
Meanwhile, HB-3C creates state-level crimes for “illegally entering or reentering the state,” and makes the death penalty mandatory for undocumented immigrants convicted of murder or child rape.
HB-5C urges more guidance, training and other necessary directives from the Department of Homeland Security.
You can read summaries of all of the bills HERE.
The bills have not yet officially appeared on the state websites. The new special session ends at noon on Friday.
DeSantis called the January special session to deal with illegal immigration and other issues, but Albritton and Perez produced their own bills which generally stripped DeSantis of immigration enforcement power and put it in Simpson’s hands.
That has led to days of threats from DeSantis to veto the bills, which are meant to help President Trump’s agenda.
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