DeSantis signs bills intended to drive undocumented immigrants out of Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis stages a press conference in Winter Haven on March 15, 2024. Source: Screenshot/DeSantis Facebook

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Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Friday designed to make it harder for undocumented immigrants to live in the state — thereby, he said, possibly deterring them from coming here.

The measures include driving without a license, “non-official ID cards,” and bumping up certain criminal penalties, all to highlight immigration restrictions just days before the state’s Republican presidential preference primary. (There’s no Democratic primary on Tuesday.)

DeSantis staged the press conference before a friendly crowd at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Central Florida. Keep in mind that DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ryan L. Binkley are still on the Florida ballot though they’ve dropped out of the race. But Donald Trump is the only major Republican who hasn’t suspended his campaign.

Backing DeSantis Friday were Sheriff Grady Judd, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, and Attorney General Ashley Moody. The event had all the hallmarks of a political rally, including attacks on President Joe Biden for allegedly intentionally refusing to police the U.S. Mexico border. None mentioned the bipartisan border control bill that Congressional Republicans have refused to vote on because Trump told them not to, to preserve immigration as a campaign issue this fall.

Also there were state Rep. Kiyan Michael, a Duval County Republican who lost her son Brandon, to a 2007 auto accident blamed on an undocumented immigrant who’d already been deported twice and who was driving without a license; and Nikki Jones, who lost her husband under similar circumstances in 2019. Like the other participants, Jones stressed that immigrants threaten public safety through what she called “illegal alien crime.”

The bills DeSantis signed underscored that theory. HB 1589, for example, doesn’t mention migrants specifically but imposes a mandatory 10-day jail sentence for a third or subsequent conviction for driving without a license or with a license that has been suspended, cancelled, or revoked.

“One of the biggest deterrents we can do for illegal immigration is to make sure people that are doing that are facing serious consequences,” DeSantis said.

“You come here, you’re not getting a license. We’re not recognizing your California license that you may have gotten in a sanctuary state,” he said.

He also signed SB 1036, bumping criminal penalties for people who commit felonies after having been deported and returning to the United States or who are found to be members of “transnational crime organization,” defined as “an organization that routinely facilitates the international trafficking of drugs, humans, or weapons or the international smuggling of humans.”

For example, aggravated assault is now a felony of the third degree, punishable by up to five years in prison and fines of up to $5,000; after the new law takes effect on Oct. 1 the crime would bring up to 15 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. The most serious crimes, first-degree felonies, now worth up to 30 years in prison and $10,000 in fines, would bring 30 years to life behind bars.

“We are throwing the book at you, and you are going to regret coming to the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.

Identification

One of the bills, HB 1451, prohibits the state and local governments from recognizing non-official ID cards sometimes issued by community groups to provide people lacking official ID with at least one way to establish their identities.

Last year’s heavily restrictive immigration legislation had already stopped local governments from financing these documents but Legal Aid nonprofits in counties including Broward and Palm Beach issue them for a fee of $20-25 to people with other picture IDs such as passports and proof of residence in the county.

Unhoused people also use these community IDs and would be affected by the new law, which Michael sponsored.

Vanessa Coe, managing attorney for the community ID program at the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, said she plans to continue issuing the cards notwithstanding the new law.

“People who get community ID cards are largely using them for other reasons, things that are a little more accessible, like being able to enter a gated community or pick up a prescription,” Coe said in a phone interview. “So, this decision [to sign the new law], while it is unfortunate, is not the end of our programs throughout Florida.”

She continued: “I think it’s a big waste of our government’s time to be focusing on something so small, but that is where they’re at, apparently.”

Coe emphasized the human stakes.

“A lot of folks cannot conceptualize just how desperately someone might need that level of identification to just exist, and I’m happy for people who aren’t in that situation, who can access everything with whatever ID card they have,” she said. “But for those who cannot, they’re struggling, and this is a very basic tool that they can use to just exist a little bit easier.

“So, I think it is just mean for anybody to sit there and think that this is somehow taking advantage of our system, or our government, or our country.”

Surveillance

Finally, DeSantis praised the Legislature for passing a resolution urging Congress to designate drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

Last year’s immigration bill — a sweeping blow at the ability of undocumented immigrants to live and work in Florida, passed when DeSantis was still planning his presidential run — increased penalties for businesses employing them; required harvesting of DNA samples from immigrants who get arrested and forwarding of their information to immigration enforcement; established a “Domestic Security Oversight Council” to pursue immigration crime and terrorism; and pumped another $12 million into DeSantis program rounding up migrants out of state for transport to “sanctuary” states before they could move to Florida, and more.

DeSantis started those flights in 2022, while still running for reelection as governor.

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