TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off on immigration laws he says is the hardest within the nation, Florida’s Republican leaders have named the director of the brand new state board of immigration enforcement: an architect of the controversial effort to fly migrants from Texas to a Massachusetts resort city.
Lawmakers in Florida and different Republican-led states have been racing to pass new laws to assist President Donald Trump observe by means of on his guarantees of mass deportations.
Florida officers aren’t losing time implementing their new laws, which will increase penalties for crimes dedicated by immigrants within the nation with out authorized authorization and allocates practically $300 million towards beefing up state and native participation in federal immigration enforcement.
Right here’s what to find out about how Florida is implementing the brand new legal guidelines.
Florida’s new immigration legal guidelines imply more durable penalties
The 2 payments handed by Florida lawmakers and signed into legislation by DeSantis final week are geared toward maximizing state and native participation in federal immigration enforcement.
The laws will increase authorized penalties for immigrants within the nation with out authorization who commit crimes, together with mandating the demise penalty for many who are convicted of a capital offense reminiscent of first-degree homicide. The capital punishment provision alienated some Republicans and sparked criticism from Democrats and civil rights advocates who argued it seems to violate U.S. Supreme Court docket precedent.
The measures additionally create a brand new state crime of coming into Florida after coming to the nation with out authorized permission. And below the brand new laws, Florida college students who’re within the nation illegally will now not have the ability to qualify for in-state tuition at public faculties and universities.
Who’s main immigration enforcement in Florida?
On Monday, DeSantis and Florida’s Cupboard members held an emergency assembly to start their work because the state board of immigration enforcement, a brand new physique created by the laws. The Republican leaders chosen Larry Keefe to be the board’s government director.
A former federal prosecutor, Keefe was a driving drive behind the controversial taxpayer-funded effort in 2022 to fly about 50 migrants from San Antonio, Texas to Martha’s Winery — a transfer that outraged immigrant advocates, prompted a federal probe and is the topic of an ongoing class-action lawsuit.
“It is a excellent job,” Keefe informed the governor and Cupboard after they tapped him to go the board. “I’ll make you proud.”
Can Florida deport immigrants?
Florida lawmakers created the state’s migrant transport program again in 2022, setting apart $12 million to fund the trouble to fly immigrants out of state.
Final month, DeSantis referred to as lawmakers right into a particular session on immigration and pushed them to dramatically increase this system and allocate an extra $350 million — in addition to authorize state officers to deport immigrants overseas.
Related: Florida Immigration Laws Could Worsen Property Insurance Costs
DeSantis’ proposed laws detailed how the state division of corrections could be accountable for coordinating “transportation to the defendant’s nation of vacation spot” and guaranteeing “the defendant leaves the US.”
Finally legislative leaders tossed out DeSantis’ deportation proposal, as a substitute retooling the migrant transport program to specify that removals can solely be finished on the course of the federal authorities, “in line with federal legislation.”
The brand new package deal of laws comes with an total price ticket of $298 million, effectively in need of the $350 million the governor sought only for eradicating migrants from the state.
Talking on the assembly Monday, DeSantis stated he desires the state to play a muscular position in getting unauthorized immigrants overseas.
“Final time it was Martha’s Winery. This time perhaps Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” DeSantis stated. “I don’t know the way it’s going to shake out. I simply know that we’re going to be there and we’re going to be on the vanguard.”
Who’re state officers focusing on?
State leaders have despatched combined messages on who legislation enforcement officers will prioritize of their crackdown on immigrants within the nation illegally.
Chatting with reporters final week, Republican Senate President Ben Albritton stated the main target is on criminals and “dangerous individuals,” pushing again on considerations that in any other case law-abiding grandmothers or college students could possibly be focused.
DeSantis has referred to as for casting a broader internet. Earlier this month, DeSantis introduced a brand new settlement between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Florida Freeway Patrol that expands state officers’ means to interrogate, arrest and detain immigrants and perform “street-level enforcement.”
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.
Photograph: Ladies within the U.S. illegally and their kids hear as Nora Sandigo explains their authorized rights, in addition to choices to arrange their households in case a mother or father have been to be detained or deported, in Homestead in January. (AP Photograph/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
Copyright 2025 Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Subjects
Florida
An important insurance coverage information,in your inbox each enterprise day.
Get the insurance coverage business’s trusted publication
