Governor quietly signs immigration, abortion laws

Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly signed into law Tuesday bills requiring parental consent for a minor to get an abortion and another that mandates governments and some businesses use E-Verify to check the immigration status of their workers.

The governor’s signature on two of the most controversial bills of the 2020 legislative session came without any comment or announcement. The news came after lawmakers who witnessed the signings went public.

The Florida Supreme Court struck down a similar abortion law that required parental consent in 1989, but the newly conservative majority on the court created by three DeSantis appointments led Republicans to push for a new bill this year. Florida voters in 2004 passed a constitutional amendment that led to a requirement for parents to be notified before minors have abortions but not give consent.

The bill passed along mostly party lines, with Democrats claiming a section of the bill allowing minors to request a judicial waiver was not practical.

“This law will put already atrisk young people in even greater danger at the worst possible time,” Stephanie Fraim, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, said in a statement. “What’s worse, it could open the door to a reinterpretation of our constitutional right to privacy and the right to a safe and legal abortion in Florida.”

Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said in a statement, “The serious and irrevocable decision to end a pregnancy involves undergoing a significant medical procedure that results, in many cases, in lifelong emotional and physical impacts. The parents of a minor child considering an abortion must be involved in such a substantial and permanent decision.‘’

The E-Verify bill, a priority for DeSantis, had long fallen short in the Legislature due to opposition from some business-friendly Republicans.

But it was watered down to require only public employers such as local school districts, public

universities and state agencies as well as their private contractors to use E-Verify, a system run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The system is aimed at discovering undocumented immigrants, but the agriculture business — which has long used undocumented workers as part of its workforce — is largely exempt.

Private employers are not mandated to use the system unless they have a contract with a public employer or they apply for taxpayer-funded incentives through the state Department of Economic Opportunity.

“During these stressful times, the last thing we need is to make it more difficult for Floridians to work and further compromise the health of our economy,” said Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. The result is that more employers will be utilizing — and more workers will be subject to — the error-prone E-Verify database that could result in hundreds of authorized workers being denied the ability to work without a meaningful avenue to seek redress.”

The governor signed the worker-verification bill into law at his Tallahassee office, joined by the measure’s GOP sponsors, Sen. Tom Lee and Rep. Cord Byrd.

The bill, which will go into effect Wednesday, was a major priority for DeSantis during the 2020 legislative session that ended in March.

“Given the high unemployment rate due to COVID-19, it is more important than ever to ensure that the state’s legal residents benefit from the jobs that become available as Florida continues to reopen in a safe and smart manner,” DeSantis’ spokeswoman Helen Ferré said in an email, when asked about EVerify.

DeSantis