Immigration: Florida’s draconian bill
“How extreme can Ron DeSantis get?” asked Marcela García in The Boston Globe. The Republican Florida governor’s new immigration bill—expected to sail through the Republicandominated state legislature in the coming weeks— proves “there is no low he won’t sink to.” The bill would make it a felony to hire, rent an apartment to, or even give a ride to any of the state’s estimated 900,000 undocumented immigrants, punishable by up to five years in prison. It would also require hospitals to collect patients’ immigration status to track the costs of providing health care to them. And “what if you didn’t know the person you’re transporting, harboring, or concealing came to the country illegally? It doesn’t matter.” Any Floridian who “reasonably should have known” the person’s immigration status could be charged with a crime. As he runs for president, DeSantis’ “show me your papers” bill is providing “a terrifying blueprint for the country.”
“The worst part is that there’s not a needed policy outcome Florida Republicans are trying to achieve,” said Tim Miller in The Bulwark. Florida is not a border state, and it has massive labor shortages. Undocumented immigrants are filling needed jobs in agriculture, construction, child care, and elder care. DeSantis is targeting not just hardworking migrants but any citizen who invites them home for a meal or helps them in any tangible way. Does that include lawyers who represent them, or a homeowner who hires them as gardeners, or soup kitchens who feed them, or priests and ministers who have them in their congregations? The bill’s “sum effect” would be devastating, said Zeeshan Aleem in MSNBC. It would trigger “a wave of suspicion and severance of social ties from landlords, employers, colleagues, lawyers, roommates, and neighbors.”
The deeper problem is that the Republican base “prefers bullies to thoughtful leaders,” said the
Los Angeles Times in an editorial. DeSantis has decided that “the key to winning the White House” is bullying immigrants and LGBTQ people to win over MAGA voters. The price of that ambition could be to “turn good Samaritans or even family members into criminals.” In mixed-status households, U.S.-born children could be criminalized for driving their undocumented parents to work or the doctor. DeSantis doesn’t realize that “demonizing hundreds of thousands of his own residents doesn’t make him look presidential.” It makes him look like “a tyrant in training.”