In particular, the Republican governor and Republican legislators are at odds over their response to Trump’s mass deportation plan.
“In a rare scolding of a governor whose policies they have previously enthusiastically enacted, the Republican-led Florida Legislature on Monday closed the special session on illegal immigration requested by Gov. Ron DeSantis within minutes of opening it, rejecting his proposals,” The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper reported.
The legislature passed its “Trump Act” – Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy – on Tuesday but not with enough votes to override DeSantis’ promised veto.
DeSantis has criticized the bill as not going far enough to fight against illegal immigration.
For DeSantis, there are only few sticking points but they are glaring problems that don't deserve his pen. For one, the new bill moves state-level immigration enforcement and coordination with federal immigration officials to the office of Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. That change makes Simpson the state's chief immigration officer, which does not sit well with the Florida governor who wants a separate post.
The bill also does not include DeSantis’ request that state law enforcement comply with federal officials or face heavy penalties.
Trump will not succeed in his mass deportation plan “if state and local governments are not actively assisting his agencies in removal of illegal aliens," DeSantis told American Family Radio Thursday.
"My proposal," he continued, "would actually leverage his executive orders where they want state and local to be deputized."
Florida is bell peppers, not just beaches
DeSantis told show host Jenna Ellis the Florida legislature showed no urgency to deal with illegal immigration and responded with a “weak product” inspired by the desire for cheap labor on Florida's farms and agricultural facilities.
Known best for its sandy white beaches and tourism industry, Florida also uses more than 9 million acres to grow Valencia oranges, watermelons, bell peppers, grapefruit, and more. Someone, of course, has to pick it.
“The bill the legislature did mentions agriculture over 30 times. It mentions deport zero times,” DeSantis said. “At the end of the day, they don’t want to deport illegal aliens. In fact, they want to curtail the ability of state agencies.”
The legislature’s goal, DeSantis said, is to limit any communication with federal immigration authorities to Simpson, a bottleneck the Governor warns would stop enforcement.
“Seriously, that’s like the fox guarding the hen house. Agriculture has used foreign illegal labor. That’s just the reality. Not every farm in Florida is doing it, probably not even most,” DeSantis said. “Throughout the country, this has been an issue.”
The legislature’s proposed bill creates a lack of oversight, DeSantis says.
“If you busted illegal laborers, they’d have to go to the agriculture commissioner to get approval to turn them over to immigration authorities," he told AFR. "Well, he may not give that approval.”
GOP leaders say DeSantis is lying
DeSantis on Monday wrote on X that the legislature’s bill “fails to put an enforceable duty on state and local law enforcement to fully cooperate on illegal immigration enforcement.”
In a move against the Governor, the GOP-led legislature struck back.
In a joint statement Florida Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez said the governor’s comment “is a blatant lie about Florida law enforcement officers who are on the front lines protecting our communities from criminal illegal immigrants each and every day.”
They continued, “Law enforcement is our partner, not our enemy. It’s no wonder the governor’s proposal included criminal penalties for law enforcement. His statement clearly suggests he doesn’t trust the boots on the ground, but we do.”
Some in the Senate have argued that empowering the Commissioner of Agriculture is important because DeSantis just has two years remaining in office.
Simpson has six years left in an office that was previously held by a Democrat.
DeSantis predictably refutes those claims.
“They want to rein in our enforcement efforts. They want less enforcement. This is not a debate about we just have different approaches to reach the same goal. We have different values. I want to remove illegal aliens consistent with President Trump's mandate. They do not,” he said.
The legislature’s proposed bill signals their intentions in other ways, DeSantis said, noting that it would terminate the immigration state of emergency he has declared for Florida.
That would ground state patrol boats in place to stop migrant boats coming from Haiti.
Sanctuary State of Florida?
“It would make Florida a de facto sanctuary state. If you’re so interested in getting this job done why are you terminating programs I’ve been doing to fight illegal aliens in Florida?” DeSantis asked.
The Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are in agreement that the proposed bill would stymie law enforcement efforts, DeSantis said.
In this rare public tiff between a popular Republican governor and a Republican-controlled legislature, Florida citizens have lined up with the governor’s office, DeSantis said.
“I have never seen a more uniform response from our grassroots in favor of what we're trying to do and opposed to what the legislature is trying to do. They have gotten a hugely negative response for this. It’s a bad piece of legislation,” DeSantis said.
