The Florida Senate is considering a bill that would prohibit the transport of undocumented or illegal immigrants as part of a plan to stem the flow of migrants into the Sunshine State,
SB 1718 would make it a third-degree felony to drive someone living in the country illegally.
Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican senator for the 11th district, argues that this law if adopted, would put pressure on the federal government to “fix a broken immigration system.”
Ingoglia appeals to other states, such as Texas, to promote similar bills. “I want (migrant) families to be legal, and any time someone comes here and says they have family and friends who are in this country illegally, I blame the federal government. Because this is their fault,” said Ingoglia, whose district covers a largely rural area north of Tampa.
“Imagine taking a person to a doctor’s appointment or a priest helping a young couple in a church. They would be arrested,” said attorney Luis Martínez, from the Martinez & Associates law firm.
The measure in question worries both religious, lawyers, and homeowners because, in many cases, they would not know that someone they are helping is undocumented. “I don’t understand. I do not understand how a measure introduced by a legislator from north central Florida, where life is very different, has support in the south, ”he stated.
According to the Senate Rules committee report, Senators Ana María Rodríguez and Ileana García, who represent South Florida’s 39th and 36th districts, respectively, voted yes to move forward with the proposal.
Governor Ron DeSantis asked the state Congress to adopt measures to curb immigration to stop the millionaire spending that the presence of undocumented immigrants produces.
“Florida is not a sanctuary state and we will uphold the rule of law,” DeSantis warned. A very similar bill, HR 4437, was introduced in the nation’s Congress in late 2005 by Wisconsin representative James Sensenbrenner.
The law would have criminalized anyone who helps undocumented immigrants, just as SB 1718 would in Florida, but the bill died in the Senate after multiple protests across the country.
Some believe that the bill could be counterproductive for the governor since it would affect a number of voters in the state.
“Many of the immigrant communities in South Florida are, in fact, people who left leftist governments, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and here they have become quite conservative voters and are an important part of the Republican Party at the local and national level.”
Lisandro Pérez, a professor at John Jay College in New York, told NewsNation. “I think it will actually hurt DeSantis in some of the communities that he is counting on for support in a presidential election,” he warned
