Immigration bills draw backlash over death penalty, repeal of in-state tuition

The Florida Legislature was poised Wednesday to pass what Gov. Ron DeSantis is hailing as the strongest legislation to combat undocumented immigration in the country after House and Senate committees voted to approve a package of bills to that end.

Those were the only committee tests for the legislation before a scheduled floor vote on Thursday in the third special session in the past month to address the issue following a dispute between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican legislative leaders, which appears to be mellowing out.

Democrats and members of the public raised several objections to the legislation, one of them the constitutionality of language making any “unauthorized alien” subject to the death penalty if found guilty of a capital offense, such as murder or rape of a minor, as well as the repeal of in-state tuition rates for Dreamers.

The bills cleared the respective budget committees mostly along party lines, with one Republican joining Democrats in opposition to the death penalty provision.

Death penalty provision is on constitutionally shaky ground

Clay County Republican Sam Garrison, sponsor of one of the House immigration bills, acknowledged that the death penalty measure would “obviously be litigated.”

The Senate bill analysis of the legislation (SB 4-C) explicitly warns that the U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled similar statutes to be unconstitutional. The analysis says: “Although there was a time when states had ‘mandatory death sentence’ laws, the Court has found such laws unconstitutional.”

Republicans have said that the immigration package is necessary to fulfill President Donald Trump’s promise to enact mass deportations of migrants, as well as for the safety of lawful Floridians.

South Florida Democratic Rep. Marie Woodson, who immigrated legally from Haiti, said she has no problem with legislation targeting criminals but that the state should not crack down on “hard-working people who are fleeing crime and persecution.”

“They are fleeing all kinds of atrocities, and here we are trying to come up with a bill that we know that will hurt so many people,” she said. “Last week, I received calls from so many people who are afraid to even take their kids to the doctors. Because they are afraid of what’s going on. They don’t know. Us here, a lot of our questions have not been answered. So, if it’s not clear to us, it’s definitely not clear to them.”

Miami-Dade County Republican Ileana Garcia voted against SB 4-C and criticized the in-state tuition repeal in SB 2C despite voting for it. She was the sole Republican in either chamber to oppose the death penalty proposal.

“I am pro-life, so I’m completely against capital punishment,” Garcia told reporters. “I feel that the system isn’t where it should be, considering the devastating consequences. The judicial process is still questionable.”

Sponsors of the repeal of in-state tuition blame students’ parents

Another major part of the new legislation is a bill, HB 1-C, sponsored by Hillsborough County Republican Lawrence McClure, that will create the new State Board of Immigration Enforcement, consisting of the governor and the three members of the Florida Cabinet to work with the federal government on immigration enforcement.

The legislation calls for the repeal of the waiver for students who are not citizens or permanent legal residents that has allowed them to qualify for in-state tuition in Florida public colleges and universities for the past 11 years.

The average income of an undocumented family in Florida is $37,500 and the average yearly cost of in-state attendance to Florida’s public universities is $22,464, according to the Florida Policy Institute. In-state tuition costs around $3,000 for Florida’s community colleges and $6,000 for public universities.

Democrats questioned McClure about the need to include this in a bill focused on public safety. He said it was necessary to remove the incentives for people lacking legal status to come to Florida, adding that the repeal would not bar them from pursuing higher education in the state.

“It is terrible that children are in this state and in this country as a function of their parents bringing them in here illegally,” he said. “It’s awful. … I’m not running from that, but it is also awful the open border, the amount of illegal immigration that has come into this state. And it is incumbent upon us to remove the incentives to help get the crisis under control.”.

In the Senate Appropriations Committee, Brevard County Republican Randy Fine echoed McClure’s rhetoric, blaming the students’ parents. Fine is the co-sponsor of SB 2-C.

“Breaks my heart when I hear from these people,” Fine said. “I am sorry that their parents did it to them. These children did not magically appear in the United States; their parents chose to break the law.”

‘”Vote no on this bill, please’

Nelson Quezada, a DACA recipient who came to the country when he was 7 years old, said during the Senate Appropriations Committee that he was disappointed by the animosity against immigrants and urged the lawmakers to put aside party politics. DACA recipients are immigrants whose parents brought them to the country as children and lack legal status but receive work permits.

“I know that it can be scary to buck your party, especially on something like this,” Quezada said. “But if I found the courage today to speak out in front of you all today as a DACA recipient, knowing full well that there are people in this country and in this state who view immigrants like myself as less than human, as an alien, surely you can find the courage to do the right thing here today. Vote no on this bill, please.”

He told the Florida Phoenix he completely rejects Fine’s statements blaming parents, saying his mom had to make sacrifices to bring him to the U.S.

“She has been my rock and my inspiration, and seeing a member of this committee saying that an undocumented person’s, specifically students’ parents, are the ones who bear responsibility for being here and should be viewed in a negative light is preposterous to me,” Quezada said.

Garcia also criticized Fine’s comments but said she voted for the bill that included the in-state tuition repeal because she favored its other provisions. She said she had faith Trump would protect DACA recipients.