Q&A – Florida’s New Illegal Immigration Laws
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Today’s Entry: Brian, thank you for keeping us informed about illegal immigration locally and your accurate accounting of the issues. Could you please breakdown the bills signed by DeSantis and what their impact on us will be?
Bottom Line: On Friday, Governor DeSantis along with AG Ashley Moody and other officials held a presser on combating illegal immigration. In that presser DeSantis detailed what his just announced deployment of Guard Troops and law enforcement officers to South Florida, to combat specifically Haitian illegal immigration, would do. The key, as Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw also outlined, is to capture would-be illegal immigrants in state waters prior to their making landfall. Florida’s state waters extend out three miles from the Atlantic coastline and nine miles from the Gulf coastline so that’s the window they’ll be operating within. As for Florida’s new legislation that Governor DeSantis signed at the event...
Three bills aimed at combating illegal immigration were signed into law on Friday by Governor DeSantis. They are: The Reclassification of Criminal Penalties, Identification Documents & Driving Without a Valid Driver’s License (which is somewhat ironic following last week’s kidnapping and repeated raping of a woman near John Prince Park by three illegal immigrants). As for what they do...
As noted by the state the Reclassification of Criminal Penalties law which will take effect October 1st will:
Enhance penalties for a crime committed by an individual who returns to the country illegally after an initial deportation.
- A third-degree felony (up to 5 years in prison) after deportation will be charged as a second-degree felony (up to 15 years in prison).
- A second-degree felony (up to 15 years in prison) after deportation will be charged as a first-degree felony (up to 30 years in prison).
- A first-degree felony (up to 30 years in prison) after deportation will be charged as a life felony.
- Enhances penalties for crimes committed in furtherance of drug cartel
The Identification Documents law which will take effect July 1st:
- Prevents counties and municipalities from accepting ID cards issued to illegal aliens by other jurisdictions (it’s already illegal for any government to issue an ID card to an illegal immigrant/undocumented person in Florida).
The Driving Without a Valid Driver’s License law which takes effect July 1st will:
Increase penalties on individuals who operate a vehicle without a license.
- Increases the maximum sentence from 60 days in jail to one year in jail for two or more offenses, and a minimum mandatory sentence of ten days in jail for three or more offenses.
I noted the irony of soon-to-be enacted law pertaining to increased penalties for those lacking driver’s licenses. As we covered last week, the driver of truck involved in the abduction and sexual assault of a woman near John Prince Park came following his having been apprehended by the Palm Springs Police Department in January for driving without a driver’s license. The State Attorney’s office let the illegal immigrant off the hook on a $100 fee and a diversion program. Notably, in response to my questions about the SA’s decision in that case, I was told that they were unaware of the immigration status of the driver. Given that evidently, and frustratingly, misdemeanors for illegal immigrants aren’t being flagged as a bigger issue, which I’ve been led to believe by local law enforcement, is a byproduct of the Biden Administration's lack of willingness to use ICE to issue detainers and properly process and deport illegal immigrants, stiffer penalties for those driving without a license should help.
With more illegal immigrants having been relocated to Florida than any other state by the Biden Administration during his 3+ year reign of lawlessness, pertaining to our southern border and illegal immigration policy, it’s imperative that we control what we can control at the state and local levels. With Governor DeSantis’ moves to deploy assets to the southern border to assist Texas’ enforcement efforts, in addition to the deployment of assets to South Florida to protect our own borders from invaders – the state is doing what can be done on the preventative front. With laws increasing penalties against illegal immigrants for those who are already here – that’s constructive at combating the problem as well. With that said, the only fix to the growing illegal immigration crisis is to defeat Joe Biden at the ballot box in November.