“This will throw Florida’s economy and workforce into chaos across every possible sector. This is not only an outright attack on immigrants, but businesses and all the services each and everyone of us rely on. Governor DeSantis is a fool to do this and we would be fools to let him get away with it. He is using immigrants and each one of us for his own political gain, plain and simple.” — Mike Fernandez, Chair, MBF Healthcare Partners, ABIC Action board member
TALLAHASSEE—Today, the American Business Immigration Coalition Action (ABIC Action), a national bipartisan group advancing common-sense immigration solutions for the American economy, denounced a sweepingly anti-immigrant legislative proposal by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that would not only sow widespread fear among the state’s immigrants and their employers but would be so repressive and restrictive as to devastate critical business industries across the state that rely daily on immigrant labor.
“Construction, agriculture, hospitality, healthcare—we can’t even begin to count how many bread-and-butter work sectors these cruel and extreme measures would disrupt and slow if they are passed,” said Mike Fernandez, chair of MBF Healthcare Partners and ABIC Action board member. “What might make DeSantis look good with the extreme right in a national presidential election bid is just about the most destructive and hurtful thing he could do to his own state.”
The legislative proposal, which DeSantis unveiled in a speech this morning, leaves almost no aspect of immigrant life, education, or work in Florida untouched. It would take back in-state tuition for Dreamers and undocumented people, make the rigid E-Verify system a universal mandate among state employers and revoke the license of employers who don’t use E-Verify, make hospitals collect data on patients’ immigration status, make it a third-degree felony to drive an undocumented person from A to B (and a second-degree felony if the undocumented person is a minor), prohibit local governments from issuing local IDs to undocumented residents, revoke the driver’s license of an undocumented person from out-of-state even if their license was obtained legally in their state, prevent undocumented people from being able to practice law, make it a felony for someone to use a false ID, require affirmation of U.S. citizenship and legal Florida resident status for voter registration and close current and essential legal loopholes for those detained by ICE.
“I’m surprised the governor hasn’t proposed criminalizing undocumented people and those who employ them for eating, sleeping, and breathing—that’s how preposterously and cruelly restrictive this legislative package is,” said Samuel Vilchez Santiago, Florida State Director for ABIC Action. “Governor DeSantis’ draconian anti-immigrant package not only would harm our state’s immigrant communities but also our economy. Even Florida’s Republican-led legislature has to see clearly how this is going to hurt everyday Floridians who are already struggling to make ends meet. It will lead to higher food costs, retired folks not being able to access the healthcare they need, and our housing prices continuing to skyrocket. It is as radical as it gets.”
“Immigrants, documented and undocumented, have made up the heart and soul of Florida for decades,” said Reverend Dr. Gabriel Salguero, President of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. “They are our family members, neighbors, employers, employees, students, teachers, and faith leaders. They are so woven into daily life in this state that we’d unravel if they were blocked, held back, terrorized and arrested at every turn for simply existing, which is exactly what will result from these policies. This is a cruel set of policies. It is certainly not what the Gospel teaches us about treating immigrants. No policy can stop the Church from being the Church. It’s part of our religious liberty.”
BACKGROUND
One in five Florida residents is an immigrant, and the state benefits enormously from the diversity, energy, and contributions of our immigrant communities. Almost 400,000 are entrepreneurs, with $8.1 billion per year in business income. Immigrant households earn $138.6 billion per year, pay $31.4 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, and have a total spending power of $107.3 billion.
Cubans, and more recently Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and others, are part of a proud legacy of new immigrants building Florida into an economic powerhouse. The success of our immigrant communities was the result of welcoming immigration policies and supportive neighbors.
ABOUT
ABIC Action is the political arm of the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), a bipartisan coalition of over 1,200+ CEOs, business owners, and trade associations across 17 mostly red and purple states. ABIC Action promotes common-sense immigration reform that advances economic competitiveness, provides companies with both the high-skilled and low-skilled talent they need, and allows the integration of immigrants into our economy as consumers, workers, entrepreneurs, and citizens.