The Florida Legislature in the midst of committee weeks—reviewing bills filed for 2026 legislative session, and already an immigration measure is grabbing headlines.
WFSU’s Tristan Wood spoke with Florida Phoenix immigration reporter Liv Caputo about a bill to expand use of a federal work eligibility database called E-Verify.
Wood: Liv, What are you watching so far in the legislature?
Caputo: Quite a few immigration bills are starting to trickle in, and of course, we're still in committee weeks. Session doesn't start until January 13, so there's still some time for some more immigration bills and other interesting bills to be filed.
But so far, one bill that just had its first committee hearing was a bill on E-Verify, and this essentially would expand how many businesses need to use E-Verify, which is a federally operated system that basically checks whether new hires can legally work in the United States.
Current law only requires public businesses and private businesses with at least 25 employees to use this system. But the bill would say, okay, everybody, every private business, if you even have one employee, you need to use it. That passed its first committee hearing yesterday.
Wood: That conversation at its first committee hearing, what did that conversation look like?
Caputo: It was a little bit more muted than I thought it was going to be. So, this bill actually came up last session, almost identical version by the same bill sponsor, Rep. Berny Jacques. Last year, we saw lots of debate from pro-immigration groups who really didn't want this, from small businesses who were who were worried that maybe this would impose high costs on them.
The committee hearing yesterday (Wednesday), though, we only saw two speakers who were opposed to the bill, we had the AFL and voices for Florida who their arguments weren't so much, ‘Oh, we don't like E-Verify.’ Their arguments were more we're fine with E-Verify, but we think the federal government should handle this, not the state government.
As far as debate goes, the Democrats didn't like it, so all four Democrats in the committee voted no. This bill still has another committee stop, and then we still haven't seen a Senate version be filed. So, we don't know how far this bill is going to go.
Wood: The reason it died last year, it passed the House, it didn't pass the Senate. Is it really being taken seriously by the Senate? Any word that the Senate is going to consider it at all?
Caputo: The bill sponsor says that he's spoken to some people in the Senate who he says appear to be particularly receptive to the bill this session. Again, we haven't seen it filed yet, but there's still time. The bill sponsor said he spoke to the governor's office, who's a really big proponent of this bill. I haven’t heard anything from the Senate, but that doesn't mean there won't be a Senate version filed.
Wood: What have you heard about why they are trying to close this small business access?
Caputo: Well, the majority of small businesses in Florida have under 25 employees. So, the current law, which only requires E-Verify for the private employees with at least 25 private employers with at least 25 employees, that covers a lot, but I think it's something like 500 to 600,000 small businesses have under that number.
So, this bill is trying to more broadly apply that requirement so that all businesses, the majority of businesses, if you will, are hiring people who are legally authorized to work in the United States and Florida.
Wood: Are there any other immigration proposals that have been filed, any other talks you're hearing about potential bills that might get filed. What other things are you watching at the Florida Capitol?
Caputo: There’s already been a few others. Um, we're seeing mostly Democrat led bills in terms of immigration so far. I'm expecting there to be far more immigration related bills, just because of the nature of the immigration debate, both nationally and on the Florida level, we're seeing a huge illegal immigration crackdown from President Trump. We're seeing Governor Ron DeSantis really endorsing that. So, if we don't see more Republican led immigration bills, I would be surprised.
Wood: Why do you think we haven't seen those proposals yet? Is it because it's so early, or is there other dynamics? Are there still conversations going on about what needs to be shored up from that package they passed during the special session earlier this year?
Caputo: Yeah, I mean, a little bit of both. It's still early, yes. But also there's that immigration package from last year is kind of tied up in the courts right now, there's been a lot of lawsuits involving the law, SB 4C and so it's possible that they're trying to wait to see what comes of that legal case. There's going to be some debates here that we're going to see between the Senate and the House, not just on immigration. It could go either way. I would say, mostly it's early. And also the fact that, you know, there's been some controversy over, over some of these bills they've chosen to file.
Wood: For, like, a lay person who doesn't follow state immigration policy that closely or just doesn't follow the legislature at all. What do you think should be the main takeaway, the main thing that they should understand or expect coming out of the legislature this session?
Caputo: I think they can expect to see some pretty tense debates on immigration. I think we're already starting to see it, right? We started to see it. We've been seeing it for years, really.
But last session was probably some of the more tense debates. When you had that map, this massive immigration package passed that, among other things, you know, mandated the death penalty for undocumented immigrants who commit capital crimes. It removed in-state tuition for undocumented college students. It created state level crimes for undocumented immigrants who enter Florida.
You know, it's all of these things after that. We saw these state run, federally partnered detention centers start to crop up, like Alligator Alcatraz and Deportation Depot. So, I think we can expect to see from the Republican side maybe some more legislation building off of that, maybe expanding the state's powers with immigration. We'll see if it holds up in the courts. On the Democrat side, we can see them attempting to file bills to maybe curtail that.
Now, if those bills get scheduled, that is another question. For those who don't know, the Florida Legislature has a massive GOP super majority. They are kind of ones who decide which bills get to come to committee. So, while the Democrats could file many immigration bills if those are even heard in committee, is another question.