Florida lawmakers and Governor Ron DeSantis have finally reached consensus, passing two immigration reform bills this week, but the process to get there has reshaped the relationships and power dynamics among the state’s top government leaders.
When DeSantis signed the two bills, he was flanked by smiling legislative leaders, House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton. He called the laws a team effort.
“I absolutely anticipate other states will follow what Florida has done as we move forward in the weeks and months ahead. We are ahead of the curve in ending the illegal immigration crisis. We didn’t just sit on our hands. We hashed it out and we’ve got a great product going forward,” he said.
That’s a stark change of tone from what the governor was saying when legislative leaders rebuffed his first immigration proposal last month, instead passing their own. The governor’s spokespeople attacked lawmakers on social media. DeSantis even posted videos blasting their proposal.
“Now, they’ve named this bill the Trump act. But that is a misnomer because President Trump has been really strong coming out of the gate. The bill they did is more window dressing, it is not going to solve the problem. We are not here for theatrics, we are not here to do messaging bills,” he said.
Legislative leaders like Albritton at the time were saying they wanted to take back the independence of the legislature and sent not-so-subtle digs DeSantis’ way.
“Sometimes leadership isn't about being out front on an issue. It's actually about following the leader you trust. For my part, I trust President Trump,”
Looking at the package passed, University of Central Florida Political Science Professor Aubrey Jewett thinks the legislature won. While the package has some of what DeSantis wanted, like making it a crime to be in the state as an undocumented immigrant, it also forgoes many of his original proposals and requires the governor to share immigration enforcement powers with all of the state cabinet positions.
“In my estimation, having written about and followed Florida politics for 30 years, Governor DeSantis has been one of the strongest we have had. But now, his power is a little bit curtailed. One of the ways he was able to get everything he wanted was just telling the legislature, and they just did it, even if, in some cases, they didn't agree with it or thought it was the best idea. That doesn't seem likely to happen anymore,” he said.
While lawmakers and DeSantis came together on this package, Jewett is skeptical it will address one of the main root causes of undocumented immigration: employment.
While the bill makes it a crime to be undocumented in the state and gives harsher criminal penalties to undocumented people in Florida, it does very little to provide enforcement of E-Verify, the system that companies with more than 25 employees are required to use to prove their employees are documented.
“It's perhaps a recognition that the certain big sectors of the Florida economy rely very heavily on labor from illegal immigrants or undocumented immigrants. Agriculture. Construction. The tourism industry, particularly when you talk about, say, hotels and restaurants. And so there seemed to be a real reluctance to go after the employers on this,” he said.
Florida’s next legislative session starts next month. Political experts will be watching closely to see how the shifting power dynamic between the governor and the legislature’s Republican leaders shape the discussion.