By Regan McCarthy
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-966669.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – A group of Florida immigrants say they plan to persevere in an effort to stop anti-immigration legislation. But Florida Public Radio's Regan McCarthy reports, despite a lengthy lobbying effort on the part of immigrant advocacy groups it appears the state's bills are moving forward.
Coordinator of the We are Florida Campaign Subhash Kateel says he and members of his group have been demonstrating at the Capital for the past two months against what he calls an "Arizona style immigration bill" and he says he's willing to keep fighting to the end.
"Everyday some other mayor and some other police chief and some other church and some other business group says this is crazy and so we want to know: who thinks this is normal? Because we're not meeting those folks here."
Kateel is joined in his efforts by groups across the state including bus-loads of people arriving at the capital from the Orlando and Tampa areas. Kateel says he thinks the bill doesn't have much backing.
"Every day that we're here we hear a different organization, a different institution, a different police chief, a different mayor coming out against this bill. At some point in time it's probably only gonna be the Senate president that's for this bill."
Kateel says it seems to him that *quote* "virtually every institution in the state of Florida" has taken a stance in opposition to the law, and it's true that a large number have. Members of Florida's business community have publicly opposed the law citing concerns about the impact such a law could have on Florida's agriculture and tourism industries. Also, law enforcement officers and local government leaders have also spoken against the bill. Some cite increased enforcement cost or loss of tax revenue as their reasons for opposition. Kateel says with such a ground swelling against the bill he doesn't understand why it's still around.
"We think this has nothing to do with good policy and everything to do with bad politics."
And he's not alone. Ron Bilbao, a member of the Tallahassee Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says if the bill is passed he doesn't think it'll stick around.
"We feel that if Florida passes a similar law not only is it going to have a terrible effect on our economy and our population because we're not Arizona, but also on the fact that it'll meet the same fate in the courts that it's met in Arizona."
Bilbao says two Federal judges have already enjoined Arizona's immigration bills because of concerns the bill could lead to racial profiling and because the judges said the bill overstepped Federal immigration policy. Kateel says right now the Senate's bill is what he calls "Arizona Light." But he says Republican Senate President Mikes Haridopolos of Melbourne has said publicly that he intends to add stricter rules making the bill more similar to The Grand Canyon state. Arizona's immigration law, called one of the toughest in the nation, allows law enforcement officers to detain any individuals they suspect of being in the country illegally and makes it a crime for an immigrant to forget to carry their immigration documents with them. In Florida, Senate bill 2040 requires employers to use the Federal electronic verification system-called e-verify to check an employee's eligibility to work. Similar bills under consideration in the Florida legislature require law enforcement officers to verify the status of those under police investigation or give them the ability to check a person's status when officers feel they have a "reasonable suspicion" that the individual is undocumented. Bilbao says what reasonable suspicion means is unclear.
"Some of the bills says well you can't profile based on race color or ethnicity, but when you say that you're stopping somebody for a reasonable suspicion and you're asking them for their papers based on reasonable suspicion, how do you get that reasonable suspicion?"
Bilbao says Jan Brewer, the Arizona governor explains people would be able to tell by looking at the individual's shoes. He says others say reasonable suspicion might come from a person having an accent or the color of the person's hair. He says it's that question that makes him feel the bill targets all immigrants, but especially latinos.
"They couldn't put something in the bill that would say specifically that this is for Latinos or for a certain group and so that's why they specifically put in the non-discrimination statement about not profiling against race ethnic .but it's the practice we're worried about. Its what happens when the police officer is out in real life, everyday situations, where they're pulling people over. But why are they pulling them over? How do you get picked?"
The Senate was expected to take up the issue today but Senate President Haradopolos says the issue won't be
discussed until Tuesday.
"I spoke with leader Rich as we work on the immigration bill. We want to make sure everyone is well aware of exactly what's in it. There is some very technical language in it and so we'll be handling that bill in full tomorrow."
Those in support of the bill say it will help put pressure on the Federal government to fix what they call a "broken" immigration policy.