DeSantis's Florida E-Verify Law Hasn't Even Taken Effect But Some Illegal Aliens are Scared and Leaving. So It's Already Working | Blog Posts

DeSantis's Florida E-Verify Law Hasn't Even Taken Effect But Some Illegal Aliens are Scared and Leaving. So It's Already Working

Allan Wall

05/26/2023

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Florida has a new law, passed by its legislature and signed by Governor DeSantis which is receiving a lot of attention in the media. It’s SB 1718, now Chapter No. 2023-40, which requires employers to use E-Verify and penalizes those who transport illegals into Florida, among other things.

The law hasn’t yet taken effect—it’s scheduled to do so on July 1—but it’s already scaring illegal aliens.

From the Daily Caller:

Illegal immigrants are looking to flee Florida after a new law in the state of Florida passed, according to people working with migrants who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new law May 10 that criminalizes the act of knowingly transporting migrants into the state who entered the country illegally, requires hospitals to obtain patients’ immigration statuses and provides $12 million to the state to transport migrants. Some illegal immigrants in the area, however, are reconsidering their future in the state over the crackdown, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official working in California and an immigration worker told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

[‘We Have To Leave’: Illegal Immigrants Plan To Flee Florida After New Law Goes Into Effect, by Jennie Taer, Daily Caller, May 24, 2023]

A law can start working before it has even taken effect.

“Because of the uncertainty and actions of DeSantis, non-citizens in Florida are looking at other sanctuary cities outside of Florida,” the DHS official told the DCNF. “A lot of them come here seeking medical benefits and treatments, and with those being difficult to acquire now, a lot of them want to come to states like California, where all those resources are provided,” the DHS official added.

At this point it’s a matter of moving to another state which is more supportive of illegal aliens. But just imagine if such laws were enacted and enforced in the whole country.

Patricia Andrade, director of Raices Venezolanas Miami, a nongovernmental organization serving Venezuelan immigrants, told DCNF she’s heard from migrants that they fear the use of E-Verify, which is mandatory for many employers in Florida. E-Verify is used by employers to check that job applicants are eligible to work in the country. “Many are leaving because of E-Verify and some are afraid,” Andrade said.

Hmm, now why would they be afraid if they weren’t illegal?

Roughly 770,000 illegal immigrants live in Florida, according to the Migration Policy Institute. [Axios says it’s 772,000.]

Maybe this law can reduce that number.

“We have to leave Florida,” an illegal immigrant living in the Sunshine State for more than a decade told Axios. “I love Florida, I love the weather, I love the people. But I knew we had to leave when I read what was in that law. It isn’t safe.” [According to Axios, this individual moved to Florida at 6 and is now 22, so she’s been there 16 years.]

What does she mean that the law isn’t safe? I guess if you’re illegally in Florida you’d look at it that way.

Here is a pithy response from the governor’s office: “So what you’re saying is… the law is working? Good,” DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw wrote on Twitter of illegal immigrants leaving.