Orlando Florida. – The Florida House of Representatives approved HB 1617, which seeks to prohibit counties and municipalities from providing funds to any person, entity, or organization to provide an identification document to someone who does not have proof of status. legal in the United States. The measure was approved by 83 votes in favor and 36 against.
In addition, the bill also invalidates in Florida any immigrant identification permits issued by other states.
It also requires certain hospitals to collect information on the immigration status of patients on admission or registration forms, requires the Economic Opportunity Department to enter a certain order and the reimbursement of certain economic development incentives if the department finds out or if you receive notice that an employer has given employment to a person who knows they are an undocumented immigrant.
Now, with the measure signed in both legislative bodies, it moves to Governor Ron DeSantis’ signature to be approved and take effect July 1 of the current year.
Last Friday, the Senate signed the measure into law, prompting a reaction from Paula Muñoz, director of campaign organizing for the Florida Immigrant Coalition.
In a press release, Muñoz said, “Our state senators are deliberately hurting Florida families for their own political gain. People who live in Florida will have to miss events, sometimes big events like graduations or weddings, because they’re basically stuck in a state that’s chasing them. Similarly, if someone needs treatment outside of Florida, they will not be able to return home. It’s bad legislation that will make our state less secure and less prosperous.”
Below point by point what this law would allow
- Requires employers with more than 25 workers to use E-verify to determine employment eligibility, criminalizes the use of false IDs to obtain eligibility, and allows license revocation or fines substantial if an employer violates E-verify requirements four times within a 24-month period, limiting employment access to individuals who have unregulated immigration status.
- Require Medicaid-accepting hospitals and emergency departments to collect data on patients’ immigration status, including when they visit the emergency room, and regularly report the cost of care provided to out-of-status patients regulated immigration to the AHCA and the Legislature.
- Makes transporting people without regulated immigration status into the state of Florida a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. This includes charging you with a felony for being returned to the state of Florida when living here permanently. It also includes entering the state for tourism or business meetings with friends, colleagues, or relatives without regulated immigration status.
- Prohibits funding for community identification programs at the city and county level.
- Cancels driver’s licenses issued by 16 states and the District of Columbia to drivers without regulated immigration status.
- Provides for the Chief of Homeland Security to coordinate immigration enforcement actions in Florida.
- Repeals the law that allows lawyers who still regulate their immigration status to practice law if they approved it after 2018.
- It requires law enforcement to take DNA samples from people who do not have regulated immigration status and who are being held under a federal detention request.