A controversial bill is making its way through the Florida legislature, where Republicans have a strong presence in both chambers. The bill, which has the unqualified support of Gov. Ron DeSantis, would criminalize the “knowingly and willfully” transportation of undocumented immigrants “into or within” the state. If passed, as widely expected, the Senate bill (SB) number 1718 could affect Florida’s agricultural and hospitality sectors.
In practical terms, 1718 would amend Title XLVI, Florida Statutes, Section 787.07, by establishing criminal penalties for “persons who knowingly and willfully violate, or who reasonably should know to violate, certain provisions relating to transportation to or within of [Florida]” of undocumented immigrants.
The amendment would make it a crime to “conceal, harbor, or protect from detention, or the attempt to do so,” of those immigrants. These actions would constitute a third degree felony.
In addition, the defendants would commit a separate offense for each undocumented immigrant transported, hidden, harbored, or protected from authorities. An individual “who commits five or more separate crimes” during a single episode could be charged with a second degree felony, the bill says.
While its sponsors have said the legislation is not intended to target ordinary Floridians in their daily lives, its potential applications are wide-ranging, legal analysts said: an adult American son of an undocumented immigrant driving a father, a lawyer who drives a client to court or someone who managed a sports team that had a player without legal status in the United States could be exposed to criminal charges, the newspaper noted. The New York Times.
The law could also apply to a landlord who rents property to an undocumented family or someone who has an undocumented person living in their home, such as their housekeeper or landlord.
“As the bill is written, there are no exceptions,” attorney Paul Chavez, affiliated with the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the newspaper, which is preparing to challenge the legislation in court, if it passes.
Enforcing these measures would open the door to racial profiling, critics said, since police officers are charged with determining who is documented, not specialists or lawyers.
“You are looking at a bill that creates an atmosphere in which you could be attacked, whether you are an immigrant, a citizen or a tourist,” Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, executive director of the Hope CommUnity Center, an Apopka nonprofit, told the outlet. , Florida, which provides immigrants with a variety of social services. “You can’t tell people’s immigration status just by looking at them,” he said.
This idea is not new. Indeed, it is reminiscent of Bill 1070 passed by the Arizona Senate (2010), which also contained a provision imposing penalties on persons who harbored, hired, and transported unregistered aliens.
But that provision was struck down in 2012 by the US Supreme Court. If approved, the new law would take effect in Florida on July 1, 2023.
