A day after announcing he would kill a “weak” anti-immigration bill passed by the Florida Legislature, Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed the body's opposition to his proposals and stressed his desire for local law enforcement to be involved in deportation efforts.
Passed this week by lawmakers, the bill — known as the "Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy (TRUMP) Act" — shifts anti-illegal immigration oversight from DeSantis to Wilton Simpson, the state’s Agriculture Commissioner.
DeSantis wants to remove what he says would be “a new bureaucracy” under the Florida Department of Agriculture, arguing that the agency would be too lenient on deportation to prioritize the state’s economic interest in the industry.
At a roundtable event in Palm Beach County on Thursday, he explained that is one of the reasons he believes the “structure of the bill is patently ridiculous and designed to fail.” He reiterated to WLRN that he is indeed going to veto the bill, in hopes to put community pressure on individual lawmakers.
For members who supported the bill, “ on this issue, you owe (voters) an explanation for your actions,” DeSantis said.
He said there is a "undercurrent of folks, particularly in Republicans, who campaigned so hard against the illegal immigration. They're gonna be tough. They're gonna do all this stuff and everything. But in reality, they want to preserve a lot of illegal foreign labor."
"They do. It's a corporatist thing," he added.
READ MORE: After rebuke from legislative leaders, Gov. Ron DeSantis pledges to veto immigration bill
Spearheaded by House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton, the bill would allocate more than $500 million to enhance penalties for undocumented criminals, among other key provisions. It came in defiance of DeSantis' own proposals, in a showdown between the governor and Republican lawmakers over whose approach would be better at carrying out President Trump's immigration directives.
DeSantis said lawmakers risk jeopardizing his ongoing effort to “have the strongest law in the nation on immigration enforcement” and eliminate, among many of his proposals, “magnets such as remittances” and end “catch and release,” which refers to the practice of releasing migrants back into their respective communities to await scheduled immigration court hearings, instead of holding individuals in detention centers.
DeSantis' told WLRN under his proposal, remittances would be subject to a new verification system to dry up “a big part of the incentive to come."
“U.S. citizens can send remittances. Legal foreign residents or workers on visas can send remittances,” DeSantis said. “It's the illegal alien that would have to show.”
Governor Ron DeSantis was joined by Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Representative Mike Caruso, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Training Facility.
Each emphasized their support for the governor. “Our border is the ocean. You can’t put up a fence,” Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. “We’re the fence.”
DeSantis also held similar roundtable discussions Wednesday with law enforcement in Fort Myers and Titusville.
It is unclear what will happen next on the state level once the bill is vetoed.
