Carmenza Aragon, excited to visit family in Georgia, was overcome with worry that she would be prosecuted for traveling across state lines to return home to Florida with her undocumented grandson.
“If I am traveling with him, I could be stopped and arrested,” said Aragon, “That idea fills me with panic.”
Aragon is a U.S. citizen and legal guardian for her grandson, who is applying for a “Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.”
Her anxiety came after Gov. DeSantis last year signed into law “the most ambitious [package of] anti-illegal immigration laws in the country. The governor said the measures are “fighting back against reckless federal government policies and ensuring the Florida taxpayers are not footing the bill for illegal immigration.”
But critics warn the law is spreading fear among immigrants and they are stepping up their efforts to weaken it.
Donald Trump’s election has only added to the anxiety of undocumented immigrants since the president-elect promised during his campaign to “launch the largest deportation program in American history.”
“The purpose of the [Florida] law, you know, was not only a cynical attempt to score political points against the Biden administration, but really to sew terror and confusion in immigrant communities,” said Amien Kacou, staff attorney at the ACLU of Florida.
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Kacou and other immigrant advocates in Florida held a webinar last month before the Nov. 5 presidential election to talk about enforcement of the law and their ongoing efforts to combat it.
“First, we want to clear up confusion regarding key provisions of this law and current enforcement,” said Evelyn Weise, a litigation attorney at Americans for Immigrant Justice, “Second, we’d like to share ways in which community advocacy and courtroom advocacy is working to mitigate some of the harmful effects of this law.”
Earlier this year, a federal judge put a key provision of the law on hold. That section of the law would have made it a felony to transport undocumented immigrants into the state.
The preliminary injunction was granted after the Farmworker Association of Florida, joined by other immigrant advocacy organizations, said the measure “unconstitutionally criminalizes the act of transporting a broad category of immigrants into Florida.” The state has filed a motion asking for reconsideration of the injunction.
Despite the block, which may be temporary as the legal process plays out, advocates say the law continues to generate fear.
“Despite being eventually watered down from the initial version of the bill, the breadth of the law definitely made it the most aggressive anti-immigration law in the country,” Kacou said.
A report by American Immigration Council estimates that more than 425,000 U.S. citizens in Florida live with at least one family member who is not in the country legally. The latest report by the Pew Research Center estimates there are 1.2 million undocumented immigrants in the state.
Backers of the law say the Biden administration’s failure to control the flow of migrants into the country forced states like Florida to enact their own measures to stop illegal immigration.
“We have a broken legal immigration system which is fostering the illegal immigrants coming over the border,” state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, a sponsor of the law, told CBS News in September.
“So if we get a bunch of states together and we start cracking down on illegal immigrants in our states, maybe we will force the federal government to fix the legal immigration system,” he added.
The law also requires certain private businesses to confirm that their employees are in the country legally, mandates that hospitals receiving Medicaid funding ask patients for their immigration status, and permits the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to work with federal immigration authorities.
Meanwhile, attorneys at organizations such as Americans for Immigrant Justice, the ACLU of Florida and the American Immigration Council are continuing to work on the case against the 2023 law, urging the immigrant community to stay vigilant and be aware of their rights.
“We will continue the fight to defend and expand the rights of those in our immigrant communities,” said Weise, “and [fight] against harmful laws like SB 1718 and future laws like it.”
The story was originally published by Caplin News, a publication of FIU's Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media, as part of an editorial content partnership with the WLRN newsroom.
