Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has churned out one extreme right-wing law after another, often designed to stir up culture war controversies over identity. Now the state is poised to pass some of the most draconian anti-immigrant bills a state has enacted in recent memory. Local business leaders and Latino evangelical groups are pushing back against the proposals. But Florida Republicans seem set on crafting a new kind of surveillance state that encourages racial profiling and makes life for undocumented immigrants in the state even worse.
The New York Times reports that the package of bills expected to pass in the coming weeks would constitute the harshest crackdown on undocumented immigrants in over a decade:
The bills would expose people to felony charges for sheltering, hiring and transporting undocumented immigrants; require hospitals to ask patients their immigration status and report to the state; invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants; prevent undocumented immigrants from being admitted to the bar in Florida; and direct the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to provide assistance to federal authorities in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.
On top of all this, DeSantis has called for scrapping undocumented students’ access to in-state tuition.
The sum effect of these laws is that undocumented immigrants — and anyone else who might be suspected to be one — would face new, intrusive levels of scrutiny and potential arrest in countless scenarios. Making it a felony to house, hire or transport an undocumented immigrant — punishable by up to five years in prison — could inspire a new wave of citizen surveillance, suspicion and severance of social ties from landlords, employers, colleagues, lawyers, roommates and neighbors.
Latino religious groups in Florida have often, though not universally, supported DeSantis in the past. But they’ve spoken out against these bills, because they say they would face…
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