Latest news with #E-verify
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Stephen Miller wages war on the GOP's libertarians
The Movement is a weekly newsletter tracking the influence and debates steering politics on the right. or in the box below. Stephen Miller is leading a public war against the Republican Party's libertarians as he reframes the 'one big, beautiful bill' to being the key that unlocks President Trump's mass deportation agenda. Going mainly after libertarian-leaning lawmakers such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who have brought up concerns about the megabill's deficit impact, the White House deputy chief of staff — and chief architect of Trump's immigration agenda — is taking a sledgehammer to what remains of the libertarian-conservative fusionism that was prominent in the party pre-Trump. 'The libertarians in the House and Senate trying to take down this bill — they're not stupid. They just don't care,' Miller said in an interview with conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk last week. 'Immigration has never mattered to them; it will never matter to them. Deportations have never mattered to them; it will never matter to them. You will never live a day in your life where a libertarian cares as much about immigration and sovereignty as they do about the Congressional Budget Office.' Miller's personal advocacy for the bill ramped up amid outcry from deficit hawks within Congress and from outside voices like Elon Musk. And while he echoed other top Republicans in denying the Congressional Budget Office's budget math, Miller has particularly focused on one of the legislation's key pillars: the billions of additional dollars to fund construction of the border wall and deportation efforts such as detention facilities, more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, and transporting deportees. The uprisings by those objecting to deportations that popped in Los Angeles over the weekend — prompting Trump to deploy the National Guard in response — is further fueling Miller's arguments. And there is plenty of polling to explain the strategy: A CBS News poll released Monday, for instance, found 54 percent of Americans approved of Trump's deportation efforts. Miller has explicitly wondered if libertarian-leaning Republicans such as Massie were fighting the bill in order to oppose the deportation program. Massie, calling from the road on his way back to D.C. on Monday, told me that is not the case. 'He and I have the same immigration, deportation, wall policy, with the exception of E-verify. That's the only libertarian objection I have,' Massie said. 'He's appealing to a trope that all libertarians are open borders, and he knows that's not true about me. He and I have spent hours talking, Stephen Miller and I, on these drives to and from D.C. … He's trying to spread some doubt about the messenger, and not my message.' But times are different now. 'He can't be as honest and candid as he was with me when he didn't have Donald Trump as his boss,' Massie said. 'He's got his job is to sell this bill, and he's trying to put lipstick on a pig, and Rand Paul and I are pointing out it's a pig.' Paul again became a Miller target after he told Fox News's Maria Bartiromo on 'Sunday Morning Futures' that the funding Trump administration is seeking for the border wall is 'excessive,' and he would probably do 'half as much' as what he wants for hiring more agents. The border, Paul argued, is 'largely controlled right now,' warning against hiring 'an army of Border Patrol agents that we have on the hook for payments and pensions Miller seethed. 'While ICE officers are battling violent mobs in Los Angeles, Rand Paul is trying to cut funding for deportations and border security,' he posted on the social platform X. A spokesperson for Paul sent me a statement firing back at Miller and the campaign against the libertarian senator. 'Clearly, they are afraid the big, not yet beautiful, bill won't pass. That's why he's being attacked by a pack of rabid paid influencers and the guy that wants to suspend the ancient writ of habeas corpus,' the Paul spokesperson said — making a reference to Miller saying the administration was 'actively looking' at suspending the constitutionally-protected mechanism that migrants have used to challenge their detention by declaring an invasion. 'They've given up arguing on the issue of our time, the debt, and have now descended to lies, innuendo and nonsense,' the Paul spokesperson said. Asked about Miller's digging into libertarians, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson responded: 'Libertarians hate taxes which is why they're going to love The One, Big, Beautiful Bill that gives a 15 percent tax cut to working Americans while totally eliminating taxes on tips and overtime.' Miller's aversion to libertarians, though, seems to go deeper than opportunistic messaging for the bill. He posted in 2022 that the uprising of the ideology in the House GOP is 'how we ended up with open borders globalist [Paul] Ryan.' He blamed libertarian candidates for siphoning votes away from failed Trump-endorsed candidates in 2022 — Herschel Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters in Arizona, and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire. 'Another example of how libertarians ruin everything,' Miller said in one post responding to a 2022 Georgia Senate poll. He did, however, praise Trump's courting of the Libertarian Party — speaking at the minor party's national convention in 2024, and following through with a major campaign promise giving a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road drug marketplace. And Massie told me he endorsed Trump to try to help boost the small-L libertarian contingent of the GOP coalition. That coalition, though, has apparently worn out its usefulness to Miller. 'By including the immigration language with the tax cuts with the welfare reform, it creates a coalition. Politics is all about coalitions,' Miller said in the interview with Kirk — also praising Trump in the interview as 'able to create a winning formula for populist, nationalist, conservative government.' Massie sensed the lack of electoral pressure is adding to the willingness to cast the libertarians aside. 'The thing here is that he doesn't have to run again,' Massie said. 'This is one of these signature things. If he has to burn part of the coalition to get it done, they're probably willing to do it.' Alex Nowrasteh, vice president of economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute – the biggest libertarian think tank in Washington — said Miller's attacks on libertarians are, in one sense, no surprise. But he warned about the political implications that Miller's war has for the right. 'They are not typically long-term thinkers in terms of political coalition,' Nowrasteh said of Trump folks such as Miller, adding that 'this disagreement between Miller and Massie and Paul just shows how sundered that coalition was.' A White House official noted Trump's coalition includes Americans from all different backgrounds, including those who were not Republican voters prior to supporting Trump. , a weekly newsletter looking at the influences and debates on the right in Washington. I'm Emily Brooks, House leadership reporter at The Hill. Tell me what's on your radar: ebrooks@ Not already on the list? Free-marketers are putting their advocacy for extending President Trump's tax cuts into overdrive. The free market group Unleash Prosperity Now came out with a letter signed by 300 economists saying the extension of tax cuts in Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' will 'succeed in making the tax system more pro-growth and fairer,' getting positive shoutouts from Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent and a Truth Social share from Trump. Stephen Moore, a former economic adviser to Trump in his first term who co-founded Unleash Prosperity Now, told me the advocacy for the tax cuts is going well — but that GOP leaders' goal of sending it to Trump's desk by Independence Day is likely too ambitious. 'I'd love to see that, but I think there's too many differences right now to get it done by Fourth of July,' Moore told me. And he is 'not pleased' by the House version of the bill hiking up the state and local tax (SALT) deduction from $10,000 to $40,000. 'It's going to have to be negotiated down,' Moore said. 'We're very much in favor of playing hardball with them and saying, 'Look, OK, you want to take the whole party down with you, and you want to vote against a bill that gets 85 percent of your constituents a tax break, go ahead and blow it up,'' Moore said of the SALT-focused blue-state Republicans. Moore also responded to my reporting from last week's edition of about the 'new right' populist think American Compass celebrating its fifth anniversary with Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 'This is kind of, you know, the big government Republicanism coming back. I view it as a cancer in the party,' Moore said. 'This is a movement that's anti-trade, anti-immigration, pro-union, pro-big-government-spending. Those are all contrary to the very free market freedom policies that binds all Republicans together. It's a movement that's really being funded by the left to try to divide and conquer the Republican Party.' 'The fact that Rubio and JD Vance have associated themselves with that movement is not a positive sign for the future of the party,' Moore added. : , from Fox Business's Eric Revell…President Trump's move to empower Elon Musk after the 2024 election — namely through the meme-inspired Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort — was met with excitement over the winter, with lawmakers giddy to see Trump's new bestie, the world's richest person (a campaign benefactor for several of them). But now the Musk-Trump falling out over the 'big, beautiful bill' has soured many Republicans on the 'DOGEfather.' If you're a Republican, choosing between Musk and Trump is an easy call (in favor of the president, of course). And it raises questions about the future of the DOGE organizations within Congress. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had hitched her political wagon to DOGE by chairing a new DOGE subcommittee — and while she needled Musk by condemning 'lashing out on the internet,' she still has high praises for the government efficiency effort. 'I think DOGE is great. Government efficiency is fantastic. It's exactly what we need. And the American people support it, and it must continue. It doesn't have anything to do with with a disagreement on the internet. It has everything to do with the massive $36 trillion in debt,' Greene said. But Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), a co-chair of the House DOGE Caucus, said the blowup does impact his group's effort. 'It impacts any time there's a casualty on the field,' Sessions told me. Related: , from me and my colleague Mychael Schnell Tuesday, June 10: Americans for Prosperity has a fly-in of state leaders to press Senators to extend the 2017 tax cuts. Wednesday, June 11, 7:05 p.m.: Congressional Baseball Game for Charity Thursday, June 12, 12:00 p.m.: The Cato Institute hosts a policy forum: 'What Is the Opportunity Cost of State AI Policy?' Florida state Sen. Ileana Garcia (R), co-founder of Latinas for Trump, excoriated the president for seeking to ramp up deportation efforts, calling the effort 'unacceptable and inhumane.' She posted on X: 'I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings—in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims—all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal.' A White House spokesperson said in response that deportees receive due process. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) misidentified a Sikh as a Muslim while saying it was 'deeply disturbing' that the turban-wearing guest chaplain delivered the opening prayer in the House on Friday. She later deleted the post, but said: 'America was founded as a Christian nation, and I believe our government should reflect that truth, not drift further from it.' Derek Guy, the man behind the @dieworkwear account on X that posts commentary on men's fashion, revealed he arrived in the U.S. as an immigrant without legal status, having been brought over the border with Canada by his parents when he was a baby — prompting teasing from Republicans who have often been the target of his commentary. Vice President Vance responded with an approving meme to a post that suggested he now had 'the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever.' Guy responded with a jab at Vance's outfits: 'I think i can outrun you in these clothes.' Spectator World's Kara Kennedy: The rise of Eric Trump Wall Street Journal's Joshua Chaffin: The Other Nasty Breakup Inside MAGA The Hill's Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee: Trump unleashes MAGA rebellion on Federalist Society Axios's Scott Rosenberg: Silicon Valley's not crying for Musk Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Stephen Miller wages war on the GOP's libertarians
The Movement is a weekly newsletter tracking the influence and debates steering politics on the right. Sign up here or in the box below. Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here Stephen Miller is leading a public war against the Republican party's libertarians as he reframes the 'one big beautiful bill' to being the key that unlocks President Trump's mass deportation agenda. Going mainly after libertarian-leaning lawmakers like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who have brought up concerns about the megabill's deficit impact, the White House deputy chief of staff — and chief architect of Trump's immigration agenda — is taking a sledgehammer to what remains of the libertarian-conservative fusionism that was prominent in the party pre-Trump. 'The libertarians in the House and Senate trying to take down this bill — they're not stupid. They just don't care,' Miller said in an interview with conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk last week. 'Immigration has never mattered to them, it will never matter to them, deportations have never mattered to them, it will never matter to them. You will never live a day in your life where a libertarian cares as much about immigration and sovereignty as they do about the Congressional Budget Office.' Miller's personal advocacy for the bill ramped up amid outcry from deficit hawks within Congress and from outside voices like Elon Musk. And while he echoed other top Republicans in denying the CBO budget math, Miller has particularly focused on one of the legislation's key pillars: The billions of additional dollars to fund construction of the border wall and deportation efforts such as detention facilities, more ICE officers, and transporting deportees. The uprisings by those objecting to deportations that popped in Los Angeles over the weekend — prompting Trump to deploy the National Guard in response — is further fueling Miller's arguments. And there is plenty of polling to explain the strategy: A CBS News poll released Monday, for instance, found 54 percent of Americans approved of Trump's deportation efforts. Miller has explicitly wondered if libertarian-leaning Republicans like Massie were fighting the bill in order to oppose the deportation program. Massie, calling from the road on his way back to D.C. on Monday, told me that is not the case. 'He and I have the same immigration, deportation, wall policy, with the exception of E-verify. That's the only libertarian objection I have,' Massie said. 'He's appealing to a trope that all libertarians are open borders, and he knows that's not true about me. He and I have spent hours talking, Stephen Miller and I, on these drives to and from DC …. He's trying to spread some doubt about the messenger, and not my message.' But times are different now. 'He can't be as honest and candid as he was with me when he didn't Donald Trump as his boss,' Massie said. 'He's got his job is to sell this bill, and he's trying to put lipstick on a pig, and Rand Paul and I are pointing out it's a pig.' Paul again became a Miller target after he told Fox News's Maria Bartiromo on 'Sunday Morning Futures' that the funding Trump administration is seeking for the border wall is 'excessive' and he would probably do 'half as much' as what he wants for hiring more agents. The border, Paul argued, is 'largely controlled right now,' warning against hiring 'an army of border patrol agents that we have on the hook for payments and pensions Miller seethed. 'While ICE officers are battling violent mobs in Los Angeles, Rand Paul is trying to cut funding for deportations and border security,' he posted on X. A spokesperson for Paul sent me a statement firing back at Miller and the campaign against the libertarian senator. 'Clearly, they are afraid the big, not yet beautiful, bill won't pass. That's why he's being attacked by a pack of rabid paid influencers and the guy that wants to suspend the ancient writ of habeas corpus,' the Paul spokesperson said — making a reference to Miller saying the administration was 'actively looking' at suspending the constitutionally-protected mechanism that migrants have used to challenge their detention by declaring an invasion. 'They've given up arguing on the issue of our time, the debt, and have now descended to lies, innuendo and nonsense,' the Paul spokesperson said. Asked about Miller's digging into libertarians, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson responded: 'Libertarians hate taxes which is why they're going to love The One, Big, Beautiful Bill that gives a 15 percent tax cut to working Americans while totally eliminating taxes on tips and overtime.' Miller's aversion to libertarians, though, seems to go deeper than opportunistic messaging for the bill. He posted in 2022 that the uprising of the ideology in the House GOP is 'how we ended up with open borders globalist [Paul] Ryan.' He blamed libertarian candidates for siphoning votes away from failed Trump-endorsed candidates in 2022 — Hershel Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters in Arizona, and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire. 'Another example of how libertarians ruin everything,' Miller said in one post responding to a 2022 Georgia Senate poll. He did, however, praise Trump's courting of the Libertarian Party — speaking at the minor party's national convention in 2024, and following through with a major campaign promise giving a full pardon to Ross Ulbrict, the founder of the Silk Road drug marketplace. And Massie told me he endorsed Trump to try to help boost the small-L libertarian contingent of the GOP coalition. That coalition, though, has apparently worn out its usefulness to Miller. 'By including the immigration language with the tax cuts with the welfare reform, it creates a coalition. Politics is all about coalitions,' Miller said in the interview with Kirk — also praising Trump in the interview as 'able to create a winning formula for populist, nationalist, conservative government.' Massie sensed that the lack of electoral pressure is adding to the willingness to cast the libertarians aside. 'The thing here is that he doesn't have to run again,' Massie said. 'This is one of these signature things. If he has to burn part of the coalition to get it done, they're probably willing to do it.' Alex Nowrasteh, vice president of economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute – the biggest libertarian think tank in Washington — said that Miller's attacks on libertarians are, in one sense, no surprise. But he warned about the political implications that Miller's war has for the right. 'They are not typically long term thinkers in terms of political coalition,' Nowrasteh said of Trump folks like Miller, adding that 'this disagreement between Miller and Massie and Paul just shows how sundered that coalition was.' A White House official noted that Trump's coalition includes Americans from all different backgrounds, including those who were not Republican voters prior to supporting Trump. Welcome to The Movement, a weekly newsletter looking at the influences and debates on the right in Washington. I'm Emily Brooks, House leadership reporter at The Hill. Tell me what's on your radar: ebrooks@ Not already on the list? Subscribe here Free-marketers are putting their advocacy for extending President Trump's tax cuts into overdrive. The free market group Unleash Prosperity Now came out with a letter signed by 300 economists saying that the extension of tax cuts in Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' will 'succeed in making the tax system more pro-growth and fairer,' getting positive shout-outs from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and a Truth Social share from Trump. Stephen Moore, a former economic adviser to Trump in his first term who co-founded Unleash Prosperity Now, told me that the advocacy for the tax cuts is going well — but that GOP leaders' goal of sending it to Trump's desk by Independence Day is likely too ambitious. 'I'd love to see that, but I think there's too many differences right now to get it done by Fourth of July,' Moore told me. And he is 'not pleased' by the House version of the bill hiking up the state and local tax (SALT) deduction from $10,000 to $40,000. 'It's going to have to be negotiated down,' Moore said. 'We're very much in favor of playing hardball with them and saying, 'Look, okay, you want to take the whole party down with you, and you want to vote against a bill that gets 85% of your constituents a tax break, go ahead and blow it up,'' Moore said of the SALT-focused blue-state Republicans. Moore also responded to my reporting from last week's edition of The Movement about the 'new right' populist think American Compass celebrating its fifth anniversary with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 'This is kind of, you know, the big government Republicanism coming back. I view it as a cancer in the party,' Moore said. 'This is a movement that's anti-trade, anti-immigration, pro-union, pro-big-government spending. Those are all contrary to the very free market freedom policies that binds all Republicans together. It's a movement that's really being funded by the left to try to divide and conquer the Republican Party.' 'The fact that Rubio and JD Vance have associated themselves with that movement is not a positive sign for the future of the party,' Moore added. Related: Over 300 economists urge Trump, GOP leaders to extend tax cuts before massive tax hike hits Americans, from Fox Business's Eric Revell… Last week's newsletter on American Compass and my interview with founder Oren Cass… President Trump's move to empower Elon Musk after the 2024 election — namely through the meme-inspired Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort — was met with excitement over the winter, with lawmakers giddy to see Trump's new bestie, the world's richest man (a campaign benefactor for several of them). But now the Musk-Trump falling out over the 'big, beautiful bill' has soured many Republicans on the 'DOGEfather.' If you're a Republican, choosing between Musk and Trump is an easy call (in favor of the president, of course). And it raises questions about the future of the DOGE organizations within Congress. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had hitched her political wagon to DOGE by chairing a new DOGE subcommittee — and while she needled Musk buy condemning 'lashing out on the internet,' she still has high praises for the government efficiency effort. 'I think DOGE is great. Government efficiency is fantastic. It's exactly what we need. And the American people support it, and it must continue. It doesn't have anything to do with with a disagreement on the internet. It has everything to do with the massive $36 trillion in debt,' Greene said. But Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), a co-chair of the House DOGE Caucus, said the blow-up does impact his group's effort. 'It impacts anytime there's a casualty on the field,' Sessions told me. Related: Elon Musk's stock plummets among Republicans, from me and my colleague Mychael Schnell
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Some Democrats warn stricter E-Verify requirements could drive workforce away
Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost calls for businesses to oppose anti-immigration legislation during a March 17, 2024, press conference at the Florida Capitol. (Photo by Jackie Llanos/Florida Phoenix) The Florida Legislature could soon require all companies to verify that new employees have authorization to work in the country, but Democrats Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Rep. Dottie Joseph say that the mandate would prompt immigrant workers to leave the state. Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost joined Smith and Joseph during a Monday press conference in the Capitol to bash moves from the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Legislature to carry out mass deportations. State lawmakers recently put forward $250 million to reimburse local law enforcement cooperating with federal agencies in internal immigration enforcement. 'We need everybody to join this fight. Yeah, you business owners out there, especially in Orlando, we know that undocumented brothers, sisters, and siblings, people on TPS, immigrants, they help make Florida what it is,' Frost said. 'They help ensure that people are able to buy food at the grocery store, are able to go to Orlando, the magical place on earth. It's only magical because of the workers.' Although lawmakers focused on immigration during special sessions that prompted a public dispute between Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Ron DeSantis, multiple bills up for consideration over the next several weeks could bring further restrictions for immigrants without permanent legal status. Smith and Joseph referred to the E-Verify system as error-prone. Companies employing more than 25 people must use E-verify to ensure new hires have permission to work in the country. Included in the proposed 'Florida Economic Prosperity and Immigration Act,' which Smith and Joseph filed last week, is a provision that would remove the requirement for private companies to use E-Verify. With Democrats in the superminority, the bill is unlikely to even get heard in committee. 'Look, I think it's really, really important that we understand that the E-verify system is problematic. It is error-prone, and it is not an accurate way to make sure that we are getting qualified workers in the state of Florida,' Smith said. From 2021 to 2024, E-Verify initially erroneously labeled more than 212,000 people as not eligible to work, which accounted for 0.1% to 0.2% of eligibility checks per year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Dueling efforts to expand E-Verify to all employers emerge ahead of legislative session Proposals by Republicans and Democrats would require all employers to use E-Verify. However, only bills from Democratic Senate Leader Jason Pizzo and Democratic Rep. Allison Tant of Tallahassee would bring harsher penalties for companies hiring people unauthorized to work. 'While many have talked tough on combatting illegal immigration, here we are in 2025, and I, the Democratic minority leader, was the first to file a bill requiring E-Verify for all employers because you are not serious about curbing illegal immigration if you continue to cower to donors and not listen to our citizens,' Pizzo said during his response to DeSantis' State of the State address on March 4. During the special session, Pizzo was one of the loudest critics of the large companies employing immigrants lacking work permits remaining largely unscathed as Republicans tout their policies as the strongest in the nation to combat unauthorized immigration. Joseph called the repeal of in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, which the Legislature approved last month, and the E-Verify bills political gamesmanship. 'There is a new world order. Look, we're talking about the E-Verify bills or other bills that are designed to denigrate and attack immigrant communities,' she said. 'Those are all things just to keep us distracted and fighting with each other when people are literally taking away our lifelines for Medicaid, Social Security, and a whole host of other things.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Miami Herald
27-02-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Miami lawmakers are proposing new laws. Here's how they could affect you in Florida
Florida lawmakers have filed hundreds of bills ahead of the 2025 legislative session for the Florida House and Senate to consider starting on Tuesday, March 4. Among the proposals filed by Miami-Dade lawmakers are new laws concerning immigrants. One would require that Florida companies verify their eligibility to work in this country. Another bill, if passed, would block state colleges from accepting undocumented students. There are also bills filed by local leaders revolving around a Biscayne Bay boating accident that killed a high school girl, condo bills concerning association management and maintenance, and a bill that would prohibit discrimination in the public school system based on hairstyles. KNOW MORE: Florida lawmakers are already proposing new laws for 2025. Take a peek at their plans Here's a look at a handful of bills filed by Miami-Dade lawmakers and proposals focused on South Florida institutions. Immigration laws ▪ E-verify employees. Jason Pizzo, minority Democratic leader in the Florida Senate whose District 37 covers swaths of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, filed a bill, SB 782, in February that would require an E-verify background check of potential hires for all companies. Corporations in violation would face fines that could range from $10,000 to $500,000 and the revocation of employer's licenses, depending on the frequency of violations and outcomes of undocumented workers' actions, effective on July 1. Currently, companies with fewer than 25 employees avoid the state requirement to run employees through E-verify background checks for their immigration status. READ MORE: One group is being spared from Florida's immigration crackdown: companies 'Florida Republicans have insisted that we are in an immigration crisis. We are,' Pizzo said in mid-February in a report published by Florida Politics. 'However, declaring a state of emergency, passing a few messaging bills, creating transport programs, and blowing millions of taxpayer dollars do not make us the 'toughest in the nation' on illegal immigration. Alas, we find ourselves at the end of a third 'Special Session' in three weeks because we just can't seem to get it right.' ▪ Undocumented students. Republican state Sen. Randy Fine of Brevard's District 19 filed SB 244 that would block state colleges and state universities with acceptance rates below 85% from accepting undocumented students. Schools that would fall under this bill include Broward College, Miami Dade College, Florida International University, University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of Central Florida. 'Is it fair to allow an illegal immigrant to take a spot that could be taken by a Floridian or an American? I would argue no,' Fine said in January, the Associated Press reported. Condo bill Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez of District 113, which includes Key Biscayne and Grove Isle, filed a nearly 100-page bill, HB 913, that refines condominium laws passed in the wake of the 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside. Lopez's proposal would bar the state-run property insurer Citizens from providing coverage to condominiums that fail to comply with new safety requirements for condos, and allow associations to take on loans or levy special assessments without the approval of the membership to pay for required building maintenance and repairs. The bill would make it easier for condo boards to comply with the Legislature's new, costly requirements for condo building. 'It is contrary to the public policy of this state to limit the ability of an association to obtain the funds needed to perform necessary maintenance, repair or replacement of the condominium property as required by the milestone inspection report and structural integrity reserve study report in order to protect the health and safety of the unit owners and tenants of the property,' Lopez wrote in the bill. Sometimes unit owners fight back. In November, condo owners in Brickell ousted their association's president after he led their board to approve a $21 million special assessment, the Miami Herald reported. CROWN Act Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat whose District 34 stretches from Miami Gardens to the northern half of Miami Beach, proposed a bill in February aimed at prohibiting discrimination based on hairstyle within Florida's public K-12 schools, colleges and universities. Jones' SB 476, dubbed Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act, or CROWN Act, introduces the term 'protected hairstyle.' The term 'means hair characteristics historically associated with race,' including afros, braids, locks or twists. If passed, students could not be excluded from participating in educational programs or activities due to their hairstyle. The bill extends its provisions to private schools participating in the state school choice scholarship program, 'mandating compliance with antidiscrimination requirements that include protected hairstyles.' Boating laws In January, Miami-Dade Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia proposed harsher penalties for a person who flees a boating accident. She was motivated by the Labor Day 2022 Biscayne Bay boat crash that killed a 17-year-old Our Lady of Lourdes student and critically injured another 18-year-old student. Her SB 58 includes a prison sentence of up to 30 years and a fine of $10,000 for someone who leaves a boat crash that results in someone's death, which would come with a first-degree felony charge. If the person is under the influence, they would face a mandatory minimum prison sentence of four years. Her bill adds additional penalties to 2024 Florida Statutes related to 'a collision, accident, or other casualty.' The bill also expands the definition of vessel homicide to include 'the killing of an unborn child by causing injury to the mother,' to align it with a similar law concerning motor vehicles that has been on state books since 2014. Regulating a Trump Presidential Library In January, one of President Donald Trump's lobbyists toured Florida International University as part of a push to land the Miami-Dade school on the list for favored sites for the inevitable Donald Trump Presidential Library. FIU's main campus near Sweetwater is just four miles from the president's golf resort in Doral and about 80 miles from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach — Trump's Florida home away from the White House. Wherever the library is built, if it's in Florida, Rep. Sen. Jason Brodeur of Sanford wants to make sure the government doesn't throw roadblocks in the path of its construction and design. His Senate Bill 118 reminds his colleagues that 'presidential libraries are unique national institutions designated to house, preserve and make accessible the records of former presidents. His bill would preempt all state regulation of the establishment, maintenance, activities and operations of any presidential library within its jurisdiction and defers regulation of such institutions to the Federal Government.' 'I think there's a history in the state of Florida from local municipalities giving President Trump problems with some of the zoning things that he's had, whether it's a helicopter pad or the size of his flag,' Brodeur said in Tallahassee, News Service Florida reported in February. 'With us having the opportunity to actually have the first presidential library ever [in Florida] ... this would really be a landmark thing for Florida. And we wanted to make sure that we had rolled out the welcome mat as best we could.' Garbage plant near the Everglades? As Miami-Dade's leaders debate where, or if, to build a new waste facility to replace the one that burned down in Doral in 2023, Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez has proposed Senate Bill 946 to preempt local approval of waste facilities that would be near the Everglades — within two miles of its protection area — and giving that power to the state. Rodriguez represents District 40, which encompasses parts of Miami-Dade that include attractions like Zoo Miami, Larry and Penny Thompson Park, Tropical Park and Nixon Smiley Pineland Preserve. The district also extends into the Florida Keys. A similar bill filed by state Sen. Bryan Avila, SB 1008, would block local governments and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from issuing a construction permit for ash-producing incinerators or waste-to-energy facilities for any site within a half-mile radius of a residential property, commercial property or school. KNOW MORE: What happens to your trash bill if Miami-Dade never rebuilds its Doral incinerator?
CBS News
06-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
California farmworker explains how undocumented immigrants find work
DIXON — California has more undocumented immigrants than any other state in the country, and there is plenty of work done to bring them here, even if the law does not allow it. Dixon is one of the rural California communities dealing with this season of political change as President Trump's administration has called for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Farmworker Gerardo Reyes, 71, showed us where tomato plants will soon be growing on land in Dixon. With the federal immigration sweep underway, Reyes, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen through Ronald Reagan's amnesty, is worried for his fellow farmworkers who are not citizens. "The change is that he has already started to do what he predicted," Reyes said. Of the 900,000 farmworkers in California, half are undocumented. Antonio de Loera works for the United Farmworkers. He said that undocumented farmworkers are accepted for employment if they can present a social security number for IRS form I-9s used for employment eligibility verification. They can bypass this hiring process by providing fake social security numbers that can be bought on the black market. "I think this is just a situation where the economic reality is more powerful than whatever the law happens to be," de Loera said. "That's another one of these open secrets, where your employer will generally ask you for a social security number, but there is no way of checking whether that social security number is real." "Or they don't want to check," de Loera said. Reyes says the counterfeit social security numbers sell for about $150 apiece. "For example, I know of a person who has contacts with those people who falsify documents, and through that connection, he communicates with them when he needs two or three social security numbers," Reyes said. "The process is carried out immediately and it's done easily." The U.S. government has created a way to verify IDs called E-verify. The federal program E-Verify can be voluntarily used in this state, but California passed a law 15 years ago that says the government cannot force private businesses to use it. The state legislature cited concerns over costs and accuracy when they passed it. "Shouldn't E-Verify solve this problem?" I asked University of California, Davis Professor Daniel Sumner. Sumner is an expert on the economics of agricultural sustainability. "In a sense, the problem with E-Verify is that it solves one problem but it doesn't solve any of the others," Sumner responded. "It doesn't help low-income people make a better living. It doesn't help farmers find more willing workers." Ira Mehlman is a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR. The organization supports President Trump's deportation plan. "The solution is to make it clear to people that you don't violate our laws and expect that you're going to be able to benefit from it," Mehlman said. I then asked Mehlman, "If I'm hearing you correctly, there are no concessions. There is no compromise. Every single person that's undocumented in this country, you think, should not be here anymore?" "It doesn't mean we're going to deport everybody," Mehlman responded. "There's no law made by man or God that has 100% compliance. I assure this will not be an exception, but we don't have to capitulate to people coming into the country saying, 'I'm here and you can't send me home.' " In 2023, Congress killed an immigration reform bill that would have: required e-verify for businesses. allowed undocumented individuals to earn a path to legal status. expanded the H-2A worker visa program to year-round agriculture sectors. funded more border security. In Dixon, Reyes was preparing for this year's harvest with a sense of uncertainty and no immigration reform insight. "They are afraid to go to work and for that reason, we want to encourage them," Reyes said.
