Ana Ceballos
House and Senate Republicans support passing a ban on so-called sanctuary city policies, but differences between the chambers are stalling final passage of one of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ top legislative priorities.
The House early Wednesday substituted its proposed sanctuary-city ban for a Senate version of the bill. Before the House decision, Sen. Travis Hutson, said such a move could potentially send the “whole thing up in flames.”
“I would support either bill addressing illegal immigration, but the Senate is in better position to pass the Senate bill,” Hutson said.
The Senate version (SB 168) narrowly passed the upper chamber last week and then went to the House. After making the substitution early Wednesday, the House will take a vote and send the bill back to the Senate. Ultimately, lawmakers would need to reach agreement on a final version by the end of the week.
The House proposal, in part, includes tougher sanctions for policymakers who don’t fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The House plan would allow local-government employees and elected officials to be suspended or removed from office, and local governments could be fined up to $5,000 for each day they have sanctuary-city policies in place.
The House also wants to allow people to bring wrongful-death lawsuits against local governments if their loved ones are killed or injured by undocumented immigrants as a result of local sanctuary-city policies.
The Senate has only agreed to give enforcement authority to the governor, who would be allowed to remove local officials from office, and the attorney general, who would have the power to bring civil actions against local governments.
On the side of caution, Hutson said he would like to maintain support for the Senate bill. That sentiment was echoed by Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., a Hialeah Republican who has been a constant target by opponents of the bill and is wary of federal programs that deputize local law-enforcement officers to perform the duties of federal immigration agents.
Senate bill sponsor Joe Gruters told The News Service of Florida he is well aware of concerns some senators have and understands that it may be difficult to pass the House proposal in its entirety in the Senate.
Oliva, however, is not a fan of the Senate’s weaker sanctions and a “carve-out” for employees who work at the state’s child welfare agency from fully cooperating with federal immigration authorities. He said the carve-out for the Florida Department of Children and Families creates a “sanctuary department within the state.”
“Such a great irony for a bill that is seeking to make sure everybody cooperates with law enforcement,” the Miami Lakes Republican told reporters on Monday.
When the House sends the bill back to the Senate, Gruters said he remains “confident we are going to salvage it,” even though he remains concerned about time running out in the legislative session.
The sanctuary city issue has been one of the most-controversial issues of this year’s legislative session. Such proposals have died in recent years in the Legislature, but DeSantis has made the issue a priority.
One comment
ACFlan
May 1, 2019 at 9:52 am
I grew up in Florida and currently work in child protective services in another state. Regardless of any position on immigration and undocumented immigrants, I hope legislators will consider that DCF already faces an uphill battle in gathering necessary information to protect children from abuse and neglect. It can be tough for good people who care about children — their own and others’ — to wrap their heads around 1) child maltreatment, and 2) people enabling child maltreatment through silence or lies. However, it happens in all communities and socioeconomic groups. It will happen even more in communities of undocumented immigrants if DCF is compelled to share information with immigration authorities. Sometimes we have to choose between being effective and being right. While it’s right to uphold the law and cooperate with authorities, the need to be effective in protecting ALL children from abuse and neglect outweighs that. Please understand that children are likely to die if people are too afraid about their immigration status to alert authorities or cooperate with an investigation, and that includes the non-maltreating parent or caregiver. We commonly see this in domestic violence situations, especially those in which the abuser is a citizen or properly documented, and the non-maltreating parent is undocumented.
Perhaps the law could be written to indicate immunity for collaterals (information-providers, whether it’s a child abuse reporter or someone cooperating and providing information to DCF) and non-maltreating parents or caregivers from having their information shared with immigration, and that any parent or caregiver who’s found to be responsible for child abuse or neglect that results in criminal charges would be subject to information-sharing with immigration authorities.
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