A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis is signing new legislation designed to solve a familiar problem, and warning refugees to avoid Florida.
In Winter Haven, DeSantis stood behind a “Stop Illegal Immigration” placard as he announced the legislation he was ready to sign and outlined the state’s response to the crisis in Haiti.
HB 1589 enhances penalties for driving without a valid license. First offenses are second-degree misdemeanors. A second offense merits a first-degree misdemeanor, as does the third, but with at least 10 days in jail.
“One of the biggest deterrents we can do for illegal immigration is to make sure people who are doing that face serious consequences,” DeSantis said. “This is going to be a deterrent for illegal immigration in the state.”
SB 1036, per DeSantis, “enhances penalties for crime committed by an individual who returns to the country illegally following deportation.”
HB 1451 bans local governments “from accepting certain ID cards or documents that are knowingly issued to individuals who are not lawfully present” in the U.S.
The Governor called those ID cards “rogue.”
He also lauded SM 1020, a memorial bill that holds that Mexican drug cartels are terrorist organizations.
Finally, DeSantis discussed moves to repel Haitian refugees, noting that the state has been assisting the Coast Guard since January 2023, with 670 vessels and 13,500 “illegal aliens … stopped from being able to come to Florida.”
“We have a lot more ability to stop on the sea,” DeSantis said, saying that’s preferable to refugees being “dumped” in the state.
The state has already launched Operation Vigilant Sentry, designed to keep Haitian refugees from making landfall and finding refuge in Florida, as part of its response.
More than half of those deployed this week are from the State Guard, which recently doubled its forces after a training class graduated.
In addition to that 133-member contingent, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will send 39 additional officers, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will deploy 23 additional officers with eight additional seacraft, the Florida National Guard will engage 48 additional Guardsmen with four additional helicopters, and the Florida Highway Patrol will allocate 30 additional officers with an additional aircraft and drones for surveillance.
“This is a significant augmentation,” DeSantis said Friday, saying “the last thing” refugees want to do is make that “hazardous journey” to Florida only to be returned to their homeland.
DeSantis said Florida had already intercepted a boat with 25 Haitian refugees, on a boat with “firearms” and “drugs,” by way of further underscoring the threat.
DeSantis contended later that “a lot of those folks” from Haiti likely will fly to Mexico and cross into the country anyway, thanks to President Joe Biden’s border policy.
The Division of Emergency Management is also launching an assistance portal for Floridians and other Americans trapped in the Caribbean country amid yet another round of domestic unrest.
The portal consists of a fill-in-the-blank form that requests the name, exact location, gender, birth date, cellphone number, email, information about Florida residency and the trapped person’s passport number, issue date, and expiration date. Additionally, the state wants to know if people are traveling with animals or as part of a group needing help, as well as contact information for someone stateside and the desired arrival location of the travelers who might need help.
21 comments
Elly Florida
March 15, 2024 at 11:39 am
Thank you Gov. De Santis and Florida elected officials.
Josh Green
March 15, 2024 at 2:48 pm
What are you thanking them for?
Impeach Biden
March 15, 2024 at 3:14 pm
Protecting the legal citizens of this state. At some point this country has to say enough is enough. We can’t feed, clothe, house, educate, and provide free healthcare for everyone on the planet that wants to come here.
Common Sense
March 15, 2024 at 4:28 pm
Every other developed (and many less developed) country in the world has locked down their immigration policies to where they only want accomplished young professionals under 50 with loads of income and no health issues. They police their borders with zero tolerance. They do not get shamed. It is business as usual. Only the US plays this game and shames itself. A welcoming and supportive legal immigration system is the backbone of this country. You can be any age, have no education, all kinds of health problems, don’t have to have a dime to your name, or even speak English (a native speech requirement is common to most countries’ immigration policies) to come here, but you better do it legally. No other country in the world is that generous. Creating a 2 tier system so there are no laws or it’s all subjective is a slap in the face for people who work for years to become law abiding tax paying citizens of this country. Then there is the public health aspect. People who came over Ellis Island were often sick and had to be quarantined until they were healthy enough not to spread disease. I toured that museum and it’s gut wrenching but the US tried to do right by not sending people away and giving them a chance. No. other.country.has ever.done.that. Not like America. We need common sense screening for disease and vaccines any time anybody crosses a border to join a community. Nobody’s blaming anybody it’s just a fact. Now we have new OLD diseases cropping up everywhere from unvaccinated people, whether they are antivaxers or from another country or whatever. This is real, people. It’s not a game. It’s common sense. Equal treatment under the law means equal application of the law. Otherwise you’ve got Bedlam and we might as well turn back the clock 500 years.
Dont Say FLA
March 16, 2024 at 11:09 am
Agree. A certain bunch of folks want to say the US of America was founded in Christianity, but the fact is the USA was founded in having open arms to everyone seeking to get away from some bullshit like our earliest settlers, the folks some call “founding fathers,” did themselves and is the reason any of us are here (excepting the people who were already here, somehow survived, but got rounded up and put into homeless camps called “reservations.”
Elmo
March 15, 2024 at 1:39 pm
Puddin’ Patrol
MH/Duuuval
March 15, 2024 at 2:40 pm
DeSantis contended later that “a lot of those folks” from Haiti likely will fly to Mexico.
Did the airport
MH/Duuuval
March 15, 2024 at 8:44 pm
My thought was interrupted as I contemplated thousands of Haitians flying into Mexico — and then finding other means to travel to Florida — where they might have relatives, friends, or former neighbors.
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Linwood Wright
March 15, 2024 at 2:48 pm
Oh no! You hear that you Haitian refugee who just floated here on a makeshift raft built out of plywood and old Michelin tires to escape hell on earth?
Good Ol’ Puddin’ Fingers is super serious! You best stay away if you know what’s good for ya!
Dont Say FLA
March 16, 2024 at 11:06 am
I bet Rhonda is collecting old Firestone tires from old Ford Explorers and sending them to Haiti for raft making in the hopes they will explode and the refugees will all drown.
And if anybody wants to know what a tight land border between USA and Mexico would look like (if it ever that were to occur), this is what a tight land border would look like.
Well over a year ago I warned about Florida getting barbed wire beaches that would result from the land border being closed. And there we are fixing to be, albeit due to different asylum seekers fleeing violence in a difference place, but still it’s a place where the “people with” guns have made life unbearable and unlikely to last very long for those who stay.
Marco
March 15, 2024 at 3:03 pm
We don’t need any more insurance scams. People from this area of the world are well schooled on how to game the system,
Thank you Governor Ron.
wet back down south
March 16, 2024 at 9:53 am
Why doesn’t Rona declare war on Hate eeh? Or declare all Hatian’s “terrorists”? After all, haters gotta hate, shun!
Dont Say FLA
March 16, 2024 at 11:02 am
Asylum is not illegal immigration.
If we want to stop the inflow of refugees seeking asylum, it’s pretty simple. This is all it takes: Stop the NRA’s manufacturer members from sending guns and ammo across the US southern border, the border that’s left open by GOPs to accommodate the NRA business member illegal export workflow, to places in Cental and South America where they are given to seedy humans to create and exacerbate the problems that make people flee.
MH/Duuuval
March 18, 2024 at 10:19 am
Cracking down on the illegal firearms trafficking to areas south of the US is long overdue, but the MAGAs are intertwined financially and electorally with the firearms and 2A fanatics. Hence the focus on border security only goes one direction: el Norte.
Dont Say FLA
March 20, 2024 at 8:51 am
Southbound 2A related guns and ammo yield infinite profits while sourcing a never-ending supply of cheap workers in positions of weakness due to fear of deportation, allowing for both worker abuse and sexual abuse.
An open border solves the G0P’s biggest issues. Why else would Unelected House Speaker Trump have demanded the border remain open?
The claim is that Trumps wants the border to be a campaign issue, and the MAGAs will fall for that story because when it comes to the border, they always for it. Every. Single. Time.
But it’s right here in all our faces for everyone to see: Trump and MAGAs and the GOP all want the border to be wide open so they can keep making their money on 2A exports that generate warm body imports.
Michael K
March 16, 2024 at 12:45 pm
Has he ordered “shoot to kill” yet, as he threatened during his $160 million failed presidential campaign?
MH/Duuuval
March 16, 2024 at 9:16 pm
The thought crossed my mind, anyway, since Dee keeps painting himself into a corner and being forced to double down.
Uninsurable, Unethical, Christian Nationalist florida
March 17, 2024 at 7:36 am
Also, fentanyl is now illegal.
Earl Pitts "The Big Voice On The Right" American
March 18, 2024 at 6:37 pm
Good evening America,
STAND BY FOR NEWS:
It appears the 8iden Administration paid BarBaQue to run all the citizens out of Haiti so they all run to the USA and vote for 8iden. Yeah it would be kinda raciest if a Republcan had paid BarBaQue. But the end is seen as justifying the means always when Democrats do it.
AND THATS THE REST OF THE STORY:
Thank you America,
Earl Pitts American
rick whitaker
March 19, 2024 at 2:03 pm
earl, paul harvey wouldn’t piss on your grave. why do you so freely plagiarize his words without credit. are you so low in talent that you have to steal others words? it’s more like, ” big mouth on the bite ” .
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