A.G. Gancarski
A 32-member House committee was the first to dig into and advance Monday, by a 24-7 margin reflecting party lines, the Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy Act, the TRUMP Act. Other committees will consider the legislation in the House Monday, with the Senate digging in also.
The bill, from Rep. Lawrence McClure, is wide-ranging, and will cost $509 million in start up costs, with $488 million of that non-recurring. The bill is framed as supportive of President Donald Trump’s vision for illegal immigration reform.
McClure noted the bill “commands everyone in the state to enforce federal immigration law and to protect our borders,” by designating Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson as the Chief Immigration Officer, and creating the office of State Immigration Enforcement.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement would coordinate with the new office, McClure said in response to questions.
Asked why Commissioner Simpson was the pick, McClure said it was because the Attorney General position, expected to be given to DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier, was vacant.
“It increases criminal penalties pertaining to certain crimes committed by illegal immigrants. It creates a local law enforcement immigration grant program within OSIE to award grants to local law enforcement agencies to support their mission, and cooperation with federal immigration agencies in the enforcement of federal immigration law. It creates the State Immigration Enforcement Council within the OSIE, which is primarily composed of sheriffs and police chiefs for the purpose of advising the chief immigration officer,” McClure said.
Asked about broadening SIEC to include people outside law enforcement, McClure noted it was streamlined to “reduce bureaucracy” and ease communication flow between the feds and local law enforcement.
The bill also would repeal the fee waiver for undocumented students and prohibit undocumented students from receiving the fee waiver beginning, July 1. It calls for more than $500 million to assist state and local law enforcement in its fight against illegal immigration.
There are some things it does not do, McClure acknowledged.
Among them, the bill would not allow immigration agents to raid schools and pick up children of undocumented immigrants, he said in answering a question from Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman.
“We don’t have the jurisdiction to tell ICE not to. But you can’t currently under law,” McClure clarified.
McClure also framed the ending of in-state tuition for children of undocumented immigrants, a law enacted in 2014, as a way to remove “incentives” for them to be in this country. Roughly 6,000 students would be affected by that proposal.
An amendment to remove that provision, championed by Democratic Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, failed.
A second Eskamani amendment that would have blocked the benefit for universities but not state colleges subsequently failed also.
The Florida Highway Patrol has concerns about funding in the bill, while the American Civil Liberties Union and the Florida AFL-CIO are opposed to the proposal writ large.
One comment
MH/Duuuval
January 27, 2025 at 9:15 pm
Big, bad men with firearms going into schools and churches is against the law. Trump don’t care, as he showed when he and Stephen Miller separated families.
There are also some MAGA types who want to dispense with warrants for going into houses supposedly containing asylum seekers without papers — in violation of the 4th A.
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