As Florida Republicans war with one another, Jason Pizzo said Democrats may need to broker the solution

Jason Pizzo, Senate Minority Leader, speaks to Capital Tiger Bay Club members today at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center about the post-2024 landscape and 2025 Legislative Session. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Democrats headed into this legislative term in smaller numbers than any time in state history. But an explosive rhetorical civil war between Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Ron DeSantis may have granted the minority caucus a rare bit of leverage.

In the wake of DeSantis’ threatened veto of an immigration bill lawmakers passed Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, a Miami-Dade Democrat, plans to introduce his own legislation on immigration he says will tackle the actual problems caused by criminals who entered the country illegally.

“I intend to file something that has teeth to it, and will be effective,” Pizzo, a former prosecutor, said, “something that actually has benchmarks, has criteria, has efficacy and success. The Senate Democratic Caucus is not opposed (to) cooperating, facilitating and assisting in the lawful execution of federal immigration law.”

Still, every Democratic Senator voted against the Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy (TRUMP) Act (SB 2B), a bill passed in the chamber on a 21-16 vote. Several, including Pizzo, said their primary objection was the inclusion of a repeal of in-state tuition for undocumented individuals who attended high school in Florida for three years.

If DeSantis does veto that bill, it seems unlikely any Democrats would join in a vote to override his veto. An override requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature. But Pizzo said if another bill were passed without the tuition language, it’s possible Democrats could pull together a veto-proof majority in support of a bill.

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat, can’t say the caucus will join in an immigration bill, not one like the TRUMP Act with or without the tuition language. “Not in the House anyway,” she said.

But Driskell noted the even smaller Democratic minority in the lower chamber isn’t in the same position as colleagues in the Senate. The House passed the TRUMP Act on an 82-30 vote, meaning Speaker Daniel Perez already has two-thirds of representatives in favor of the bill despite DeSantis’ objections.

“I don’t think they would have needed Dems for that in the House,” Driskell said of a potential override.

In the Senate, an override of the bill as it currently reads seems difficult because of opposition from the left and the right. Six Republicans voted against the legislation. One of those, Sen. Alexis Calatayud of Miami, voiced concerns about the tuition change and how it would impact her South Florida constituency.

But most Republicans voicing opposition to the bill, including in floor speeches by Sens. Blaise Ingoglia and Jay Collins, objected to a plan to shift immigration enforcement powers from the Governor to Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. DeSantis called such a move unconstitutional.

On that front, Pizzo said he holds little empathy for DeSantis, who the last two days also attacked Simpson as soft on immigration enforcement and too sympathetic to agricultural employers exploiting cheap labor.

Pizzo, perhaps as a result of a legislative career in the minority, often preached he had no “pride of authorship” when advancing legislation in a Republican-controlled chamber, and no desire to be the top sponsor on bills so long as they pass. He chuckled after the Governor used similar language regarding his desire for legislation now, and said DeSantis’ past actions suggest a greater appetite for credit. He points to the infamous (and notably unrepeated) flight of migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard on Florida’s dime, a move that generated national publicity but moved just a few dozen non-violent asylum seekers.

“The Governor is just an educated, powerful brat,” Pizzo said. “He is whining. This is (the) very first time there has been a clear kind of break with his directive, and some public pushback from legislators and people in the process.”

But if the Governor or legislative leadership truly have no concern who authors policy, Pizzo said the Senate Democratic caucus can advance a legislative package with broad bipartisan support, and that accomplishes many Republican leadership goals, including communication between law enforcement agencies and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but without poison pills like tuition changes or imposing a mandatory death penalty to certain criminals.

“An overwhelming majority of us is not opposed to assisting the federal government in the deportation of criminal aliens,” he said.