Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Danny McAuliffeJune 16, 2018

Jeff Greene, a billionaire developer from Palm Beach and the newest Democratic option for Governor, is using the upcoming Father’s Day holiday to call for an end to the Donald Trump administration’s practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the border. In a statement Saturday, Greene said the policies are “inhumane.” He framed […]

Scott PowersMay 31, 2018

Democratic U.S. Rep. Darren Soto Thursday morning blasted the federal deportation and political asylum policy to separate children from their families who have crossed the American border without documentation, calling the policy “cruel” and “deeply immoral.” Soto, joined by Democratic state Rep. John Cortes of Kissimmee at Soto’s Kissimmee congressional district office, Soto described the […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 15, 2018

More than 1,100 children were prosecuted as adults in Florida last year — taken from their homes, removed from their schools, and locked up in adult jails. Although children’s brains are still developing, and they cannot fully understand the consequences of their actions, our criminal justice system treats some of them like grown adults. They […]

Ana CeballosNovember 6, 2017

Republican Sen. Rene Garcia, who chairs the Committee on Children, Families and Elders Affairs, said Monday that legislators need to “stop ignoring” mental health in the state even more so after the massacre that killed more than a dozen churchgoers in Texas. “We can no longer move on as a society until we start addressing […]

Scott PowersOctober 19, 2017

Immediately surrounded by 50 shades of cuteness but more broadly surrounded by deep worries about anti-Semitic violence and growing anti-Semitic sentiment, Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday pushed his proposal to include $1 million in his 2018 budget proposal to help Florida’s Jewish community centers, schools and day care centers further secure against attacks. Scott’s visit to […]

Associated PressMarch 8, 2017

A South Florida school board is taking steps to protect the children of undocumented immigrants who face deportation. The School Board of Broward County approved the resolution on Tuesday in response to increasing fears of more aggressive immigration enforcement policies implemented by the Trump administration. School Board member Robin Bartleman says immigrant families “wanted to […]

Les NeuhausFebruary 20, 2017

Guns, children, neglect, animal abuse, human trafficking and forced prostitution. These aren’t the beautiful, cliché, sundown-on-the-beach Florida stories, but in an attempt to raise public consciousness about these issues we at Florida Politics bring you today’s ‘DCF Files.’ *** On Monday, the Palm Beach Post published a story citing chilling figures from the Florida Department of […]

Michael MolineFebruary 6, 2017

A Senate committee got a preview of what a coordinated statewide campaign against human trafficking might look at Monday, when a prosecutor detailed Miami’s “victim-centered” attack on the scourge. Esther Jacobo, who runs the program for State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, said prosecutors, support staff, victim specialists, and investigators within the office and other Miami-Dade […]

Scott PowersJanuary 19, 2017

Contending that parents are double-taxed for children, Florida’s U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Utah’s Mike Lee are again pushing a plan to eliminate the so-called “parent penalty” in tax reform, with a letter to leaders of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. “Our tax code today treats parents unfairly. The payroll taxes that help […]

Larry GriffinDecember 15, 2016

A new bill filed by Rep. Bob Cortes would allow parents who have miscarriages to get a certificate to properly mourn their child. Dubbed the “Grieving Families Act,” the bill would allow parents of a birth that is deemed unviable and dies before 20 weeks into the pregnancy to have a certificate made for them […]

Tag: children
Image via DFS

Jeff Greene: Father’s Day is a reminder of ‘inhumane’ immigration policies

Darren Soto blasts deportation child-separation policy as ‘deeply immoral’

Scott McCoy: Children do not belong in adult jails

Rene Garcia urges legislators to ‘stop ignoring’ mental health issues

Rick Scott touts $1M proposal to secure Jewish centers

School board votes to protect kids from immigration raids

The bad, the ugly and the downright horrible — a roundup of today-in-DCF news

Senate panel begins work on human trafficking problem

Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, push their ‘parent penalty’ tax reform issue with leadership

Bob Cortes files ‘Grieving Families Act’ to allow certificates for miscarried children