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Opinion


RON DESANTIS PURSUES A NEW ERA OF CRUELTY FOR UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS

This new set of Florida laws could cost Ron DeSantis Latino evangelical support.


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Midland, Mich., on Thursday.Chris duMond / Getty
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April 10, 2023, 6:59 PM EDT
By Zeeshan Aleem

Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has churned out one extreme right-wing law
after another, often designed to stir up culture war controversies over
identity. Now the state is poised to pass some of the most draconian
anti-immigrant bills a state has enacted in recent memory. Local business
leaders and Latino evangelical groups are pushing back against the proposals.
But Florida Republicans seem set on crafting a new kind of surveillance state
that encourages racial profiling and makes life for undocumented immigrants in
the state even worse. 

The New York Times reports that the package of bills expected to pass in the
coming weeks would constitute the harshest crackdown on undocumented immigrants
in over a decade:

> The bills would expose people to felony charges for sheltering, hiring and
> transporting undocumented immigrants; require hospitals to ask patients their
> immigration status and report to the state; invalidate out-of-state driver’s
> licenses issued to undocumented immigrants; prevent undocumented immigrants
> from being admitted to the bar in Florida; and direct the Florida Department
> of Law Enforcement to provide assistance to federal authorities in enforcing
> the nation’s immigration laws.

On top of all this, DeSantis has called for scrapping undocumented students’
access to in-state tuition.




The sum effect of these laws is that undocumented immigrants — and anyone else
who might be suspected to be one — would face new, intrusive levels of scrutiny
and potential arrest in countless scenarios. Making it a felony to house, hire
or transport an undocumented immigrant — punishable by up to five years in
prison — could inspire a new wave of citizen surveillance, suspicion and
severance of social ties from landlords, employers, colleagues, lawyers,
roommates and neighbors. 

Latino religious groups in Florida have often, though not universally, supported
DeSantis in the past. But they’ve spoken out against these bills, because they
say they would face severe criminal charges for carrying out many of their basic
functions as humanitarian organizations. Gabriel Salguero, founder of the
National Latino Evangelical Coalition, told NBC News that it would “criminalize
the church’s work.”



“We have schools, we have Sunday school, we have church vans that bring them to
worship. We have soup kitchens that we sometimes drive people to who are
undocumented because they need food. Sometimes we take them to their lawyer,”
Salguero said.

One particularly cruel aspect of the new policies would be that undocumented
immigrants might avoid going to the hospital out of fear of being identified.

One particularly cruel aspect of the new policies would be that undocumented
immigrants might avoid going to the hospital out of fear of being identified.
It’s not difficult to see how some undocumented immigrants could die after
having hoped a life-threatening emergency might pass to avoid being flagged to
the authorities.



Not too long ago, Florida was taking steps to become a more hospitable place for
undocumented immigrants. For example, a number of officials in DeSantis’ own
administration supported a 2014 law to give in-state tuition to undocumented
immigrants. And recently Florida businesses lobbied against and narrowed the
scope of DeSantis' efforts to require Florida employers to use the E-Verify
system to ensure that new hires are in the country legally. (Big business'
fondness for cheap undocumented immigrant labor isn't motivated by noble
intentions, but it still has the effect of tempering some Republicans'
crackdowns on undocumented immigrants.)


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But for DeSantis and his GOP colleagues, there appears to be a willingness to
anger some of their supporters to stake out a hard-line position on immigration.
DeSantis sees immigration policy as an opportunity to flaunt right-wing
nationalist bona fides, and to illustrate a take-no-prisoners culture war
attitude that ambitious Republican politicians need to compete with 2024
presidential hopeful Donald Trump. 

Just like when DeSantis cruelly sent Venezuelan immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard,
Massachusetts, there seems to be a refusal to admit undocumented immigrants’
contributions and humanity. The right wing clings to its narrative that
undocumented immigrants bring little but crime to the U.S., even though that
view has long been exposed as a noxious myth. Undocumented immigrants are a fact
of American life, deeply interwoven with the American economy and society. But
DeSantis and his ilk would rather score political points than ease their
suffering.

Zeeshan Aleem

Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily.



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