TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers on Tuesday launched a third special session aimed at increasing enforcement of illegal immigration, putting aside an intraparty clash with Gov. Ron DeSantis over plans to help carry out one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities.
Lawmakers are slated to vote Thursday on bills that include a number of changes to a measure that the House and Senate passed during a special session two weeks ago. The changes include doing away with a key sticking point that DeSantis said doomed the earlier measure.
The revised plan scrapped a proposal that would have made Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson — a potential 2026 gubernatorial candidate who is close to Trump — the state’s chief immigration officer.
Part of the new plan (HB 1-C and SB 2-C) instead would create a State Board of Immigration Enforcement made up of the governor, agriculture commissioner, attorney general and state chief financial officer. The board would coordinate immigration enforcement activities with federal officials and dole out $250 million in grants to local law-enforcement agencies to assist federal enforcement efforts. Decisions made by the board would have to be unanimous.
The requirement for unanimity — which Senate President Ben Albritton called a “consensus” model — coincides with a reshuffling of the Florida Cabinet.
Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis submitted his resignation to run in a special election for a congressional seat, and former Attorney General Ashley Moody left her post after DeSantis appointed her to replace former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who became Trump’s secretary of state. DeSantis said he intends to appoint his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, as attorney general, and he also will name Patronis’ successor.
Simpson’s vote will be critical for approval of the grants, which would be used to reimburse expenses incurred by local agencies supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts. The grants also could be used to provide $1,000 bonuses for specially trained local law-enforcement officers who would participate in federal immigration task forces.
“This is just a better model. It's going to work better. That's part of the consensus-building process. This is a story of ideas, and what we have assembled are what we believe are the best ideas to be able to support President Trump in his efforts to work on illegal immigration in this country,” Albritton, R-Wauchula, told reporters after a brief floor session Tuesday.
The proposal also would make significant changes to a 2023 law that created the “Unauthorized Alien Transport Program” within the state Division of Emergency Management. Lawmakers in 2023 steered $12 million to the agency, bolstering DeSantis’ efforts to relocate undocumented immigrants to places such as Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
Under the new plan, the state agency could only transport migrants out of the state if federal immigration officials “specifically request assistance,” cover the costs of the travel and oversee the operations.
Senate bill sponsor Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican who is a strong Trump ally, downplayed the significance of the proposed change.
“President Trump has already closed the borders. There’s no need for the political-type events like that anymore, and so it’s completely irrelevant,” Gruters told reporters Tuesday. “Now, it's about making sure we do what's right under what President Trump wants in coordination, collaboration. Everything that we do in this bill is working with them (the Trump administration).”
The measure would require sheriffs and county jail administrators to cooperate with federal immigration officials and participate in what is known as the 287(g) program and report undocumented immigrants to federal authorities.
The bill would impose $5,000 fines and suspension from office for county or municipal officials who refuse to comply with immigration detainers issued by a federal agency.
The proposal also would increase penalties and require pretrial detention for undocumented immigrants who commit forcible felonies, something already required for other serious violent crimes.
The plan also would steer $35.6 million to Simpson’s office to beef up border enforcement in the state and another $12 million to his agency to pay for 84 enforcement positions.
The measure also would do away with in-state tuition for undocumented immigrant students.
A separate bill (HB 3-C and SB 4-C) would make it a state crime to be in the country illegally and would impose the death penalty on undocumented immigrants who commit murders or rape children.
House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, said Tuesday that the legislation was a “compromise” with DeSantis that “was in line with President Trump’s vision to solve the crisis” of illegal immigration.
“We are going to have an open line of communication with the federal government. We have put money aside to help with the illegal immigration crisis that we have. The truth is that we have made Florida a safer place by coming to an agreement on this bill,” Perez told reporters Tuesday morning at a Florida Chamber of Commerce event.
But House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said the bill won’t help Floridians.
“The immigration system really is, we can acknowledge, broken. But it requires federal solutions. It requires federal funding, more federal judges, more agents for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). So, it just begs the question of how is the Florida Legislature and the governor coming up with nearly $300 million to address this problem?” Driskell told reporters.
Perez and Albritton on Monday night called this week’s special session. The accord between the GOP legislative leaders and the governor over the immigration proposal marked a significant shift after a dispute over how to handle the issue.
Lawmakers on Jan. 27 convened in a special session called by DeSantis to take up immigration policy and other issues. Albritton and Perez described DeSantis’ call for a special session “premature” and, in a rebuke, quickly closed the session. They then launched their own special session and passed a measure that included giving Simpson authority over immigration enforcement.
DeSantis said he would veto the measure, branding it as a “pro-amnesty bill, and likening Simpson’s proposed oversight of immigration enforcement to “the fox in the henhouse” — an assertion that undocumented immigrants work in the agriculture industry.
Albritton said Tuesday that Simpson, a former Senate president, and his family had received death threats amid the heated debate over the plans.
“Whatever our disagreements, there is no place for political violence in our state. There is no excuse for the actions of those who, for their careless keyboard courage, have intentionally inflamed the public and incited violence against a good man and his family. The threats against President Simpson must stop now. These threats are un-American. They're just flat wrong,” Albritton said.