After criticism from Republicans, DeSantis revives E-Verify immigration enforcement

After being called out by Republican lawmakers for not enforcing the state’s E-Verify laws, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration on Wednesday issued warning letters to 40 companies.

The notices — which blame the Legislature for not funding the program — are an apparent response to the bitter fight this week between DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Legislature over how best to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.

Earlier this week, top Republicans noted that his Department of Commerce had issued eight enforcement letters to companies during DeSantis’ tenure for potentially not screening employees through E-Verify, the federal program that checks the legal eligibility of new workers.

None were issued since 2023, when DeSantis signed legislation requiring all companies with 25 or more employees to screen their employees through the program.

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The lack of action was part of the reason, top Republicans said, that immigration enforcement should be removed from the governor and given to the state’s agriculture commissioner, part of sweeping legislation lawmakers passed this week.

DeSantis has vowed to veto the bill, claiming that the agriculture commissioner won’t aggressively pursue immigration enforcement.

Wednesday’s “non-compliance letters,” which were sent out to companies including the Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital and corporate sites for Circle K and 7-Eleven, include language blaming the Legislature for not funding E-Verify.

“Though the Legislature created but twice refused to fund this program, the Department has marshaled existing resources to enforce” the E-Verify law, the letters to the companies state.

It wasn’t clear Thursday how, or when, lawmakers refused to fund the program.

“The [annual state budget] includes enough funding for the Department to carry out its statutorily assigned duties, E-Verify being one of them,” Senate spokesperson Katie Betta said in a statement.

Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who was one of the lawmakers raising questions about the lack of enforcement this week, blamed the department for not enforcing the law.

“This was not a priority for the office and the ball was dropped,” he said in a text message Thursday. “I have never heard they needed any additional funds. Not once did I ever get a request in for it.”

The agency’s legislative budget request to lawmakers for the upcoming fiscal year also doesn’t mention additional staffing for E-Verify enforcement.

A spokesperson for the Department of Commerce, which oversees E-Verify enforcement, did not answer questions about the funding.

One of the letters was also sent to Trulieve, the medical marijuana company that sponsored the recreational marijuana amendment that DeSantis spent much of last year trying to defeat.

Trulieve spokesperson Steve Vancore said the company would comply with the department’s request for copies of “all documentation relied upon by you for the verification of your new employees’ employment eligibility.”

“Every Trulieve employee is E-Verified as well as Level 2 background checked prior to onboarding,” Vancore said.

None of the notices issued Wednesday included details justifying why the companies were out of compliance.

Instead, all of the 40 notices were identical, stating that the department “received information from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that you may not be in compliance with the E-Verify law.”

The bill passed by the Legislature Tuesday night would put the program under Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and add 17 people devoted to E-Verify audits. Neither DeSantis nor lawmakers proposed expanding E-Verify to all companies.

Gruters said the bill would “add a lot of firepower” to enforcement.

“I’m glad that it came up during this bill discussion and happy they are starting to move,” he said.

Herald/Times Tallahassee bureau reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 7:32 PM.