Here’s how Trump in the White House is already shaking up Florida | Opinion
Brace yourself, Florida. President Donald Trump’s barrage of executive orders and decisions from the first days of his presidency could really shake up the Sunshine State, from Miami to Tallahassee.
With the first Florida man in the White House — Trump switched his official residency to Mar-a-Lago from New York in 2019 — the new administration set a furious pace, as promised. And a lot of the changes are likely to affect his home state as he seeks to expand presidential powers in unprecedented ways.
The Florida impact starts with immigration. In the first 24 hours of his presidency, Trump announced a national emergency at the southern border, suspended refugee resettlement and terminated a humanitarian parole program that had offered a legal pathway to entry for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
South Florida, which has a significant population from all four countries, is bound to be feel the pain from this. About 530,000 people from those countries had been allowed to temporarily come to the U.S. under the program during the Biden administration, which was designed to stop immigrants from lining up at the U.S. southern border.
Though we don’t yet know how this will play out — the program has been the subject of litigation for years — no doubt there are many anxious South Florida families wondering what’s next for loved ones who had been counting on the suddenly-canceled program.
Trump also issued an executive order on birthright citizenship, another move that could hit his home state hard. It’s an attempt to deny citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who are here illegally or who are here legally but temporarily, which would affect those in the U.S. on a visa.
This will be fought in the courts, and most legal experts predict it will be defeated, fortunately. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution has protected birthright citizenship for almost 160 years. Trump, though, has been arguing that the protection doesn’t extend to all people in the U.S. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups immediately sued.
If Trump were to prevail with this idea, Florida would feel it. It’s hard to get a clear picture of how many people would be affected but, in one measure, about 7% of children living in the state between 2010 and 2014 were U.S. citizens had at least one undocumented family member, according to a study from the American Immigration Council in Washington.
Immigration is a critical component of South Florida’s development. Both of these actions — attacking birthright citizenship and summarily ending an immigration lifeline for people fleeing places like Venezuela — feel designed to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment. As the Florida Legislature heads to Tallahassee next week for a special session that may include action on immigration, will they fall in line with presidential orders that affect their constituents?
Like it or not, Florida also may become home again to former Miami Proud Boy leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who was among the Jan. 6 defendants who received a blanket pardon from Trump. Tarrio, according to reports, is on his way to Miami after release from a Louisiana federal prison. He had been serving 22 years in prison — the longest sentence for any of the 1,600 or so people convicted.
It’s unclear what kind of reception he’ll receive in Miami. He has become a controversial figure in his former group, which seems to have mostly fallen from the spotlight after dismantling its national leadership. But his release, and that of the others who sullied our Capitol and attacked police officers, is a serious blow to the rule of law.
The re-listing of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, another first-day action, was expected. Former President Joe Biden’s last-minute de-listing of Cuba was supposed to result in the release of political prisoners, but it left many Miami Cubans shocked and disheartened. Cuba should be on the list. The Trump administration lost no time in reversing that bad decision.
Another win for Miami: the Senate’s confirmation of former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state. Rubio is fully qualified for the job, plus he will bring a new focus to Latin America and Cuba, though his hands will be full, no doubt, with Ukraine and China. Still, we are heartened to see him in the job of the nation’s chief diplomat.
If these moves are any indication of the future, Florida will see a lot of change. We have four years to see how it all plays out.
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This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 8:43 AM.