In rush to appease Trump and outdo DeSantis, lawmakers focus on wrong end of immigration | Opinion

Florida legislators were right the first time.

Last week, House and Senate leaders called “premature” the special session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis to help fulfill President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, among other issues. It was, and so was the session they eventually held in defiance of the governor.

The two-month regular session, beginning in March, would be a better setting to discuss the complex issues facing Florida, including their stated goal of backing Trump’s immigration agenda.

Any chance of thoughtful debate went out the window when legislators began trying to out-Trump DeSantis in a race to see who could crack down on illegal immigration the quickest to please the new president. After rejecting DeSantis’ plans for the special session on Monday, lawmakers called their own meeting, with their own legislation and their own way of finding favor with the new president — calling the sprawling legislation it the “Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy,” or TRUMP Act.

That lawmaker-initiated legislation passed Tuesday, one day after it was filed, giving legislators and the public little time to digest it, and after a last-minute consultation with the White House. In other words, in a matter of 48 hours, what’s arguably the most sweeping piece of immigration in recent Florida history went through the legislative process.

Now DeSantis is vowing to veto it.

“The veto pen is ready,” DeSantis posted on X on Wednesday morning, after calling the bill the Legislature passed “weak.”

A veto may be the best we can hope for at the moment, though the governor would be vetoing it for the wrong reasons. The Trump-fueled rush to legislate has produced a bill that focuses its efforts on punishing illegal immigrants — with all the photo ops that entails — but doesn’t try to meaningfully stem the tide of immigration.

More thoughtful legislation could prevail if lawmakers had two months to discuss it, not two days.

One part of the bill is particularly cruel. The bill revokes in-state tuition at state colleges and universities for Dreamers — students whose parents brought them here illegally as kids. They’ve grown up in Florida, consider it to be their home, and in some cases barely remember the countries they came from. For them to be caught up in the same anti-immigrant fervor as people who are here illegally and commit crimes is unfair and way off base.

There’s no time for students and their families to prepare, either. The bill could easily have had a sunset provision to phase it in, but it doesn’t. That was unnecessary and inhumane.

Even if DeSantis vetoes the bill, the issue of in-state tuition will likely come back. The governor had also asked lawmakers to revoke it for undocumented students — so that’s one point he and the Legislature still agree on.

There are serious questions about the constitutionality of another part of the bill — mandatory death sentences for capital crimes committed by unauthorized immigrants. The bill also boosts sentencing guidelines for other crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, and it sets up a bonus program for law enforcement officers who help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement task forces.

And then there’s the part where the Legislature strips DeSantis of immigration powers and hands it to Agriculture Secretary Wilton Simpson. Trusting DeSantis with even more immigration powers — he has pulled stunts like flying immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, don’t forget — isn’t wise. But is it any better to give that power to the person who represents the agricultural industry, which relies heavily on undocumented workers?

The frenzied attempt to pass legislation to appease Trump may have taken up all the oxygen in Tallahassee for the last few days, but if lawmakers were serious about going after the causes of illegal immigration, they’d focus more of their efforts on the businesses that profit from under-the-table payment of labor. Florida’s tourism and construction industries rely heavily on illegal immigrants to keep their businesses going. But inflicting financial penalties on those companies would have enormous economic consequences. Lawmakers are never going to take that path.

This is a Legislature where Republicans hold a supermajority, so it would be naive to expect them not to carry out Trump’s agenda. It’s refreshing to see lawmakers come up with their own ideas and show their independence from the governor.

But the measures in this bill are aimed at individuals or law enforcement — not at preventing the problem of illegal immigration. That’s a much tougher subject to tackle, which is why they’ll never do it. And they sure can’t do it in two days.

Click here to send the letter.