New Florida Immigration Laws

Immigration laws to change in Florida

As of Saturday, Florida will enact some of the strictist anti-immigration laws in the country.

CS/CS/SB 1718 - Immigration makes the following changes:

• Transporting a minor or more than five undocumented people into the state carries a second-degree felony penalty.

• Companies with 25 or more employees will have to use the federal E-Verify system when hiring workers. Penalties for employers who don’t verify their employees’ status could face suspension of their licenses to operate.

• Local governments will be banned from contributing money to organizations creating ID cards for undocumented immigrants, and driver’s licenses issued to non-citizens will be barred from use in Florida. Illegal migrants also could face felony charges by displaying a false ID to obtain employment.

• Hospitals receiving state and federal Medicaid reimbursements will be required to track how much money is spent on undocumented immigrants in emergency rooms and must ask if a patient is in the country legally.

• A 2014 law that allowed undocumented immigrants to be admitted to practice law in Florida will be repealed.

• The Division of Emergency Management’s Unauthorized Alien Transport Program get $12 million to continue the migrant-relocation program of transporting asylum-seekers to different places around the country.