The Florida House of Representatives has passed an anti-immigrant bill that that would force local and state law enforcement to collaborate with mass deportation agents and could create such a hostile climate for the state’s immigrant families that even minor traffic violations could result in family separation and deportation.
House Bill 527 and Senate counterpart 168 “would ban policies that limit local cooperation and information-sharing with federal authorities on immigration matters,” New American Economy fund said, and advocates believe that the state could follow Arizona, home of the infamous “Papers, Please” law, in experiencing financial repercussions should panicked immigrants flee the state. But it's the human costs that are also frightening.
“Immigrant families will be split up for minor traffic infractions such as broken tail lights,” Lester Crowne writes in the Miami Herald, “fender benders, and driving without a license; which undocumented workers are unable to obtain in Florida.” In a video from immigrant rights leader Thomas Kennedy, seven-year-old Isaac tells state Sen. Joe Gruter, the Senate bill’s primary cosponsor, that he’s afraid. “I don’t want to be scared, I don’t want my friends at school to be separated from their families.”
Hundreds of Floridians protested the proposals last month in Tallahassee. Following HB 527’s passage in the House on Wednesday, a number of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and their advocates gathered outside the Senate holding signs targeted at Gruter, reading “Stop criminalizing us,” “Keep families together,” and “Do U care about us?”
SB 168 “would be devastating for my community,” DACA recipient Valentina added, saying that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and police collaboration could lead to the separation of her family. She’s urging Floridians to call state’s senators (more information is available here) and help keep families together by urging a no vote on this legislation.