

That’s the fault of opportunistic politicians like Abbott, DeSantis and Donald Trump, who prefer to exploit bigotry and to demagogue about a problem rather than solve it.įlorida needs to keep its highway patrol officers here, on places like I-95, to protect us. The divisions are now worse, and Rubio is missing in action. It was dead on arrival in a hyper-partisan Republican House. Ten years ago, the Senate gave strong bipartisan support to a reform written by, among others, Sen. Rather than unnecessary displays of police power, politicians like DeSantis and Abbott ought to be advocating for comprehensive immigration reform that America urgently needs.Įveryone knows what it must entail: Fairer quotas and family reunification, swifter determination of asylum requests, a comprehensive guest worker program allowing people to come and go easily, and a path to earned citizenship for the more than 11 million people who are already part of our national fabric in every respect but the law. The political pressure for a crackdown was racist, the same as now. It wasn’t until early in the 20th century that there were any significant restrictions on immigration. Now, we need more immigrants to fill our vacant jobs and pay the taxes to support an aging population. Those of us whose ancestors weren’t here to welcome the Mayflower ought to remember that the United States owes its vitality and its reputation to the fact we are all immigrants or their progeny. It has been estimated that those industries would be in trouble nationwide if anti-immigrant Republicans could somehow get a sealed border and the expulsion of all 11 million undocumented immigrants. Worker shortages are anticipated in agriculture, construction and tourism, three pillars of the Florida economy.
#Morning sentinel obituaries today driver
Other facets of meanness forbid them from using driver licenses issued in other states and require hospitals to account for immigrants they treat. The greater harm in this law is intimidation: criminal punishment for anyone, even a family member, who “knowingly” transports an undocumented immigrant across state lines. Aside from being error-prone, E-Verify is easily foiled with borrowed documents.

The new Florida law penalizes employers of 25 workers or more who don’t consult the federal government’s E-Verify system to see if new hires are properly documented. It would be gratifying to see leaders like Abbott and DeSantis care about that kind of crisis.īack in Florida, people will likely pay higher prices for fruit and produce on account of the new anti-immigration law DeSantis signed - price hikes that, experts say, could be caused by fearful migrants fleeing to other states. “This is the real crisis - a humanitarian one,” said Amy Fischer, advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA. In March, a detention center fire at Ciudad Juarez killed 40 men. Some migrant camps south of the border are notorious for squalid conditions, lack of food and medicine and infestation by criminal gangs. Biden administration policy requires asylum seekers to have first applied for asylum in a third country, almost certainly Mexico, with exceptions for medical emergencies, unaccompanied minors and Mexican nationals.
