In the fallout from the Florida governor and Republican candidate for the presidential nomination, Ron DeSantis's anti-human laws, Republicans are talking out of both sides of their mouths -again. Senate Bill 1718, signed into law in early May, targets immigrants that are part of the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, specifically Florida's service and agricultural sectors. Thomas Kennedy posted about a public publicity event on Monday, June 5th, where State Representatives Alina Garcia, Rick Roth, and Juan Fernandez Barquin sold their snake oil-infused prerolled propaganda and misinformation to the ready-made crowd.
Rick Roth states, "This bill is 100% supposed to scare you. I'm a farmer, and the farmers are mad as hell. We are losing employees. They are already starting to move to Georgia and other states. It's urgent that you talk to all your people and convince them that you have resources and state representative and other people that can explain the bill to you." After declaring that Donald Trump is the best president…then quickly edited his statement to the past tense before kneeling sycophantly at the feet of DeSantis, claiming, "I love my Governor. He's the greatest Governor…"
Alina Garcia follows up with, "This is a bill basically to scare people from coming to the state of Florida. And I think that it has done its purpose. This bill doesn't have any teeth." She ends by playing to Cuban migrant for freedom card.
According to Politico, Senate Bill 1718 will "require medium-sized and large employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check the status of new employees and mandates hospitals to ask patients about their legal status. The bill, S.B. 1718, will also allow authorities to charge someone with human trafficking if they knowingly transport an undocumented migrant across state lines. It would also prohibit an undocumented immigrant from driving a car even if they have a driver's license from another state."
The Florida Senate bill is reminiscent of the attrition through enforcement strategy of the Republican party in Arizona and Georgia. In Arizona, the violent organized abandonment of immigrant communities culminated with SB1070, signed into law by then-Governor Janet Brewer. People organized for their rights then and left the state – another form of protest.
