Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a wide-ranging immigration bill Thursday to complement President Trump’s efforts to address the border crisis after getting into a rare power struggle with the state legislature over the matter.
The legislation gives Florida more resources and power to help the Trump administration round up and deport illegal immigrants. Earlier this week, state GOP leaders and DeSantis (R) reached a breakthrough on their bruising, weekslong standoff.
“Today the Legislature has passed the strongest legislation of any state in the nation to combat illegal immigration,” DeSantis proclaimed before signing the bill into law.
Last month, he called on the state legislature to convene a special session to take up an immigration package. The GOP-led legislature promptly ended the one he called and began a new one.
From there, a feud erupted over some of the details in the bill, with both sides attempting to claim the MAGA mantle. The top issue for DeSantis was the legislature’s initial plan to shift power to enforce immigration law to the agriculture commissioner.
DeSantis wanted the creation of a “chief immigration officer” and threatened to veto the legislature’s bill for delegating that power to the agriculture commissioner.
The compromise deal establishes a State Board of Immigration Enforcement, which will include the governor, agriculture commissioner, chief financial officer and attorney general.
That board will need a unanimous vote for any major decisions.
“At the end of the day, we’re all on the same team, and we all want to help President Trump solve illegal immigration,” Florida state House Speaker Daniel Perez (R) previously told The Post about the row.
“So I’m very confident that eventually there will be a product that everyone will be on the same page on, even if it may mean that not everyone loves it.”
Additionally, the measure affirms that it is a state crime to come into Florida as an illegal immigrant, gives the governor a mechanism to remove state or local officials that neglect to enforce immigration law, bars in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants, and strengthens penalties for crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
Illegal immigrants were granted in-state tuition if they attended a high school in the Sunshine State due to a 2014 bill signed into law by former Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R). Democrats groused over that policy’s demise.
The bill DeSantis signed also marshalls $298 million to hire over 50 additional personnel for law enforcement as well as funding for training and equipment.
Illegal immigrants who commit capital offenses will become subject to the death penalty.
The compromise measure also cut out provisions in the prior legislation that would have pared back the governor’s emergency powers that could be used for immigration enforcement.
“Proud of the work done to pass the most aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration in the nation! United in our shared mission to keep Floridians safe and empower President Trump to secure our borders,” Perez said in a statement next to a picture of him smiling next to DeSantis.
DeSantis downplayed the dispute with the state legislature and called it a “healthy exercise.”
“I don’t think you’re going to see any lingering feelings at all,” he explained during a signing ceremony.
“It doesn’t have to be dictated by me,” he added. “If they do the job, then let’s move forward on it. And I think the legislation today does the job.”
Trump had stayed out of the prior skirmish between DeSantis and the GOP-led state legislature.
The president is eyeing an immigration package of his own, which Republicans in Congress are figuring out how to pass amid their slim control of the House of Representatives.
