Bill awaiting governor’s signature would require businesses to verify employees are authorized to work in US

TAMPA, Fla. - A Florida Senate bill targeting undocumented workers is headed to the desk of Governor Ron DeSantis.

Senate Bill 1718 requires public and certain private employers to use the E-Verify system to verify its employees are authorized to work in the US. Under the bill, if employers knowingly employ undocumented workers, they could be fined or lose their business license.

"Employers with more than 25 employees are going to be required to use the E-Verify system to document that their employees are authorized to work in the United States," Tampa area attorney Ryan Barack said. "And if they don't do that, and they have workers that are not documented, they risk fines of up to $1,000 a day."

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Barack said, in certain cases, this could lead to higher pay for workers, but explains this is a double-edged sword.

"If employers are unable to find workers who are willing to work at the low wages that frequently undocumented workers are paid, it's going to cost more to hire documented workers," Barack said. "It's going to cost more to hire documented workers, and it's going to cost more. And so all of our costs will likely go up as a result of this."

Supporters of the bill have said it puts pressure on larger scale national immigration issues, as the end of Title 42 looms.

"We keep on creating incentives for people to come across illegally. Until the states push back, which is what we are doing now, the federal government will never act," Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R- Spring Hill) said. "We are trying to force them into acting."

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Senators who have backed the bill have said it puts external force on the federal government to strengthen immigration legislation.

"But they’re not going to do it unless an external force pushes on them, and that external fore is going to be Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature," Ingoglia said.

However, Arturo Rios, an immigration attorney in the Tampa area, said this bill could backfire.

"We could be looking at an anarchy from the standpoint of the available availability of workers that can take over those jobs, especially in Florida," Rios said. "That is such a state where we're so strong agriculturally, where we depend, where we depend on immigrant workers."

Rios said the entire economy in Florida could take a hit, because many undocumented workers account for an important part of the state’s workforce.

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"It could impact on the farming industry in Florida and the hospitality industry and the construction industry," Rios said. "I mean, those are all industries that historically rely on undocumented and under documented workers."

Rios also said this bill deals with work of federal agencies like ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.  

"I don't even think it's one that the federal government would welcome because it interferes with a system that is already very, very well polished and working extremely, extremely well," Rios said.

Rios said this bill doesn’t target the true issues with immigration, and argues a large percentage of immigration issues could be resolved by updating existing laws instead of an entire reform. He said he is in full support of updating legislation that requires background checks and people to have clean criminal records in order to legally live in the US.

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The bill also prohibits any municipality, entity or organization from issuing identification documents to any person who doesn’t show proof of lawful presence in the US.

It also requires hospitals to ask for patients’ immigration status or registration forms.

The bill was brought to DeSantis’ desk on Tuesday.