Governor Ron DeSantis signs 3 bills cracking down on illegal immigration
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Three new bills aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration were signed into law on Friday.
Governor Ron DeSantis, along with Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, Lieutenant Governor Jeannette Nunez and Attorney General Ashley Moody as well as people who lost loved ones to crimes committed by illegal immigrants, held a press conference to sign the bills in Winter Haven.
The bills the governor signed include:
- HB 1589 Revises penalties for offense of driving without valid driver's license; requires specified minimum jail sentence for the third or subsequent conviction of such offense. It increases the maximum sentence from 60 days in jail to one year in jail for two or more offenses, and a minimum mandatory sentence of ten days in jail for three or more offenses.
- HB 1451 Prohibits counties & municipalities, respectively, from accepting certain ID cards or documents that are knowingly issued to individuals who are not lawfully present in United States as form of identification. Florida already prohibits local jurisdictions from issuing IDs or driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
- SB 1036 Requiring reclassification of the penalty for the commission of a felony committed by a person who has a previous specified conviction; defining the term "transnational crime organization"; authorizing reclassification of the penalty for any misdemeanor or felony offense if the commission of such offense was for specified purposes, etc. Under this law, a third-degree felony (up to 5 years in prison) after deportation will be charged as a second-degree felony (up to 15 years in prison). Also, a second-degree felony (up to 15 years in prison) after deportation will be charged as a first-degree felony (up to 30 years in prison) and a first-degree felony (up to 30 years in prison) after deportation will be charged as a life felony.
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"If you have been deported and you come to this state and enter our state and you are here illegally and you commit crimes, we are throwing the book at you and you are going to regret coming to the state of Florida," DeSantis said.
Nikki Jones says she lost her husband Shane Jones to an illegal immigrant who was drinking and driving in 2019, and she fully supports these bills.
"The illegal alien who killed my husband had multiple high risk traffic violations in between Hillsborough County and Polk County," said Jones. "I support these bills, because if they were in place and upheld prior to my husband being killed, and immigration law was followed through, I believe he would be alive today, and my children would still have their father."
During the press conference, Judd discussed a human trafficking operation in which more than 200 people were arrested, and 21 of them were in the country illegally.
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