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Heres a glance at some of the new laws that came out of the 2023 legislative session.

Protesters gather at the New College of Florida campus inSarasotaon May 15, moments after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed three higher education bills that were approved during the 2023 legislative session.

After 60 days of debate, protests and controversy, the 2023 Florida legislative session has ended. Hundreds of bills passed the House and Senate, including one approving a $117 billion budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

Below is a look at some standout bills:

Public institutions of higher education can no longer spend tax dollars on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs or initiatives. The law, HB 999/SB266, also limits the teaching of race in those settings.

On Monday, DeSantis visited New College of Florida to sign the bill into law.

DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination, DeSantis said. And that has no place in our public institutions.

DeSantis also signed HB 931, which prohibits higher education institutions from requiring students, faculty, and staff members from signing diversity statements, and SB 240, which expands access to workforce education, or trade programs, to middle and high school students. (See page 3 for more on this law.)

In an effort to crack down on immigrants entering the country illegally, DeSantis signed into law a bill that requires private employers to use a government system to verify the eligibility of newly hired employees and suspends licenses of employers who knowingly employ undocumented immigrants. Additionally, the law makes it a criminal offense to transport undocumented people into Florida and makes it easier for the governor to expel them from Florida.

Employers who violate the law can be fined up to $1,000 a day and have their licenses suspended until they come back into compliance.

Additionally, hospitals are required to ask patients if they are in the country legally.

The Florida House version of the bill was sponsored by Rep. Kiyan Michael (R-Jacksonville) whose son Brandon died in a 2007 car accident after being hit by an immigrant who had been deported twice previously.

Gov. Ron DeSantis holds up legislation he signed during a bill-signing event at the Cambridge Christian School in Tampa.

Diapers and incontinence products including pads, liners, and undergarments can no longer be taxed.

Sponsor Rep. Anna Eskamani (DOrlando), who won bipartisan support for the bill, said the tax elimination could save Floridians an estimated $100 million.

This is important because we need to ensure that for our families, regardless of where they are in life, whether theyre newborns or whether theyre aging or living with a disability, that they have access to these essential goods without having to pay tax, said Eskamani.

Floridians now can carry concealed weapons without a permit, thanks to the passing of bill HB 543. Also known as constitutional carry, DeSantis last year said the law was necessary to protect Second Amenment rights.

At that time, he criticized then Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Secretary Nikki Fried for the lack of permits and accused her of not supporting Second Amendment rights. Fried called DeSantiss comments absurd political pandering.

Abortions after six weeks of pregnancy now are contingent on a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on a relate case about the privacy cause in the Constitution.

Meanwhile, a 15-week ban passed last year by the Legislature remains in effect. And a coalition of groups including the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Florida Rising and Womens Voices of Southwest Florida kicked off a drive earlier this month in support of passing a constitutional amendment next year to protect abortion rights in the state.

Legislators approved the expansion of school vouchers to all Florida K-12 students. The tax-funded vouchers can be utilized at private schools. Previous income requirements in current voucher programs will sunset.

The state Legislature passed a number of bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community, most notably banning gender affirming care for minors. Other laws restrict pronoun use in schools and requires people to use the bathroom corresponding with their sex in some cases.

The bills are expansion of last years Dont Say Gay legislation that banned teaching sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. The law sparked push back from opponents who countered that the law punished marginalized people.

It also tipped off a battle between DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company that resulted in the former dismantling the special government district that runs the theme park resorts municipal-like services via legislation and setting up a new governing board appointed by the governor.

Democrats opposed the bills and LGBTQ+ rallies were held at the Capitol during the session that ended two weeks ago, but Republicans have a super majority in both chambers and the bills easily moved through the legislative process.

Reports from WUSF Public Media and News Service of Florida were used in compiling this article.

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DEI funding cuts, immigration reform and more | News | flcourier.com - Florida Courier

I felt compelled to respond to the May 12 LNP | LancasterOnline letter titled Border situation is a disaster.

In response to the writers question about what has happened to our immigration laws, the answer is, sadly, nothing. The major laws regulating immigration into the United States havent seen any meaningful updates or reforms since the mid-1980s. Even then, the so-called reform titled the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was little more than an emergency attempt to stem the tide of people coming illegally to the United States largely at the behest of U.S. companies seeking cheap labor.

Title 42, on the other hand, wasnt an immigration law at all. It was a public health law that temporarily allowed U.S. authorities to deny entry to people as a means of stopping the spread of COVID-19. When the public health emergency surrounding COVID-19 ended, so did the legal authority conferred by Title 42.

If youre concerned about the situation at our southern border, Id suggest you speak to your elected representative about supporting meaningful immigration reform. That would necessarily include expanding our immigration courts to handle the thousands of legitimate and fully legal asylum requests currently awaiting adjudication. And we might also consider helping our southern neighbors stem the tide of violence currently driving their desperate citizens northward.

James Cohen

East Lampeter Township

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Congress must pass immigration reform [letter] | Letters To The ... - LNP | LancasterOnline

A viral video shows a reportedly abandoned Florida jobsite. Local experts say immigrants who are not authorized to work in the U.S. have fled the state out of fear of deportation.

Theyre reportedly moving in response to a new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last week.

Anecdotally, things have already gotten tougher in Florida in the last week, Madelin Zavodny, labor economist and professor at the University of North Florida, told Construction Dive. Theres a lot of fear among the unauthorized immigrant population about what the law means for them, and Im sure their employers are getting nervous as well.

State Bill 1718 will require private companies with more than 25 employees to use E-Verify to ensure workers immigration status, to prevent foreign-born individuals who are not authorized to work in the U.S. from filling jobs and using state resources.

Though proponents say it will contribute to national security, others indicate a tough road ahead for employers and workers alike, especially in construction. In 2020, there were an estimated 1.4 million foreign-born, non-citizen,Hispanic laborers in the U.S., according to CPWR the Center for Construction Research and Training.

For employers in Florida the law brings unpredictability at a time of high labor demand and a shortage of workers.

Theres great uncertainty as we sit here today, said Mark Neuberger, a Florida-based labor and employment attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP. It could all settle down or it could be disastrous.

Complicating the matter is the May 11 expiration of Title 42, a COVID-19-era federal policy that severely limited the ability for immigrants to seek asylum for three years.

Governors and state legislatures are taking matters into their own hands because of this influx, they have to find a way to address it. Theyre being failed by the federal government in not addressing this.

Peter Comstock

Senior Director of Legislative Affairs, ABC

Now that it has lapsed, immigration hawks have voiced concern that it will open the floodgates to even more illegal entries at the border, though that expected wave has yet to materialize. Employer groups have advocated for immigration reform, seeking to protect both immigrant workers and the builders who want to legally employ them.

E-Verify is an online federal system that allows employers to confirm eligibility of employees to work in the U.S. On July 1, Florida will join nine other states that have E-Verify requirement laws for private employers:

Employers that dont comply with the new Florida law face fines of $1,000 a day.

Peter Comstock, senior director of legislative affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors, said the advice to ABC members is simple: Be in compliance with the law.

But compliance can be a corrective action or balancing on a tightrope. Some companies may trim their workforce and walk along the knifes edge of staffing 24 employees in order to dodge the new law, suggested Hector Sandoval, assistant professor of economics at the University of Florida.

Mark Neuberger

Permission granted by Foley & Lardner LLP

Floridas E-Verify law is forward looking, meaning immigrants currently employed under the current I-9 system would be grandfathered in, and their employers would be technically compliant, according to Neuberger, the attorney.

Come July, Florida will mandate employers use E-Verify along with the existing I-9 forms, which will still be used as part of the process of confirming the validity of an employees eligibility status. As it stands now, the I-9 form alone is a system that is easier to circumvent for unauthorized workers, who can get documentation like drivers licenses in some states, said Neuberger.

Using just an I-9 also doesnt require employers to keep copies of their workers documents, Neuberger said. But E-Verify does.

All you have is the employers verification that they looked at [the documents], he said of the I-9 system.

In the long-term, experts like Neuberger said the law creates uncertainty, and could even become disastrous.

Sandoval emphasized how much southern Florida depends on immigrant labor. He pointed to the Spanish-speaking construction workers outside his office window who are currently building projects on the Gainesville, Florida, campus.

If we get hit with some hurricanes this year, think about who does a lot of the rebuilding. We rely on immigrant labor a lot in general.

Madeline Zavodny

Labor Economist and Professor, University of North Florida

Sandoval, along with several other sources, told Construction Dive he had heard of workers fleeing Florida, leaving jobsites empty. Neuberger said workers reportedly traveled to other construction hot spots like New York City.

The new law will also increase human trafficking and smuggling penalties for people, including U.S. citizens, raising it up to a $10,000 fine and 15 years in prison for transporting five or more undocumented people or an undocumented minor into the state of Florida.

This has raised concerns, Vox reported, as some workers regularly travel from state to state for jobs. In addition, the law would apply to U.S. citizens driving family members who are not authorized to be in the U.S.

DeSantis said the law pushes back against the Biden border crisis, charging that the federal government has abandoned its national security duties.

The legislation I signed today gives Florida the most ambitious anti-illegal immigration laws in the country, fighting back against reckless federal government policies and ensuring the Florida taxpayers are not footing the bill for illegal immigration, DeSantis said during the bill's signing.

Madeline Zavodny

Permission granted by Madeline Zavodny

Despite the political wrangling, Zavodny said that immigrants fill vital jobs that benefit most Americans. From construction to agriculture to custodial services, immigrants come to the U.S. and perform work the country needs.

Most immigrants are not competing directly with U.S. citizens for work, Zavodny said. Forcing their absence from the workorce could further contribute to the potential disaster she sees ahead.

If we get hit with some hurricanes this year, think about who does a lot of the rebuilding, Zavodny said. We rely on immigrant labor a lot in general.

But the biggest key to uncertainty is enforcement, Neuberger said, which is already a challenge for current laws. A state government led by DeSantis, whose name is consistently in the mix for a run at the White House, however, may apply the law to the fullest extent.

Title 42s expiration signifies a failure on the hands of the federal government, Comstock said.

The end of the policy created a wealth of uncertainty and confusion as to how the thousands of people crossing the border in places like Texas and Arizona could secure asylum from the U.S., but didnt result in a massive increase in immigrants crossing the border as some had predicted, according to NPR.

Without a more robust immigration system from the federal government, Comstock said, more states are likely to adopt laws, perhaps even E-Verify mandates, on their own.

Peter Comstock

Permission granted by Associated Builders and Contractors

Governors and state legislatures are taking matters into their own hands because of this influx, they have to find a way to address it, Comstock said. Theyre being failed by the federal government in not addressing this.

Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs and strategic initiatives for the Associated General Contractors of America, said the country has allowed too few legal entrants to the country while some employers take advantage of cheaper, unauthorized immigrant labor.

We need tighter border security so we dont have so many undocumented workers in the country who are likely to be exploited by unscrupulous contractors, Turmail said. And we need a path to legal status not necessarily citizenship for those undocumented workers who are currently here and already engaged in our economy.

Contractors and other industry leaders may have to wait a bit longer for any type of federal guidance on immigration. The House of Representatives passed an immigration reform bill on May 11, which would restart border wall construction and restrict asylum, according to Roll Call. Nonetheless, the bill received no support from Democrats, and likely wont make it through the Senate nor receive approval from President Joe Biden.

Zavodny said she hopes the process for allowing asylum seekers to work is expedited.

A lot of them are young men who will work in construction very happily, she said.

Overall, she said improving the legal immigration process to permit more workers to find employment in the U.S. could have generationally beneficial impacts.

For most of us, its great. Over time and generations, its just good to have more workers, she said.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to more accurately explain the difference and overlap between the I-9 and E-Verify systems.

Excerpt from:
Contractors face uncertainty over new Florida immigration law - Construction Dive

With the expiration of Title 42, a public health measure that allowed board patrol agents to deny asylum-seekers (technically refugees) from gaining entry at the U.S., the issues of immigration and border security are front and center as potent political issues.

Images of hundreds and hundreds of migrants congregating at our southern border provide dramatic TV footage and inflammatory rhetoric -- "crisis" "disaster" "chaos" "state of emergency" -- paint a bleak picture.

Yet, the images and rhetoric distort as much as they clarify what is happening and what needs to be done.

House Republicans have seized the moment to pass a border security bill -- not an immigration bill -- to coincide with this latest surge at the border. It was an achievement by Speaker McCarthy to get enough of his fractious caucus to agree, but he was able to corral those votes -- particularly from Hispanic Republicans -- only because they knew that the bill has no chance to become law.

"Border security (as opposed to reforming immigration law) is the easiest part we could have done and we got it wrong," said Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican whose district covers a large chunk of the border. He voted for the bill anyway because he believes there are elements that could, ultimately, become part of a compromise.

The House bill would require that the unfinished parts of the border wall under construction when President Biden assumed office be completed. There is some money for 2,000 or so new border agents and for some technology. It directs that intending migrants remain in Mexico or in a detention facility and it criminalizes visa over-stays.

The hard-liners backed off harsher language that would have cracked down on employers who don't verify that potential employees are here legally, but there is little new money in this bill or changes that would allow more temporary work visas -- either for the highly skilled or agricultural workers.

Keep in mind that 40 percent of agricultural workers in America are undocumented and consider that if the debt ceiling bill that House Republicans passed a week ago became law, there could be a 40 percent cut in funding for border security.

The immigration problem is mind-numbingly complex, from the causes (poverty, violence, political repression) to the solutions that involve resources not only for border patrol agents and enhanced technology but also for immigration judges to reduce the backlog of cases. Most asylum-seekers are ultimately denied, but they are legally entitled to their day in court.

The Biden administration deported or turned away 1.4 million intending migrants last year and arrested some 10,000 individuals accused of being part of smuggling networks. The president presented a bill to Congress to reform the immigration system on Jan. 21, 2021. It would have provided a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented including the so-called Dreamers. It went nowhere.

There were things in the Biden bill for border security that were similar to the House bill (more agents and technology). There has always been some common ground that could act as a starting point. However, one wonders if some Republicans would rather have the issue as a political club they can use to beat Democrats.

Senators Krysten Sinema and Tom Tillis have been trying to cobble together a bipartisan bill that would be the first comprehensive immigration reform in 40 years, but most analysts don't see any hope of progress or compromise.

In his town hall this past week, former President Trump said America has gone to hell and is a Third World country. The thousands heading toward America's southern border don't appear to agree. There is a disconnect between the overheated rhetoric and the sense of urgency to do something. Congress needs to get serious

Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86.

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Guest columnist Keith Peterson: Overheated rhetoric, obvious ... - Daily Herald

In a head-spinning twist, business executives and economists who previously claimed immigration had little or no impact on Americans paychecks are now calling for more immigration in order to reducewages.

Among the converts is retired Walmart CEO Bill Simon.Complaining that the company now has to pay workers $14 an hour (gasp!), Simon says higher levels of immigration will tamp down inflation by reining insalaries.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which heretofore cavalierly dismissed the idea that immigrant workers depress wages, now says doubling immigration might be the fastest thing to do to impactinflation.

Most recently, The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy article toeing the conventional line that the U.S. and every other developed nation must import evermore low-wage workers. But one Journal source broke ranks, asserting that mass immigration slows economies in the longrun.

Labor shortages are very healthy, saidMikal Skuterud, an economics professor at University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. They force employers to use existing workers more efficiently and invest in technology, thats all goodstuff.

Unfortunately, that logic is lost on Joe Biden & Co. FAIR reported this month that, to the detriment of American workers, the open-borders White House is slavishly following a Goldman Sachs playbook, which advocates for U.S. wage reductions via higher rates of immigration. (Goldman is mute on whether businesses would or should pass along any savings toconsumers.)

Apparently, what was once a negligible impact on wages is now a large and desirable one, observes Steve Camarota, of the Center for ImmigrationReform.

The argument that expanding the foreign labor pool lowers inflation is a thin and contradictory one, as evidenced by an article posted at Fwd.us, an immigration advocacy group. There, a George Mason University professor recites the newly approved mantra that more immigration is essential to curbing wages and stemming inflation. Yet Fwd.us explicitly states elsewhere on its website that it is a myth that immigration drives down wages. So which isit?

Globally focused business executives, corporate-endowed think tanks and compliant media acolytes with short memories conveniently gloss over inconvenient facts, even common sense, in dogged pursuit of their overriding objective: More immigration. If the old inflation-immigration narrative needs to be turned upside down, so be it. American workers are a dispensable detail in their shiftyequations.

The rest is here:
Immigration Lobby's New Inflation Spiel Sticks It to U.S. Workers, Again - Federation for American Immigration Reform