Florida passes its ‘anti-immigrant’ law

The chilling bill, SB 1718, which severely punishes undocumented immigrants and those who help them, took effect Saturday in Florida amid protests and calls to unite and use their voices to fight what Latino leaders defined as “extreme right-wing attack”.

“This is a very important day because Florida is under attack. We are victims of a governor who has used and continues to use the state as a political platform to send a strong message to the extreme right,” said Soraya Márquez, director of Mi Familie. Vota., during the Mexico, Central and South America Migration Convention that was held in Miami.

The goal of this meeting, called by various pro-immigrant organizations, is to define an “action plan with specific strategies and goals” against SB 1718 and the policies of Governor Ron DeSantis.

The fear of undocumented immigrants, which has caused many to leave Florida, is just one of the effects of this law promoted by DeSantis, who wants to be president of the United States and is already campaigning for the election. The Republican in the 2024 presidential election.

However, the detective Argemis Colomé, spokesman for the Miami-Dade County Police Department, who attended the Migration Convention, told EFE that the law “does not change much” the work of the police agents.

According to Colomé, the Miami-Dade Police Department’s legal team found only one aspect of the law that made them act differently than they did, and that is that bringing an undocumented immigrant to Florida from another state, even if it’s a relative, is considered a criminal offense. a crime of the second degree.

Previously, in a case like this, agents had to call state agencies in charge of irregular immigration, Colomé said.

“The police will not ask about your immigration status if they stop you for a traffic situation, nor will they ask someone who reports that they have been the victim of a crime,” Colomé claims.

“The law will have an impact a person who commits a crimenot a person working, not a person in their car, not friends or family who don’t have papers, they are with you,” he asserted.

However, the detective acknowledged that he could not be sure how police departments in other counties, nor sheriffs across Florida, would act.