Concerns rise in Florida as Trump, DeSantis plan immigration policy shifts

ORLANDO, Fla. – Advocates and those directly impacted by potential changes to immigration laws in Florida are expressing their concerns.

Two days after calling a special session on immigration, hurricane recovery and more, Gov. Ron DeSantis outlined a series of policies he believes will be easier to implement once President-elect Trump takes office.

“In this legislative session, you’re going to see some major changes in the federal government’s posture when it comes to the border and immigration,” DeSantis said during a press conference at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday

One of the things DeSantis said he would push for is to require local law enforcement to participate in federal immigration enforcement, which would include Trump’s plans to start a mass deportation effort.

[ What are the expected immigration policies under a second Trump Administration?]

Seventeen-year-old Polet Oaxaca, the daughter of a Central Florida immigrant farmworker, expressed her concerns to News 6.

“I feel like it’s worrisome. You never know what will happen when you go out of the house, to maybe buy groceries,” she said. “She’s scared that something’s going to happen, that she’s going to have to go back to Mexico. All that hard work going down the drain. It’s all wasted.”

Locally, the Farmworker Association of Florida is advocating for immigrants. Ernesto Ruiz, the agroecology coordinator, noted that while anti-immigrant rhetoric has intensified, it might just be empty promises.

“There is concern because even though we have been through a Trump presidency, DeSantis administration, the language is escalated, right?” he said.

“When they’re talking about record deportations, it gets people worried. It gets us worried. I remind myself, and I try to remind my friends and colleagues and community members that we have to separate Trump the candidate from Trump, the statesman. Because he says a lot of things and he doesn’t follow through with a lot of things.”

Families like Oaxaca’s remain fearful, especially with DeSantis’ proposals, which include repealing a law that allows undocumented children to pay in-state tuition rates.

“Honestly, I think they’re trying to make things difficult for us. We haven’t done anything wrong here,” Oaxaca said. “The only reason why we’ve ever, why Hispanics have come over here or immigrants, in general, have come here is for a better life for them.

Governor DeSantis also suggested implementing citizen verification for foreign remittances, a move Ruiz believes could have negative repercussions.

“By limiting the amount of money that we can go and send to communities back in the global South that need it, you’re going to increase poverty,” Ruiz argued. “How does that solve anything other than punish the people here, punish the people back there, and then create a huge incentive for more immigration to come?”

The special session the governor called to discuss immigration will be on Jan. 27.

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