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

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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.

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[ 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.

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“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?”

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

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Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’

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Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’


It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.

Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.

But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.

William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.

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Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.

Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.

“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.

“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”

The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.

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He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.

At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”

Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.

Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.

Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.

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“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.

That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”

In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.

“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”

Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.

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Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.



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Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'

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Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'


A federal court in Tallahassee has issued a temporary injunction blocking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a “terrorist organization.” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s order comes nearly three months after DeSantis signed his executive order on Dec. 8. The order directed Florida’s executive and Cabinet agencies, as […]



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Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip

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Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip



Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.

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“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.

“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.

Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”

The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.

“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”

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That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.



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