Florida

Medicaid expansion campaign in Florida relaunches for 2028

Published

2 months ago

February 1, 2026

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Medicaid expansion campaign in Florida relaunches for 2028

Florida Decides Healthcare suspended their efforts in September due to legal roadblocks.

A Medicaid expansion campaign is relaunching its effort to get a proposed measure on the 2028 Florida ballot.
The group, Florida Decides Healthcare, is legally challenging a new state law that restricts the constitutional amendment process.
The new law, HB 1205, has increased signature verification costs and tightened deadlines for petition groups.

A Medicaid expansion campaign is relaunching a push to get its proposed measure on the 2028 ballot, despite its continuing legal battle against a Florida law restricting the process to amend the state’s constitution.

The group, Florida Decides Healthcare, in September delayed its campaign for the 2026 ballot, saying HB 1205’s roadblocks made it “nearly impossible” to succeed in a shorter timeline. But starting Feb. 1, they’ll launch a digital campaign and send out mail with prepaid return envelopes for voters looking to sign a petition.

They’re hopeful that 2028 will be successful against the hurdles from Florida’s new laws, and especially because they believe they’ll be successful at trial, said Mitch Emerson, the executive director of Florida Decides Healthcare. The trial for their challenge to Florida’s law is scheduled to start Feb. 9.

“The state crossed constitutional lines, and what Florida did here violates the First Amendment rights of Floridians to participate in the constitutional amendment process,” Emerson said. “Every win (against) HB 1205 is a step in the right direction for democracy.”

Expired health care subsidies for the Affordable Care Act have pushed thousands of Floridians off coverage plans, Emerson said, and he said access to Medicaid is paramount in Florida.

HB 1205: Tougher road to the ballot

Florida’s new signature gathering law raised penalties and tightened deadlines for petition groups, along with a provision banning nonresidents and noncitizens from gathering signatures. Another provision limits each volunteer to only collect 25 petitions.

The group may also struggle financially, since supervisors of elections across the state increased their signature verification costs because of the new procedures outlined in the law. In September, Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley said his office’s fee used to be 85 cents per verified petition, but it increased in $4.16.

Additionally, Florida officials have fought to uphold the invalidation of petition signatures. A circuit judge in November ruled state officials weren’t wrong to order elections supervisors to dump 200,000 signatures supporting a recreational pot campaign.

Deadlines also are tighter, since all petitions must be turned in to local elections offices within 10 days, and groups can be fined for late petition returns and missing voter information.

Petition groups’ lawsuit against Florida

The Medicaid expansion group filed the lawsuit in May against Florida’s secretary of state, attorney general, the 67 supervisors of elections and the state attorneys, the elected chief prosecutors for each of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits.

Additional groups joined to request parts of the law be blocked, including Smart and Safe Florida, an adult-use recreational pot campaign, and Florida Right to Clean Water.

In July, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, who sits in Tallahassee, upheld most of the petition law, but he issued an order against the provision on nonresident and noncitizen circulators, saying it imposed a “severe burden on political expression.”

But that order didn’t last long, since a divided federal appeals panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law, disagreeing with Walker’s notion that the law violated the groups’ First Amendment rights.

Walker acknowledged that the case was quickly developing a “rich procedural history,” since repeated orders have been requested – and struck – relating to whether the state could enforce the law, or even some parts of it.

For almost a year, petition advocates have argued that these limitations under state law impinge on the First Amendment’s freedoms for political speech and to petition the government. But the state disagrees, arguing it tackles fraudulent petitions.

This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Stephany Matat is based in Tallahassee, Fla. She can be reached at SMatat@gannett.com. On X: @stephanymatat.

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Florida

Central Florida man arrested after Miami Beach hit-and-run crash leaves 2 pedestrians dead, police say

Published

2 hours ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

Central Florida man arrested after Miami Beach hit-and-run crash leaves 2 pedestrians dead, police say

Updated on: March 20, 2026 / 8:35 AM EDT
/ CBS Miami

A central Florida man has been arrested after Miami Beach police say he hit and killed two pedestrians on Collins Avenue and then fled the scene on Wednesday night.

Miami Beach police said that around 9:07 p.m., a black Nissan Sentra, which was being driven by Adan Negron-Morris, 42, of Lakeland, was spotted heading eastbound on 71st Street toward Collins Avenue in a reckless manner, and without the vehicle’s headlights on.

Negron-Mossis ended up speeding past a Miami Beach police officer who was conducting a high-visibility patrol detail in the area of Indian Creek Drive, and that officer was attempting to respond just as several 911 calls were being made about a reckless driver in the area, police said.

Negron-Morris then turned left onto Collins Avenue, and police said he eventually hit two pedestrians at the intersection of 73rd Street and Collins Avenue.

Miami Beach police said the vehicle continued to 74th Street and Collins Avenue and came to a stop. At that point, police said Negron-Morris got out of the car and fled into a nearby Walgreens.

Witnesses were able to direct responding police officers to Negron-Morris’s location, and he was taken into custody.

Police said that oofficers in the area immediately began to render aid to the two pedestrians who were hit until Miami beach Fire Rescue could arrive at the scene. Both victims were then rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center in critical condition, where they later died.

Miami Beach police said that a DUI investigation was immediately launched after the incident, and Negron-Morris was taken to the Miami Beach Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division.

Negron-Morris has since been charged with leaving the scene of a crash with death and vehicular manslaughter.

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Florida

Florida Gov. DeSantis criticizes sheriffs who want undocumented immigration reform

Published

14 hours ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

Florida Gov. DeSantis criticizes sheriffs who want undocumented immigration reform

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis rebuked some of Florida’s top law enforcement officials Thursday, criticizing their calls to Congress and President Donald Trump to work on a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants.

“This idea that unless you’re an axe murderer you should be able to stay, that is not consistent with our laws, and it’s also not good policy,” DeSantis said at an event in Bradenton.

[WATCH: State Immigration Enforcement Council meeting (via The Florida Channel)]

On Monday, the State Immigration Enforcement Council, a group of local law enforcement officials who were appointed to advise the State Board of Immigration Enforcement on illegal immigration enforcement, decided to send a letter to federal government officials asking them to work on a path to citizenship for noncriminal undocumented immigrants who pay a fine.

“My job as governor is to do what’s best for the people, not what any one person who gets elected in one county thinks,” DeSantis said.

[WATCH: DeSantis unveils an aggressive immigration and border security policy (from 2023)]

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, chair of the council, said Monday that immigrants who aren’t criminals should be able to stay in the country, under certain conditions. Other council members, like Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell, agreed with him.

“What’s right’s right, and what’s not’s not,” Gualtieri said at the meeting, “And going after the mom, who’s got three kids, who’s just trying to make a living, who’s been here for 15 years…that isn’t right, and they do need to fix it.”

DeSantis said Florida has become the national standard for illegal immigration enforcement after enacting legislation and pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into law enforcement, state-run detention facilities, and working directly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Who does (border czar) Tom Homan cite as the way to do this? He cites Florida without hesitation,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got to keep the momentum going, we certainly don’t want to backtrack on this.”

Judd and Gualtieri, two of the four sheriffs on the council, have consulted DeSantis and the legislature over the past couple of years about local law enforcement’s role in illegal immigration enforcement.

[WATCH: DeSantis outlines immigration priorities ahead of Trump’s new presidency (from 2025)]

The switch to advocating for a path for citizenship is a 180-degree turn for Judd. Last year in a council meeting, Judd asked Trump to sign more executive orders to allow state law enforcement to expedite the removal of undocumented immigrants, including those who do not have removal orders or criminal records.

But on Monday, Judd suggested writing a letter to elected officials, including Trump, the Speaker of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, and federal agencies to work on a path to citizenship.

All council members except Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters, who was not at the meeting, agreed.

“There are those here that are working hard, they have kids in college, are in school, they’re going to church on Sunday, they’re not violating the law, and they’re living the American dream,” Judd told council members.

After receiving backlash for his comments, at a press conference the day after the meeting, Judd said he heard from sheriffs across the state who called him in support.

The sheriff, who stood his ground and again called for the federal government to work on a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants, calling it “common sense.”

“They’re not a drag on society. In fact, they’re helping society. We need to find a path for them,” Judd said.

[WATCH: Sheriff Judd calls on feds to pull back mass deportation campaign]

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Florida

Florida’s Red Wall on Immigration Is Starting to Crack

Published

1 day ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

Florida’s Red Wall on Immigration Is Starting to Crack

Cracks are widening in the Republican Party’s support for the Trump administration’s hardline approach to immigration enforcement. The latest fissure developed this week in deep-red Florida. A panel of Republican sheriffs and chiefs of police, the backbone of Florida’s law enforcement establishment, agreed on Monday to draft a letter to President Donald Trump and congressional leaders urging them to stop rounding up immigrants who they said arrived in the U.S. “inappropriately” but have otherwis

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