Ron DeSantis Wants to Make It a Felony to Have an Undocumented Person in Your Home or Car

[Nevilledog]

https://newrepublic.com/post/171137/ron-desantis-florida-bill-felony-undocumented-person-home-car

No paywall
https://archive.ph/5Cgds

Around 772,000 Florida workers, students, and community members are undocumented. And Governor Ron DeSantis wants to make it a felony for anyone to have them in their home or even give them a ride.

Senate Bill 1718, part of Desantis’s broad repressive legislative agenda this year, targets not just undocumented people but also anyone associated with them. The bill, which is likely to pass the Republican-controlled state legislature, criminalizes anyone who transports an undocumented person “into or within this state.” In other words, anyone—co-worker, friend, neighbor, classmate—giving a simple ride to someone they know or care about who is undocumented would be guilty of a third-degree felony.

The bill also criminalizes anyone who “conceals, harbors, or shields” (or “attempts” to do so) an undocumented person in “any place within this state.” Nearly 4 percent of Floridians are undocumented. The bill text, reading like an edict issued in Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Shadow Children series, foments fear about these hundreds of thousands of people. It isn’t hard to imagine law enforcement agencies conflating a house party or simple afternoon cup of tea with a secret migrant-harboring operation.

Under the framework, any person with a prior conviction who commits the “crime” of hosting an undocumented person would be liable to an even higher second-degree felony.

The bill imposes thousands of dollars of fines on private employers who give work to undocumented people; employers are not allowed to continue employing someone if they find out they are undocumented. And any undocumented person who works without appropriate identification papers would be liable to a third-degree felony. The bill also prohibits undocumented people from being admitted to the Florida bar, overturning standing law that currently allows it.

*snip*

[Bristlecone]

1. I smell a story about his housekeeper or gardener coming to light b

Isn’t that how these things always seem to turn out?

[TheBlackAdder]

20. Will he raid Trump properties?

[msongs]

2. one suspects this sort of thing is a federal matter nt

[chicoescuela]

3. Am I wrong, or are Florida and Tiny D fricking crazy?

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

7. he is crazy. THe repub lawmakers are crazy

[Phoenix61]

4. Well that should make the farmers and hotel owners happy. nt

[LoisB]

8. As well as his well-heeled friends with THEIR gardening crews and housekeeping staffs.

[canetoad]

5. He's pushing the buttons

Of the conservative supreme court.

[global1]

6. One Of These Days DeSantis Is Just Going To Take And Push Things Too Far And....

he's going to be labeled as a crack pot and will lose his followers.

This guy is not presidential material. The Repugs better keep their distance from him and not let him into their primaries. They should have learned their lesson with Tr**p.

They need to keep Tr**p out this time as well.

I can't even imagine living through another 4 years of Tr**p or 4 years of a DeSantis.

I can't stand to look or listen to either of these two guys.

[hedda_foil]

35. That's what Hitler's political opponents said. Not to mention what everyone said about Trump.

[Chakaconcarne]

40. Maybe, but Americans have woken up to Trumpism..

Desantis is way too confident... he won't win 2024 if nominated..

But he will continue to screw the US no matter what he does.

[NullTuples]

9. So in other words, he's saying to ostracize anyone who looks "unamerican"?

[treestar]

14. Yes - how else is one supposed to know who is or is not undocumented?

Moron. Do we demand to see a person's papers before giving them a ride?

I guess you just know because they "look foreign."

[wnylib]

17. Could have some fun with this.

If you know another language, preferably Spanish, use it in public to throw people off and make them think you are undocumented.

[Hotler]

23. +1 How Dems and Libs can piss off repugs.

Learn to speak Spanish or another language. I just started working on Spanish. Learn for free.
https://www.duolingo.com/

[wnylib]

39. It was my college major. I have pissed off

a number of people by using it in public, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.

[treestar]

42. that'd be all it would take

for some of them. Even speaking gibberish and they will assume it is a foreign language.

[allegorical oracle]

38. DeSatan's phoning Sheriff Arpaio to learn how that works.... nt

[Freethinker65]

10. I dare DeSantis to actually prioritize going after employers.

Home health care workers, child care workers, hospitality workers, agricultural workers, food service workers, landscaping and maintenance workers, day laborers, etc. The wealthy in Florida depend on these laborers whether they realize it or not. DeSantis's wealthy donors realize it all too well.

[usedtobedemgurl]

11. Two things....

1) is this retroactive? I am asking for a friend who flew a bunch of (what he considered illegals) people abd flew them up to Nantucket. Another part of this is another “friend” transported people (for the sake of the bill, we will call them illegals) into the state of Florida, from Texas. I hear my “friend” may transport more folks up north. I would hate for either of them to get arrested!

2) so if farmers pick up migrant workers, the farmers will be charged? What qualifies as a house? If I had an Orange friend in Florida, and he lived on an estate of sorts, does that count as a house? Because it has been rumored there are illegals working on his estate!

Now wouldn’t that be a circular firing squad, if my Orange friend tried turning in my other friend? And, of course, if my first friend went after the orange one. The latter could definitely happen, if my non-orange friend started to lose an election campaign and decided to turn the big guns on the orange guy.

[jmowreader]

12. Two answers...

1) It can't be - ex post facto laws are unconstitutional - but that never stopped Piss Boy before.

2) Of course not! And it wouldn't surprise me if your orange friend had illegals working in his home; he's employed them before.

[Chipper Chat]

13. I wish the Seminoles would just fucking sue the state now.

And ask for it back.
Kick DeSantis,s ass to alabama.

[2naSalit]

15. So all those....

wealthy folks with undocumented domestic help are really gonna love this one. Florida's got a whole population of those folks so meatball Ron might have some 'splainin' to do.

[Fullduplexxx]

16. What Bout hiring them?

[Baitball Blogger]

18. South Floridians are not going to be happy with this one.

If only they would wake up down south.

[Roland99]

19. Hmm. Anonymous tips about supporters of his might be in order

[Emile]

21. That makes him a felon.

How many bus rides?

[usedtobe]

22. Bus Drivers? Pilots? Cab Drivers? Ambulance Drivers? Health Care Providers?

Hospitals?
Fly Undocumented persons anywhere in the US but don't take them to the corner hospital? Another well thought out FUBAR idea courtesy of Gov Disasterous

[KS Toronado]

36. Welcome to DU!

[bluedigger]

24. I like how employers are fined and everyone else goes to jail.

That seems fair.

[SheltieLover]

32. Qpukes' 1st commandment: laws are for thee, not me.

[Hotler]

25. Does that include employers who hire?

There's got to be something dirty in this guys closet that can be used to make him go away. This man is a danger to our democracy.

[ripcord]

28. Actually employers are shielded

As long as they send the Social Security numbers as required by law, for obvious reasons it isn't up to them to identify fraudulent documents.

[Lettuce Be]

26. Wouldn't this make it difficult to load undocumented on busses & send people all over the country?

[SheltieLover]

31. ...

[ripcord]

27. Was is he trying to make something illegal that already is illegal?

8 USC §1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) says that it is illegal for someone to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection any person he or she knows is an illegal alien.

[old as dirt]

45. Laws like this go back 5 centuries here in America. (nt)

[andym]

29. He really wants to be President--and his formula is to be a culture warrior par excellence

It explains everything he is doing. He probably doesn't even care about these issues personally--it's all for show for the most socially conservative. His biggest weakness as a politician is that he is a phony, and that is what will eventually catch up with him.

[SheltieLover]

30. Suppose a person came across another in a time of distress

Say a flat tire.

Would death satan require the good samaratin to ask for the person's "papers?"

And would it be a felony if the undocumented person were, for instance, Caucasian from russia?

He's crazy!

[dsc]

33. I find it interesting that the employers only face fines

but people who work for Uber face jail. I also don't see any need to know if the person is undocumented except for employers.

[Hortensis]

34. This is only one of a bunch of nasty, MEAN provisions designed to hurt

people in this bill, SB and HB 1718. Yes, it's targeted specifically at immigrants -- and Floridians who somehow enable their pursuit of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness -- but it's part of the dreadful RW goal of purging the liberal decency and commitment to the rights of ALL individuals built into our justice system.

Liberal decency and respect for others is the antithesis of the indecency fundamental to RW extremism and fascism. They are completely incompatible.

This bill, like increasingly others across the nation, undermines everyone's rights not to be jailed for looking the wrong way at a policeman. WHO first decides there's cause to believe we "probably" knew a passenger was undocumented or seeking an abortion?

[Polybius]

37. I've given rides home to many co-workers over the years

Never once have I had to ask "are you a citizen?"

[Scottie Mom]

41. In your car? WTF??

Is a Lyft or Uber driver suppose to check the immigration status on any rider with a foreign accent?!?!

🤷🏻‍♀️

[old as dirt]

43. Hispanics flee Arizona ahead of immigration law

It's deja vu all over again.

Reminds me of 2010.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100610080003/http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-06-08-immigration_N.htm

As I pointed out back then, this law would have made me a felon just for driving my wife to the grocery store.

[Tickle]

44. I thought it was always

against the law to employ undocumented?

I'll be interested to see the effect this has on the undocumented in Florida