TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A group of Republican state lawmakers is collaborating to pass bills aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in Florida.
One bill, by Senator Aaron Bean of Fernandina Beach, would punish so-called "sanctuary cities," which don't enforce federal deportation orders, with fines of up to $5,000 dollars a day. Another bill would charge people facing deportation with a felony for entering Florida.
Bean says lawmakers have better things to do than take up the federal government's slack.
“All of these bills… we shouldn’t be doing them," Bean says. "We have other things that we should be worried about like healthcare or education, but because we have a federal government that is not doing what they should do, then we have to act.”
But Karen Woodall of the Florida Immigrant Coalition says many of the deportations from sanctuary cities would be unnecessary, costly and cruel.
“I just hope that people will stay focused on real issues, rather than reacting to an anti-immigrant sentiment and labeling all immigrants as criminals,” Woodall says.
The immigrant coalition says it will resist the proposals during the upcoming legislative session.
