TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Legislation set to be heard Tuesday by the Florida Senate Infrastructure and Security Committee bans so-called sanctuary cities in the state.
The measure is called the Rule of Law Adherence Act. It would require local governments to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention requests and to repeal sanctuary policies.
Under the proposed bill, police would be required to honor all requests made by ICE to hold undocumented immigrants.
State Senator Joe Gruters says the goal is to stop violent criminals, not all undocumented immigrants.
"If you're an illegal alien, and you are here obeying the laws and being a good member of the community by working hard and you have your kids in school, you have nothing to worry about regarding this bill. This bill only comes into play if you are in the judicial process, and you get arrested," said Gruters.
Opponents of the bill argued the legislation has more to do with partisan politics than with fixing an actual problem. Democratic State Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez represents part of Miami-Dade County.
"Our core message here is that there are no sanctuary cities. This is purely an invention for political purposes. This is a phantom that is being dangled out here," said Rodriguez.
If approved by Tuesday's Senate committee, the measure has one more committee stop before it would be heard by the full chamber.
Approving a sanctuary city ban is also supported by Governor Ron DeSantis, as he mentioned the issue both during his January inaugural address as well as last week's state of the state address.
