Global Courant
Florida, United States.
The state of Florida, in the south of Eunited statesapproved a law with harsh measures against irregular migrationr, promoted by the republican governor Ron DeSantiswhich has made the immigrants one of his campaign pillars for the US presidency.
DeSantiswho this week toured the southern border in Texas, denounced “the border crisis of (Joe)Biden”, which he accuses of not paying attention toto illegal immigration, promising that if he becomes president of the United States he will mass deportations.
These are the keys to the controversy anti-immigration law in Florida.
-Prevent hiring undocumented immigrants-
The regulation, which will enter into force on 1st of July, seeks to prevent the hiring of undocumented people.
As of this Saturday, companies with more than 25 employees must check in E-Verify, a federal database the legal status of the people to whom want to use. Ignore that obligation and hire a foreigner in irregular situation will entail heavy fines.
According to the Florida Policy Institute, being forced to use E-Verify could cost you 12,600 million of Dollars in a year to Florida economywhere numerous foreigners in an irregular migratory situation work in sectors such as the constructionthe agriculture, the rrestoration and the leisure.
-Require immigration status in hospitals-
The law will also force the hospitals who accept public insurance Medicaid to collect data about theimmigration status his patients.
The regulation also requires medical centers to send a report every three months on the name and the migratory status of the patients who were treated, and the cost this attention.
This law “will make many people resign to the medical attention or delay it, creating a fear climate if they believe that going to the hospital may lead to the deportation wave family separation”, denounced in a statement Aurelie Colon Larrauri, a political defender in Florida at the NGO Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice.
-Prohibits transporting undocumented-
It also threatens to turn in a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison the transport of persons in an irregular migratory situation from another state to Florida.
Penalties of five years in prison and fines of $5,000 if the undocumented person is of legal age. But 15 years in prison and fines of $15,000 If there are minors in the vehicle.
The authorities on the other hand they will stop recognizing the driver’s licenses issued out of state to migrants who entered the country of illegal wayin addition to ban funding local programs for grant them documents of identity.
-Transfer of migrants-
Last year, the governor sent two groups of Venezuelans undocumented from the border in Texas to Democratic strongholds of Northeast USA aboard two private planes.
that program transfer of migrants will receive 12 million dollars in fiscal year 2013/2014 after the entry into force of the law approved last May.
-Devastating effects-
In Floridaa state of some 22.2 million inhabitants, live 772,000 undocumented migrantsaccording to an estimate by the Migration Policy Institute think tank.
Many of them work in essential sectors for the state economy as the agriculturethe construction and the hostelry.
Preventing them from doing it will have serious economic consequencess, warns Samuel Vilchez, director for Florida of the American Business Immigration Coalition, a business association that advocates for better integration of migrants in the economy.
“It attacks our companies and prevents them from creating new posts of work, generate income and provide the services they claim to offer”, warns Vilchez.
“It goes against what we know is good for the economy and it will have devastating effects for Florida.”
According to the NGO Florida Policy Institute, the new law could generate annual losses of $12.6 billion for the state’s economy by reducing the laborto the bills of the undocumented migrants and the taxes they pay.
-Fleeing migrants-
The uncertainty created by the legal change already has consequences on work placesalthough it has not yet entered into force, hundreds of migrants they have abandoned Florida in the last weeks.
“In the company where I job many people have left, they have moved from state. There’s a lot fear by law“, says Altamirano (pseudonym), a worker of the construction 38 years old.
The initiatives of DeSantis have been questioned by defenders of the human rights.
Florida penalizes immigrants for having had the bad luck to be born in troubled countries and having had the courage to seek peace and prosperity here,” said Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigration Coalition, in a statement sent Wednesday.
The criticisms of detractors They focus above all on the consequences of the use of dand E-Verify and the obligation for hospitals to collect data from your patients.
