How Florida's new immigration bill could create a labour crisis | About That

and this is a construction site here in Davenport Florida 20 miles from Orlando and this is all you see this is how many construction sites across Florida look right now and that's because there's a growing movement underway to draw attention to the consequences of a controversial immigration bill that makes it harder to work or hire without papers in that state it's 9am usually at this time there's a lot of people here working a lot of noise and loud Mexican music this is what you hear today so it is happening and it's not just construction workers some truckers are refusing to make deliveries in the state I don't know about you guys but my truck will not be going to Florida penalties and restrictions on migrant workers and people are organizing to fight against them that was a construction site in Miami the man speaking was talking about how Senate Bill 1718 will make it a felony to work without papers so I'm going to translate it for you and he's saying it's going to be impossible for them to work without papers impossible and what he's requesting is that do you have 300 people 300 white people 300 citizen white people to do sheetrock framing electricity conduits everything and now undocumented workers are having to figure out how life after Senate Bill 1718 might look so let's unpack this new piece of legislation its potential impact on immigrants in Florida and Beyond and the reaction playing out across the state so last week Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill imposing wide-ranging restrictions on undocumented immigrants in Florida into law and it's expected to take effect on July 1st here we go guys the governor signed off on state law by signaling National implications it is causing huge huge problems and it's going to get a lot worse this week with the expiration of title 42. in less than two months Governor Ron DeSantis is sweeping immigration laws will take effect includes more penalties for businesses employing undocumented workers the governor says it's an effort to fight migration from the southern border his state and immigrants into the state and the rules go like this employers would have to report employees to a Statewide registry that would verify a person's citizenship status it would also require that employers fire any undocumented workers immediately even hospitals would have to ask patients to confirm their citizenship status and report back to the governor's office employers found to have broken the rules would be fined up to ten thousand dollars per undocumented employee and anyone found transporting undocumented people could face felony charges experts say the new law is one of the harshest anti-immigration measures in the country today they believe this bill will be devastating to the Hispanic community and Florida in general Senate Bill 1718 will have a detrimental effect on the economy of the State of Florida it will increase crime since the trust between law enforcement and the Immigrant Community will be hampered when you have a state that is run so much by immigrants to say that this bill is going to affect nearly all residents families and businesses in the state is really a terrifying fact Governor Ron DeSantis says the new measure was passed in anticipation of the end of title 42. that's the covet era border restriction that allowed government to expel migrants without giving them the opportunity to seek Asylum there was some expectation that the end of title 42 could lead to an influx of people at the southern U.S border but that doesn't actually appear to have happened government officials say there has not been a surge of migrants since the policy ended a little more than 24 hours ago you know well we saw less than 4 000 illegal border crossings yesterday that is in stark contrast to what we saw last week when there were more than ten thousand migrants Crossing illegally a day for three days in a row here in El Paso while we didn't necessarily see a surge of migrants after title 42 the problem is still far from over nonetheless studies show that Florida is home to 800 000 undocumented people and a lot of them work in specific sectors like construction and Agriculture and so passing a new law aimed at rooting out illegal immigration could strike at the heart of an essential labor force and it looks like that's what's happening it's worth saying here that there is some precedent as well in 2011 the state of Alabama passed a punitive anti-immigration bill that went on to ravage the local economy because as a generation of undocumented workers left crops were left to rot and the state economy was hit with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses at the tide of immigrant labor began rolling out of state Dr Addie crunched the numbers to predict the financial effect this Exodus could ultimately have given how Draconian the law was what you get for Alabama is actually a shrinking of our GDP by about 2.3 to 10.8 billion in one year and some people in Florida are worried about similar Fallout I genuinely believe that this bill is economic suicide um SB 1718 is a sucker punch to Florida's future it's businesses families immigrant communities and their loved ones immigration lawyer Renata Castro has worked closely with undocumented people and knows how these measures will impact the economy in Florida hi Renata hi Lauren so what is the impact when you're looking at taking this many people out of the workforce it's important to realize that the people being taken from the workforce are the same ones that are carrying the economy of the State of Florida these are individuals who work in agriculture in construction in the hospitality industry which are the three main industries in our state so it's not only political suicide it is also quite detrimental for the very fragile economic ecosystem of the State of Florida which is not very Diversified and has already begun to feel the effects of this quite unreasonable and there I say unconstitutional law wow I mean you said political suicide there you said unconstitutional can you unpack that a little bit more sure it's important to understand that the migrants are not going to be the ones mainly impacted by the outcome of this law because Rhonda santis does not have the power to deport them what wrong DeSantis is doing is increasing the pressure to penalize those that associate employ engage rent property to transport undocumented aliens and these are the very same people who support or supported his candidacy both to the state government and soon to the presidential office agricultural property owners owners of hotels and restaurants and construction companies have been scrambling to find labor for years and the local government in the federal government have done very little to address the shortages and create a guest worker program now with this and already frail labor force is going to few even more the pinch and every single time a voter block gets impacted where it hurts the most the pockets they usually unleash their rate by changing alliances and I wouldn't be surprised if in a month or two when these construction company owners restaurant owners Hotel owners who by most enlarged supported Ron DeSantis start to question their Alliance and whether or not Rhonda santis is good for their business so why would you be bringing this in now well I guess Ron DeSantis is taking a page of Trump's strategy and putting it on steroids on the day that title 42 ended um Ron DeSantis just dominated the news media within it with news as the one we're discussing right now about his approach to addressing what he calls Biden's border what Rhonda Sanchez doesn't talk about is the fact that those individuals coming to the Border are actually following U.S law it's a requirement for individuals pursuing Asylum protection to present themselves to a port of entry and how neither Congress nor Senate has done anything to update this rather archaic law from a time we still use dial up internet in 1996. so it's a PR move more than anything to increase its profile as a presidential hopeful so the timing in his mind is right right and when we talk about um immigrant workers we often hear what the labor that they offer is there a way though that you think we can kind of re-center that conversation talk a little bit more about the humanity of people it's quite challenging to address the humanity of people until someone who's anti-immigration either meets dates or employs someone who is without status because that's the moment that they are able to humanize that person whose mere existence has been demonized by political Cycles these are Mom dads people who have come to the United States to give their best and they're all in exchange for a better future for their families Hernando Castro thank you so much thanks for having me

Channel: CBC News

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Length: 9min 53sec (593 seconds)

Published: Thu May 18 2023