Florida Struggle With Arizona's Immigration Plan

New York Times reports that: With no debate, the Florida Senate on Wednesday approved a watered-down bill to curb illegal immigration, an issue that has divided Republicans in the state, pitting pro-business and Hispanic lawmakers against the party's more populist wing. When he ran for office last year, Gov. Rick Scott vowed to bring an Arizona-style immigration law to Florida. The bill would require the police to make "a reasonable effort" to determine the immigration status of people they arrest and jail, a provision that opponents say is an Arizona-style attack on legal and illegal immigrants. The proposal would also require that illegal immigrants who are convicted of nonviolent crimes be referred to federal officials for deportation. The vote was a surprise because lawmakers had presumed the bill was dead after the Senate voted down a pivotal amendment on Tuesday that had been pushed by Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, and Tea Party activists. That measure would have essentially required businesses in Florida to check a worker's immigration status in a federal verification database, known as E-Verify, or risk fines if a worker was found to be illegal. "It's easy to talk about this down at the post office, but when you start looking in people's eyes, people who live and breathe like us, we need to think long and hard," said State Senator J. D. Alexander, a Republican who is a citrus grower and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. "We are being put in the middle of the most difficult position."