Fox Host Confronts DeSantis on Immigration Law

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' new immigration law poses to make life more difficult for immigrants living and working in Florida, even when some of those same people helped rebuild the state after a natural disaster. DeSantis has taken what some see as a harsh stance against immigration, such as relocating immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border to California in June or claiming responsibility for ordering two planeloads of migrants to travel from Texas to Martha's Vineyard last September. DeSantis' stance against immigration only heightened after he announced his 2024 presidential campaign as he tries to convince Republicans to vote for him rather than former president Donald Trump, who continues to dominate Republican polls for the presidential race. In May, DeSantis approved stronger measures against undocumented immigrants living and working in Florida, and the law went into effect July 1. On Monday, Fox Business' talk show host Stuart Varney pressed DeSantis on the new law, arguing that he's seen immigrants working in Florida, especially helping rebuild the state after it was ravaged by Hurricane Ian last fall. Shortly after the 2022 hurricane damaged the state, immigrants hailing from New York, Louisiana, Houston and Dallas traveled to Florida to help repair the damage. But under DeSantis' new law, the immigrants could face criminal consequences by visiting the state in the future, even with good intentions such as helping rebuild its infrastructure. ADVERTISING SUBSCRIBE NOW FROM JUST $1 > Fox News Confronts DeSantis on Immigration Law Construction workers try in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, on November 2, 2022, after Hurricane Ian devastated the area on September 28, 2022. Under Governor Ron DeSantis' new immigration law, life will get more difficult for immigrants living and working in Florida. EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP/GETTY "Do we need these migrants to work?" Varney asked DeSantis during an on-camera interview. "I do see migrants rebuilding the southern part of the state after Ian." DeSantis responded and said he preferred "able-bodied Americans" to work instead. "You work legally," he said. "We want a situation in which able-bodied Americans—particularly able-bodied men—are working." SIGN UP FOR NEWSWEEK’S EMAIL UPDATES > A spokesperson from DeSantis' office told Newsweek that the immigration law "counteracts the effects of illegal immigration on Florida, a problem willfully enabled by the Biden Administration's refusal to secure our nation's southern border. "The media has been deliberately inaccurate about this distinction between legal and illegal immigration to create this very sort of outrage based on a false premise," the spokesperson said. "Any business that exploits this crisis by employing illegal aliens instead of Floridians will be held accountable. "Every country has a sovereign right to defend its borders," the spokesperson added. "The U.S. should as well. Governor DeSantis will act within his authority when the Biden Administration fails or refuses to do so." Newsweek reached out to the Florida Immigration Coalition by email for comment. One of the facets of DeSantis' new law puts undocumented employees at risk of losing their jobs. The law expands the E-Verify system, which requires organizations with more than 25 employees to check the employees' immigration status. If a public agency has "good faith" that a contractor employs undocumented workers, they are justified to end the contract. ADVERTISING Ron DeSantis gets promising news from pollREAD MORERon DeSantis gets promising news from poll The law also invalidates driver's licenses issued to undocumented people by other states; criminalizes the transport of undocumented immigrants into, within or out of Florida; prohibits local governments from funding programs issuing community identification (ID) to undocumented migrants and requires hospitals to ask patients for their immigration status before admitting them into care. Critics of the new law have called it "unconstitutional" and DeSantis' attempt at a "state-run immigration enforcement system", according to a report by The Palm Beach Post. A group of five civil rights organizations are planning to sue DeSantis over the controversial law, including The Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, Americans for Immigrant Justice and American Immigration Council. The lawsuit will be filed soon and addresses a specific aspect of DeSantis' new immigration law that restricts the transportation of undocumented immigrants into Florida. A venue for the lawsuit has not yet been determined. "Gov. DeSantis' attempt to create a separate, competing state-run immigration enforcement system impedes the federal government's ability to do its job," Paul R. Chavez, senior supervising attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center's Immigrant Justice Project, said, said in a press release about the lawsuit. "This bill's punitive effect will erode public safety and public health, pushing millions of mixed-status families into the shadows, and making them ripe for exploitation." For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.