Republican state representatives are literally begging migrants to stay
after they themselves voted on some of the harshest antiimmigrant
legislation in the country.
So on Monday, Republican state representatives Alina Garcia and
Rick Roth, both Republicans, I just really want to emphasize that,
spoke at an event to address migrants on the impact of the legislation that,
again, they voted on, voted for, called SB 1718.
So here's a little preview of what they said.
>> I agree with everything that Representative Rob said.
This is a bill basically to scare people from coming to the state of Florida.
And I think that it's done its purpose.
This bill really doesn't have any peace.
And even though we're immigrants, I was born in Cuba and
I came when I was two years old, we need to have immigration that is legal.
We need to have legal immigration and the federal government has completely left us.
They haven't done their job.
>> Okay, two things about this.
One, this is a perfect Republican bill, not because the bill is great,
but because it shows you exactly who the Republican Party is.
So you're gonna find that out in a second.
And then, secondly, we'll talk about the different parts of it.
And I'll tell you what, if you wanna get rid of immigrants from your state,
this is the way to do it.
The problem is they're realizing, oops, it's actually working,
we didn't actually want it to work.
>> Yes, so just to give credit where credit is due, that video was obtained
by Thomas Kennedy, who's with the DNC, the Democratic National Committee.
Now, before we get to more video, and you do not wanna miss the real reason why they
want the migrants to stay in Florida, I do wanna tell you more about this bill.
It's Senate Bill 1718, and it did pass.
Ron DeSantis did sign it into law, and it goes into effect on July 1.
The strict new state legislation limits social services for
undocumented immigrants, allocates millions more tax dollars to expand
DeSantis's migrant relocation program.
Invalidates driver's licenses issued to undocumented people by other states,
and requires hospitals that get Medicaid dollars to ask for
a patient's immigration status, which, I got to be honest, all of it is disgusting.
But that last part, I mean, if a migrant ends up at the hospital to ask them for
their papers, it's just unbelievably cruel.
But here's the other part of the legislation you should know about.
Now, law, I should say, to crack down on businesses hiring undocumented workers,
SB 1718 will require private employers with 25 or
more employees that are making new hires to use E-verify.
The federal online database that employers use to confirm
whether someone is eligible to work in the US.
Now, it sounds like an incredibly harsh new law in Florida.
And if I were an undocumented immigrant, I certainly would not wanna
be in that state, it seems untenable to live in that state.
But what's interesting is Republican State Representative Rick Ross tries to downplay
the impact of it while simultaneously contradicting himself.
>> This is more of a political bill than it is policy.
It does give more police state powers going forward to deal with immigration,
but still, this is mainly a political bill.
>> What?
This is just a political bill, like no harm, no foul,
except it gives police more state power to crack down on undocumented immigrants.
Okay.
>> Yes, see, that's why I say it's a perfect Republican bill,
because here are Republican legislators admitting to you guys,
we don't mean a word of what we say.
We pass this bill but it's a political bill,
meaning we're just trying to score brownie points with our base.
Our base hates you guys.
They despise you guys.
So we passed a bill that would crack down on you guys and
make living here living hell basically, and miserable.
But don't worry, we're not gonna actually enforce it cuz we need your cheap labor.
And they specifically mentioned farms in those videos.
>> Okay.
>> So we're gonna get to that in a second too.
They're like, look, we're for business interests and
only for business interest, and you guys are really good, cheap, cheap labor.
As Republicans leaders, we secretly love you guys.
And that's why we're here to tell you, somebody's taping it.
Goddamn it.
I don't know if they knew that they were being taped, but for our voters,
we're telling them, yeah, we ate these immigrants.
We're gonna punish them, and I'm gonna tell you later how deeply,
how much they punish them.
There's no way that if you're an undocumented immigrant,
you can stay in Florida.
We take it as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on where your politics is,
we'll get to that in a second.
>> So let's get to the last video.
>> Bill is 100% post to scare you.
I'm a farmer, and the farmers are mad as hell.
We are losing employees.
They're already starting to move to Georgia and other states.
It's urgent that you talk to all your people and
convince them that you have resources, state representatives and
other people that can explain the bill to you.
>> So not only is he a farmer himself,
representative State Representative Rick Roth.
He's obviously concerned about how this is gonna impact his pocketbook,
impact his farming industry, farming business.
But all of the lies that Floridians were told about this and
how it's gonna open up job opportunities for them,
Florida is currently experiencing record low unemployment.
The unemployment rate in Florida is 2.6%.
So that's the reason why these jobs that are typically filled by migrant workers or
immigrants, the agriculture industry, construction,
hospitality services, all of that has been suffering as a result of this policy.
The Florida Policy Institute, which is a nonprofit policy research group, estimates
that without undocumented workers, the state's most labor intensive industries
could lose 10% of their workforce and the wages they contribute along with them.
That could lead to a drop of $12.6 billion in Florida's GDP in a single year.
Jenk. >> Okay, so he said,
let me explain the bill to you except he didn't, so I'll explain the bill to you.
So on the eve verify program that Anna mentioned,
the employers will be charged $1,000 a day for the per violation.
Okay, now, so that's why the farmers who are, of course, actually not using it and
are cheating are like, no, they're gonna lose their workers,
plus they're gonna be fined if they're not following the law.
Now, for the employees, it's worse, it's a felony,
if you lie about your papers when you're getting a job, okay,
so they're gonna put you in prison, but we're not anywhere near done.
Then Anna pointed out the hospital issue.
Well, nobody can go to the hospital if you're a non documented immigrant,
cuz then they have to report you as undocumented and
you'll be shipped back to your original home country.
That literally ruins your life.
So you're gonna bleed out in the streets cuz you can't go to the hospital.
So that's insane, barbaric, inhumane.
And then the third part of it transportation.
If you bring someone who is an undocumented immigrant across the state
line of Florida, that's a felony, a third degree felony.
But 130,000 people in Florida are married to undocumented immigrants when they're
American citizens.
So what if they go outside the state and they come back in with their husband or
their wife, let alone millions of other people who know undocumented immigrants,
family, friends, etc., drive them in?
So they got to get out of the state now cuz later it could be
a felony to even cross the state line.
So, on the one hand, it's totally insane and it's barbaric,
on the other hand okay, well, now, if you actually wanted to stop
undocumented immigrants in your state, you would pass a law like this.
Now, do I say, do I want that?
No, I don't want that.
By the way, it turns out, neither do the Republicans.
See, guys, you see what he's doing there?
He's going and begging undocumented immigrants to stay.
They're Republican legislators who just passed a bill against them.
So he's going there and saying, remember, guys, we're goddamn liars.
We're not gonna enforce it.
And on that, there might be some truth, because other red states,
like Arkansas and Arizona passed laws just like this.
They're like, we're gonna crack down on these immigrants, we don't like them.
And then when they realized, yeah, we can't run anything without immigrants,
they decided not to enforce the laws.
And so for seven years, they made like, three arrests between the two states,
I believe.
So in that ballpark.
So, okay, Republicans, thank you.
Thank you for admitting that the whole immigration thing that you were doing is
a ploy, a publicity stunt, a political trick, and that you're all liars.
And I appreciate that you admitted that you're liars.