this is "Facing South Florida" with Jim DeFede.
>>Good morning.
I'm Jim DeFede, and welcome to "Facing South Florida."
Governor Ron DeSantis has decided to go to war
with the Catholic Church in Florida.
In December, he signed this executive order
attacking President Biden and declaring that Florida
will no longer welcome migrant children into the state.
He has ordered law enforcement to be
more aggressive in going after them,
and he is calling on the state's Department of Children
and Families to essentially stop renewing licenses
to agencies like Catholic charities
that care for them when they arrive.
In response, Archbishop Thomas Wenski wrote this column
in January for the Archdiocese newspaper,
"Why is Governor Going After Children?"
This did not sit well with the governor
who convened a round table in Miami a week ago
along with the lieutenant governor, the attorney general,
and a couple of supporters who came here
during Operation Pedro Pan so that they could
not only defend his plan,
but push back against the archbishop.
>>To equate what's going on with the southern border
with mass trafficking of humans, illegal entry,
drugs, all this other stuff with Operation Pedro Pan
quite frankly is disgusting.
It's wrong. It is not even close to the same thing.
>>The governor described the unaccompanied minor children
in rather frightening terms.
>>Wayne, no one knows who the hell
a lot of these people are, so it's chaos.
It's important to point out though
when they talk about, quote, children,
most of these people are what would be considered
in most parts of the world military age males, 15 to 17.
>>Following DeSantis' round table,
Archbishop Wenski held his own press conference.
>>He came here with a few former Pedro Pan kids
at the Miami Museums of the Cuban Diaspora,
and he described that any comparison of unaccompanied minors
from Cuba in the early '60s with those
from Central America today, he described them as disgusting.
Now, this is a new low in a zero-sum politics
of our divisive times.
Children are children,
and no child should be deemed disgusting,
especially by a public servant,
and the lack of solidarity from a group
of former unaccompanied minors from Cuba
with similarly-situated children today
was certainly disappointing,
even while recognizing the good care afforded them
by Catholic charities 60 years ago,
they begrudged that same care being extended
to migrant children today.
Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh,
the revered father of Operation Pedro Pan,
is rolling over in his grave.
The event on Monday was political theater attacking
Biden's admittedly chaotic immigration politics or policies,
but it showed that the governor has a powerful machine
in South Florida capable of mobilizing and manipulating
a segment of our community to advance his political agenda,
but his bullying of kids, I think, also showed weakness.
>>His comments were followed by Mike Fernandez,
a major Republican donor,
who has emerged as an outspoken critic
of the party's attacks on immigrants and says
it's shameful that Cuban Americans who appeared
with the governor would turn their back on those
seeking refuge here in Miami.
>>A couple of days ago,
the governor also used the word disgusting.
Disgusting is an ugly word.
Well, let me tell you what I think is disgusting.
A proposed heartless policy towards immigrant children,
defenseless and vulnerable.
It's simply repugnant. >>In a further escalation,
Republicans in the Florida legislature are hearing two bills
that would block any company that transports
unaccompanied minors to Florida, either by bus or plane,
from doing business in Florida.
I spoke to State Representative Anna Eskamani
about these efforts on Friday.
How do you view the immigration bills that are now
moving their way through the House and the Senate?
>>I consider the policy proposal out of the legislature
to be just another effort to flame the culture wars
and the anti-immigrant fervor for that Republicans have seen
as necessary to secure election victories,
but the damage is caused more so by the executive order
since, as we speak now, providers, who are mostly
faith-based organizations that provide a safe place
for undocumented and accompanied minors and refugees
are already having their licenses be threatened by DCF
purely for just doing their job and providing
that safe place for these children as they go through
the legal process and are hopefully reunited with family.
And so, I do see the the legislative effort
to be adding to that,
and the irony, too, is they say they're going after carriers
who have transported unaccompanied immigrants to Florida,
and right now, we're still waiting for a list
of those carriers who'll be impacted.
My understanding is that there's already been
some reporting on this,
and the number has been zero of who would even be impacted.
So it does seem like a lot of empty threats
coming out of the legislature to kind of just add
to this anti-immigrant fervor,
but the true damage is being caused
through this executive order.
>>What do you think the impact is on those who are here
in our community, who came into this community, who we,
in the past, used to always welcome into this community,
whether the refugees from Pedro Pan,
folks fleeing from Haiti?
The governor has made it seem as if there's
a significant difference between Pedro Pan,
which was a government-sponsored program,
and those who are coming up from Central America
as if they're fleeing something different.
The folks who are fleeing from Central America,
for instance, they are quite fearful
that they will be killed.
>>Correct.
I am the daughter of immigrants.
My parents came from Iran,
another country with dangerous
political institutions and censorship,
and made their home in this country,
and there is nothing more American
than welcoming the immigrants.
We are a nation of immigrants,
and this legislation really does target children,
but it's also part of the governor's false agenda
that immigrants are a threat
and immigrants equates to criminality,
and the reality is that we we've actually seen
crime rates in Florida declining substantially
over the last decade, and yet,
here we are trying to create fear among a population
that's incredibly vulnerable.
And I don't see the difference between the Peter Pan fights
and what's happening today because you're right,
these are children who are caught in a situation
of political upheaval and trauma.
They come to United States and seek a refuge,
and the fact that they're being re-traumatized now
because of politics, it's cruel for the sake of being cruel,
and when you talk to our providers,
they're overwhelmingly faith-based.
We've had conversations with Bethany Christian Services,
Lutheran Services of Florida, the Catholic Diocese.
These are the organizations who've been leading the charge
and working with the Office of Refugee Resettlement
at the federal government level to pay for these programs
and to keep these kids safe as they navigate
their legal options and hopefully
become reunited with family.
This has been a program that has worked for years
with no problems under multiple administrations,
Republican and Democrat, the federal level,
and multiple Republican governors,
and there's been no complaint until now.
So that's a ideology of convenience.
The reality is that Florida would be nothing
without our immigrant community members,
and at the same time, this legislative body,
not even a decade ago, approved in-state tuition
for our dreamers, for our DACA students,
students who are the children of of immigrants
who don't have documentation status,
and that same legislative body, by the way,
also tried to pursue access to driver's licenses
for those students, which at the time,
Governor Rick Scott, now senator, vetoed it,
but he signed the in-state tuition into law.
So, I always see this cognitive dissonance
because it was just a decade ago where there was
bipartisanship around making Florida
more immigrant friendly,
which is also good for our economy,
especially our workforce, but today,
it's a complete reversal,
and the only thing that's really changed
is the Trump agenda, is the agenda to appeal to
a really extreme conservative base versus trying
to make Florida work for every type of person.
>>Well, is this who we are today in Florida?
>>It shouldn't be who we are today.
I refuse to- >>But is it?
My question is is it who we are today?
>>I don't think so.
I mean, when you talk to,
especially Republican members of the legislature
who are of immigrant identity,
there is some discomfort with some of these policies.
I feel like there's a new litmus test for conservatism
that you don't go along, you'll be primaried,
and you'll face this type of threats politically,
but I don't think that's the majority
of people's perspectives.
I think, especially when you talk about children
and unaccompanied minors,
there is this collective understanding that these
are children who are fleeing places of of political violence
and physical violence, and they want a safe place to sleep,
and these are faith-based organizations
who are upholding their Christian values,
their faith-based values, to do this work,
and I think when I talk to my constituents,
overwhelmingly there's support for that.
That's not seen as something dangerous or scary,
but of course, there's politicians who wanna perpetuate
maybe one example of a violence associated
with someone who is undocumented.
Meanwhile, there's thousands of examples of violence
by those who are American citizens,
and so it's this conflation that's not based in reality,
but for political gain,
folks wanna emphasize it as being fact.
>>Let's take a step back for a second.
As you look at this year's legislative session,
this week there was the late night session to pass
the restrictions on abortions, limiting it to 15 weeks
with no exceptions for rape and incest.
How do you surmise what's taking place re right now
in the Florida legislature?
>>So whether it's the abortion ban
or what I like to call the Stop Learning Act,
which the governor calls the Stop Woke Act,
or the Don't Say Gay Bill,
which is also gonna be on the House floor this coming week.
These are not problems that Floridians
are asking us to solve.
These are manufactured debates.
I go back home to my district.
The issues my constituents face are affordable housing,
it's clean air and clean water, It's good paying jobs,
it's safety nets like food stamps not working
or the unemployment system not working.
Nobody's asking me to go to Tallahassee
and pursue these culture battles.
I'm forced to respond because I'm in the middle of them,
but these are not the problems that people want us to solve,
but they become the campaign rhetoric.
They become the next mail piece, the next TV ad.
So it's a constant pattern of political rhetoric
masquerading as a bill,
and that's been the entire theme
of this legislative session.
>>When we come back,
State Senator Annette Taddeo on her run for governor.
Stay with us.