DeSantis Slams Florida’s Legislature For Trying To Sabotage Pro-Trump Immigration Bill

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis slammed the GOP-controlled state legislature this week for grandstanding against his emergency special session that was called so that it could quickly pass funds needed to help implement President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“Though the Florida legislature’s leadership initially said the call for a special session on immigration enforcement was ‘premature,’ they have now finally agreed to come in and do their job,” DeSantis said. “I am glad the Legislature’s bill includes many of my proposals, including the long-overdue need to eliminate tuition waivers for illegal immigrant students.”

He continued, “But overall, their new bill is substantially weaker than the proposals I outlined and that are necessary to ensure that Florida leads on fulfilling the Trump Administration’s mandate to enforce immigration law and deport illegal aliens.”

The governor said the weakened bill from Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters (R) failed to “put an enforceable duty on state & local law enforcement to fully cooperate on illegal immigration enforcement.”

“This means that Florida localities will provide no meaningful assistance to federal efforts,” the governor said.

DeSantis said the weakened legislation also “unconstitutionally removes authority to enforce the law from the governor to a lower-level cabinet agency, the Department of Agriculture, that does not oversee state law enforcement and whose stakeholders often oppose enforcement measures.”

“By giving enforcement power to the agricultural arm of state government, it ensures that enforcement never actually occurs. In short, it puts the fox in charge of the hen house,” he said. “This is a unique moment in American history. We are either going to reclaim our sovereignty, uphold the law, and protect our citizens or allow this moment to slip away.”

The governor argued that the legislature’s bill was a “bait-and-switch” designed to “create the illusion of an illegal immigration crackdown, when it does anything but.”

“It is an insult to name such a weak bill after President Trump, who has been so strong on this issue,” he added.

Here is the rundown of the differences between a strong immigration response (our proposals) and the watered-down smoke-and-mirrors bill (championed by FL legislative leaders): pic.twitter.com/GZpWq7OM6b

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 28, 2025