Florida businesses that purposely ignore whether employees are legally in the United States could face hefty fines or even criminal charges if they hire more than 50 undocumented immigrants, according to a sweeping new immigration package.
Filed Wednesday by Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin, the 34-page bill would presume certain non-citizens are at fault in car accidents, severely restrict their employment, and prevent state banks from loaning them money.
It’s the most wide-ranging immigration bundle proposed so far ahead of the 2026 session, and would extend a 2025 crackdown that removed in-state tuition for undocumented students, imposed state-level penalties for illegally entering Florida, and required all counties to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The nationwide push to quash all avenues for undocumented immigration has been exemplified in Florida, the first state to create a state-run migrant detention center. Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration last January, Sunshine State officials have mirrored his anti-illegal immigration agenda.
This includes deputizing hundreds of state and local officials to act as immigration officers; Florida is the only state to have all of its (67) counties entering into 287(g) agreements, which are partnerships with ICE.
Martin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
E-Verify penalties
SB 1380 would create civil penalties for employers who fail to properly use E-Verify, a federal database that checks whether new hires are legally authorized to work in the country. This builds off of another Martin bill, which would require all businesses to use E-Verify.
Employers who fail to check workers’ immigration status through E-Verify before submitting workers’ compensation claims would be personally liable for any costs, expenses, or benefits for undocumented employees.
Purposely not checking their status, however, would result in suspension of business licenses for one year and fines up to $10,000. Doing it again would result in a five-year license suspension alongside a $100,000 fine, and a third violation would mean permanent license revocation and a $250,000 fine.
If the employer purposely flouts this section and the undocumented worker then ends up injuring another person, the employer’s license would be suspended for five years with a $100,000 fine. If the worker kills another person, the licenses would be permanently revoked with a $500,000 fine.
In a similar vein, the bill would impose a third-degree felony charge for an employer who knowingly hires more than 50 undocumented workers. The business would permanently lose its license. The bill would create a cause of action against the employer for any person injured or the next of kin of a person killed by the actions of an undocumented worker.
These provisions evoke a recently closed, two-year federal investigation into Archer Western, a road-building company hired by the state that employed undocumented immigrants for years, as the Tampa Bay Times has reported.
Officials opened the investigation after an undocumented Archer Western employee driving heavy machinery in 2022 hit and killed a PinellasCounty deputy. At least 18 of his coworkers on that state-funded construction site were also undocumented.
Car accidents, foreign remittances, and licensing
SB 1380 would create a rebuttable presumption of fault in car accidents involving undocumented immigrants from other states. This means if an out-of-state driver who is undocumented is involved in a car accident in Florida, authorities could presume he or she was at fault — as long as the other motorist wasn’t driving recklessly, under the influence, or clearly at fault.
Insurers could not pay benefits or settle claims with an unauthorized out-of-state driver, the bill says.
Additionally, the bill requires law enforcement officers investigating car accidents to verify whether the parties are legally in the country.
Other provisions would ban the state Division of Risk Management from approving a claim submitted by an adult undocumented immigrant. Unauthorized immigrants would be barred from sending money to other countries and state banks could not accept IDs traditionally used by undocumented immigrants or those illegally in the state with down payments or loans.
All licensing procedures, relicensing instruction, and licensing testing must be conducted in English, the bill says. Interpreters, translators, or alternate language accommodations would be banned.
A Leon County circuit judge has rejected a lawsuit filed by five Democratic lawmakers who sought access to the immigrant-detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” saying laws about access to state prisons and local jails do not apply to the Everglades facility.
Judge Jonathan Sjostrom on Friday sided with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in the lawsuit filed after lawmakers made an unannounced visit to the detention center in July but were denied access. The Democrats contended in the lawsuit the denial violated laws allowing access by legislators to correctional institutions.
Sjostrom, in a five-page ruling, wrote that the laws allow access to facilities such as state prisons and county jails — but not to the immigrant-detention center run by the state.
“The (immigrant detention) facility does not meet the statutory definition of a state correctional institution because no prisoner is housed in the facility under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Corrections,” Sjostrom wrote. “Likewise, the facility does not meet the statutory definition of a county or municipal detention facility because there is no allegation that the (immigrant detention) facility is operated by any county or municipal government or related entity.”
The state drew national attention when it opened the facility last year at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport as DeSantis and other Florida Republican leaders sought to assist President Donald Trump’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. The facility, which is surrounded by the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve, also has led to separate legal battles in federal court. The airport had long been used for flight training.
Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, and Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, went to the center on July 3 “to inspect the state detention facility, evaluate the use of taxpayer funds and assess safety pursuant to Florida statutory guidelines,” the lawsuit said.
“The petitioners (the lawmakers) attempted to arrive unannounced so that they could observe the unadulterated conditions of the facility,” the lawsuit said. “The unannounced inspection of the facility falls squarely within the petitioners’ purview and oversight duties as state officers and members of the Florida Legislature.”
After they were turned away, the lawmakers filed the case at the Florida Supreme Court on July 10 seeking what is known as a “writ of quo warranto” directing DeSantis and state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie to allow lawmakers unannounced access to the facility. The Supreme Court, without offering an opinion about the lawmakers’ arguments, sent the case to circuit court.
Amid the controversy, state lawmakers and members of Congress were allowed to visit the facility, though Democrats said the visit was tightly controlled and left unanswered questions.
In a November response to the lawsuit, attorneys for DeSantis and Guthrie wrote that the laws cited by the Democrats “do not entitle them as individual legislators to enter Alligator Alcatraz at their pleasure.”
“The facility is not a ‘state correctional institution’ because it is not a ‘prison’ or ‘other correctional facility,’” the response said, partially quoting one law. “‘Prisons’ and ‘correctional facilities’ describe facilities that are part of the criminal justice system. … Instead, Alligator Alcatraz is a short-term civil detention facility in which illegal aliens are held under the authority of the federal government and processed for deportation.”
In addition to citing the laws about legislators having access to correctional facilities, the lawsuit also raised constitutional separation-of-powers arguments.
“The denial of the petitioners’ access to the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention facility was an unconstitutional executive overreach because it prevented the duly elected members of the Florida Legislature from exercising their powers,” the lawsuit said. “The petitioners’ denial of entry and access restricted the Legislature’s independence as a co-equal branch of government.”
But in the November response, the DeSantis administration attorneys said the state Constitution gives the Legislature oversight authority and a law authorizes legislative committees to carry out investigations. But the administration attorneys said individual lawmakers don’t have such powers.
“Far from the governor or FDEM (the Division of Emergency Management) usurping the authority of another branch of government, it is petitioners who attempt to usurp the authority of the Legislature and its committees by taking matters into their own hands,” the response said.
Without directly praising President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis Monday at Florida’s “Deportation Depot” condemned the “destructive” Nicolás Maduro government days after U.S. military forces captured him.
It was the Florida governor’s first public comments on Maduro’s seizure, which happened late Saturday night at his Caracas compound.
DeSantis, often hyperactive on social media, was one of the few state leaders who’d stayed quiet in the first days following the operation — even though the Sunshine State boasts the largest Venezuelan community in the nation.
On Monday, he broke his silence.
“We’ve seen the country of Venezuela suffering under the yoke of Marxist ideology, first with Hugo Chávez and then with Nicolás Maduro,” DeSantis said, speaking alongside members of the Florida Cabinet at the entrance to the detention facility his administration has been calling “Deportation Depot” to announce more than 10,000 arrests of undocumented migrants.
“You will be hard pressed to find a reign as destructive as the Chávez-Maduro reign has been; taking a country that has been prosperous with an abundance of resources and basically destroying it and making it so that it’s miserable, repressed, and now one of the poorest countries,” he added.
Late Saturday night, American forces captured Maduro and his wife and brought them to New York. Both were arraigned in federal court on drug trafficking charges.
Doral in South Florida is home to the largest Venezuelan community in the United States. More than 34,000 of its 81,000 residents are of Venezuelan descent.
What was the conference about?
DeSantis called the news conference to celebrate the continuance of Operation Tidal Wave, a detention round-up launched in late April that initially captured more than 1,000 undocumented migrants. Of the updated total as of Monday, DeSantis said, 63% had past criminal charges.
Built at the defunct Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson — midway between Gainesville and Jacksonville — the state opened “Deportation Depot” mid-September to assist in mass detentions and deportations. It can accommodate 1,310 beds and is expected to hold as many as 2,000 people in a temporary capacity.
It’s been the launch point for 93 deportation flights containing 2,926 people since the center’s opening, DeSantis said.
The North Florida facility came two months after President Donald Trump joined Florida Republicans in opening “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades, the nation’s first state-run detention center.
The state has also been planning for months to open a third center called the “Panhandle Pokey,” but DeSantis said Florida officials are “still waiting” for the Department of Homeland Security to approve it.
He added that Florida may open a fourth detention center in southern Florida. The governor said he’s looking at a number of options but wants to make sure it would “make sense” both in terms of finances and capacity.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded Florida in September a $608 million reimbursement grant for costs associated with the detention and deportation of migrants. This came months after Florida became the first — and only — state to require all 67 counties to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The anti-undocumented immigration sentiment sweeping Florida politics was both inspired by and mirrored in the White House after Trump took office in January 2025. Trump, beginning his second term, emphasized sealing the southern border as a top priority for his administration and removing migrants in the country without official permission.
Florida Republicans heartily agreed. The GOP-dominated Legislature passed a comprehensive law in early 2025 — weeks after Trump’s inauguration — creating state-level penalties for illegally entering Florida, mandating the death penalty for noncitizens who commit capital crimes, and nixing in-state tuition for undocumented college students.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet on Wednesday approved more than $2 million in immigration enforcement money for local agencies seeking AI language translators, pepper spray, GPS trackers, handcuffs, bonuses, and more.
The $2.4 million greenlit to 10 law enforcement agencies means Florida has now approved roughly $21 million of the original $250 million diverted by the Legislature in February to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
DeSantis and the Cabinet members, who make up the newly created State Board of Immigration Enforcement, approved the money unanimously.
The board is part of a broader Florida crackdown on undocumented immigration. In February, the GOP-dominated Legislature approved a sweeping measure demanding all counties partner with ICE, creating state-level penalties for entering Florida without proper documentation, and removing in-state tuition for undocumented college students.
The Florida law came right as President Donald Trump took office, ordering mass deportations and setting aside mass sums of money for states to set up migrant detention centers. Florida was the first state to do so with “Alligator Alcatraz,” a sprawling, controversial facility in the heart of the Everglades.
Where is the money going?
The largest lump of the $2.4 million will go to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, which requested the most money ($738,451) for the widest-ranging variety of immigration-related activity.
After the Florida Highway Patrol, the South Florida county is responsible for the most encounters with suspected undocumented immigrants and the most non-citizens arrested on federal immigration charges, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s immigration dashboard.
Martin County’s breakdown includes:
$2,546 for 30 handcuffs and 30 leg irons; $13,153 for tactical goggles, ballistic helmets, and bulletproof vests; $1,639 for 10 canisters of high-volume pepper spray; $271,103 for a rapid DNA testing machine; $136,736 for license plate readers; $185,029 for tasers; and $859 for Bluetooth rechargeable shooting ear protectors.
The next highest grant is for Volusia County Corrections, totaling $505,789. The asks include $68,400 for detention beds, $22,400 to train 40 officers under the 287(g) program, $43,000 in bonuses for correctional officers, $183,760 for six detection screening systems to check migrants for “contraband,” $182,500 for a full-body security scanning system to check migrants for contraband, fevers, and health problems, $1,400 for 72 uniforms, and $4,100 for 50 mattresses.
GPS trackers, AI translators, and biometric scans
The remaining requests came from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the Madison Police Department, the Fruitland Park Police Department, the City of Port Richey Police Department, the town of Havana, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, the town of Welaka Police Department, and the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office.
The majority of the money is for license plate readers, overtime, or bonuses for law enforcement or correctional officers. Fruitland Park received $22,300 for GPS trackers. According to the submitted request, the department plans to deploy the trackers against “a suspect vehicle … allowing officers to safely monitor vehicles suspected of transporting unauthorized aliens.”
Havana received $93,687 for body-worn cameras, $90,088 for tasers, and $6,201 for nine universal AI language translators. These translators will “facilitate effective communication with non-English [speaking] individuals during stops and immigration focused activities.”
Putnam County received $17,378 for six laptops; $5,793 for handcuffs, leg cuffs, and chains; $69,384 for 21 Rapid ID devices, and $2,557 for one “Rapid ID two finger biometric device accompanied by a DNA barcode.”
These would be used to determine “accurate biometric identification of detainees.”
Alex Rodriguez Silva moved into his family’s dream home in Hialeah in South Florida three years ago. In August, he handed the keys to the new owners and packed his family’s belongings into a moving van for a four-day drive to Denver.
“We couldn’t take it anymore, the constant fear that one of us could be disappeared by ICE,” Silva said in an interview translated from Portuguese. “We wanted to stay in Florida where we’ve built our life, but my kids deserve a place where they feel safe and welcome.”
Silva, 40, is a natural-born American citizen engaged to Ana, a Brazilian woman who came to the U.S. in 2009 and overstayed her tourist visa. Ana has one child from a previous relationship who also lacks legal permanent status, and their youngest child is an American citizen.
Silva’s children were enrolled in a public elementary school when the Trump administration rescinded rules that blocked immigration enforcement in schools in January. He said his family weighed the life they had built with the risks of increased immigration enforcement and opted, like thousands of other immigrant families, not to enroll their kids in a Florida public school this year.
Education leaders watching how immigration policies affect schools expect classrooms to get emptier every year, but this year, they were caught off guard by falling enrollment rates in some of Florida’s largest districts.
In Orange County, the school district saw an enrollment decrease of around 6,600 students this year, more than double the 3,000 students the district predicted would leave for charter schools, said school board member Stephanie Vanos. She said the majority of the unexpected departures were children in immigrant families. The district’s total enrollment is just over 182,400.
“Allowing immigration enforcement activities near schools sets up a culture of fear among immigrant families,” Vanos said. “There’s this narrative that non-white people don’t belong here.”
This reporting is part of a new collaboration organized by Carnegie-Knight schools of journalism to produce intensive, public service news coverage of immigration issues, including the U.S. immigration courts. Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, interviewed education officials across the state.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been blocked since 2011 from detaining people in “sensitive areas” like schools and churches, and the Biden administration expanded those restrictions four years ago.
Immediately after the policy was rolled back in January and immigration agents got the green light to operate on school campuses, Vanos said, Orange County schools saw sharp increases in absenteeism, particularly in schools with large immigrant populations. Absenteeism has since steadied, but she said the enrollment decrease is just as concerning.
There have not been any confirmed immigration raids at public schools in the United States since the January policy change. Immigration agents attempted earlier this year to enter two public elementary schools in California to interview students, according to an April press conference held by Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, but they were denied entry. Carvalho was the superintendent for Miami-Dade County Public Schools for 14 years before he moved to Los Angeles.
“It is extremely disturbing that these students aren’t coming to our schools,” Vanos said. “We don’t know if they are going to school at all.”
Enrollment also took a hit in Broward County’s public schools, which reported a decrease of more than 11,300 students this school year. The enrollment decrease seems focused in immigrant communities, said Broward School Board member Sarah Leonardi, but it’s hard to know for sure. Broward’s district-wide enrollment, not including charter schools, is about 187,850 students.
“We’ve seen it anecdotally, in pockets of communities and certain schools,” she said. “But families and communities where there is a lot of immigration tend to not speak up about these issues in public ways because they’re scared.”
Debbi Hixon, the chair of the Broward County School Board, said immigration agents have not come to any schools in Broward, but the threat of detentions on campus has a pronounced impact on students.
“Students should feel safe in schools,” she said. “We live in a world where they don’t. We have active shooter and lockdown drills once a month. To add that as an additional concern for safety is disheartening. I feel very un-American.”
A similar enrollment situation emerged in the past few weeks in Miami-Dade County, which oversees more than 400 schools with majority Hispanic enrollment, according to data from the Florida Department of Education.
Overall enrollment decreased by more than 13,000 students this year, according to an August presentation by Superintendent Jose Dotres. The district – with about 328,000 students – predicted a decrease of 5,000 students.
The county averages 7,000 new students from out of state every year, peaking at 20,000 new enrollments around 2020, said school board member Luisa Santos. This year, that number is less than 2,000 students.
“Data does back up this sharp and clear trend that people from outside the state are not coming here,” Santos said. “There’s a general sense of fear and distrust that now, at any moment, school can be disrupted by agents coming in and pulling families apart.”
Dotres said in his presentation at the start of the school year that the enrollment decline could not be directly attributed to immigration enforcement. He cited the state-sponsored mass exodus of students to charter schools as another cause of shrunken school populations in Miami-Dade County, a factor that likely contributed to decreased enrollment numbers around the state as well.
Santos said immigration enforcement agents were seen interviewing a contractor in a school parking lot before the semester started. Agents haven’t had contact with students or staff in schools, but school employees have been caught in the net of deportations.
Wualner Sauceda was a first-year science teacher at a Hialeah middle school when he was detained in January and deported to Honduras about a month later. Sauceda, who came to the United States as a child and held Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, was detained at one of his scheduled immigration hearings.
Andrew Spar, the president of the Florida Education Association, said events like Sauceda’s deportation distract from a school’s primary purpose: nurturing growth and encouraging learning. affect students even if they don’t happen on campus.
“Schools need to be safe spaces for students and families,” he said. “Any time we impugn the sanctity of our schools and their ability to carry out their mission, we do harm to the future of this state and country.”
Deportations and the threat of immigration raids, Spar said, affect students even if they don’t happen on campus.
“When a teacher who is beloved by the community is detained and deported, it certainly weighs on the minds of students and staff at the school,” Spar said. “Especially for first generation students, who hope to achieve the American dream here, they are certainly more concerned. If their teacher can be taken, what kind of protections are there for their families?”
Silva said he and Ana made the decision to move when their oldest child started refusing to leave the car at school drop-off in the mornings. Their child cried nearly every day, Silva said, asking for Silva to drop the kids off instead of Ana because she doesn’t have legal permanent status in the country.
“All she wanted was to be involved and spend those precious moments with our kids in the mornings before she went to work,” he said. “But she’s brown, and she speaks English with a thick accent, so she’s the first target when ICE comes knocking on car windows in the drop-off line to check for papers.”
The family’s move to Colorado felt like a small relief, Silva said in an interview with Fresh Take Florida in November, but the United States doesn’t feel like a safe place for him to raise a child without legal permanent status.
“The life that I should be enjoying with my fiancée and my kids feels like it’s passing right by me,” he said. “Every moment I should be spending with them, I’m thinking about the day that Ana gets arrested in front of our kids in the grocery store or our oldest kid gets pulled out of class by ICE. I am constantly scared that I am going to lose my family.”
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at blunardini@ufl.edu. You can donate to support our students here.
Environmental groups’ request that a federal court shutter the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center was paused Wednesday because of the government shutdown.
Led by the non-profit Friends of the Everglades, a coalition of activists had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to reconsider its September decision to keep open the migrant detention center, located in the heart of the Everglades, despite environmental concerns.
But the court on Wednesday agreed with the Department of Homeland Security that the case should be paused until government attorneys can work again.
“The motion to stay the appeal is granted. The movant is directed to file a notice with the court when the purpose for the stay is obviated,” the two-sentence order reads.
Although this comes just weeks after the court expedited the appeal and scheduled oral arguments for January, the federal government’s shutdown on Sept. 30 set off a cascade of missed pay, furloughed workers, and in-limbo cases.
So, on Oct. 10, government attorneys, noting that many Justice Department lawyers are banned from working until the government comes online again, asked for a pause on the case until “DOJ attorneys are permitted to resume their usual civil litigation functions.”
How did we get here?
The state created the sprawling, 3,000-bed facility atop the seldom-used Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Big Cypress National Park, drawing scrutiny from Democrats, immigration groups, and environmental organizations since its July 1 opening.
Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biodiversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe filed suit over the summer alleging the detention center violates federal environmental laws. A district judge agreed, ordering Florida to shut down the center by September’s end. But a federal three-judge panel on Sept. 4 reversed, noting that because the site had not received federal dollars, and was entirely state-run, federal environmental regulations don’t apply.
A week later, DHS and Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie revealed that Florida had applied for federal reimbursement — though Friends of the Everglades believes the request was made earlier. On Sept. 30, the state received more than $608 million to pay for the construction, transportation, and equipment costs of the facility
The plaintiffs soon after appealed, asking the Eleventh Circuit to reconsider. When DHS pointed out that some government staff couldn’t work during the shutdown, Friends of the Everglades called the situation “regrettable” but argued it didn’t outweigh the environment “harms” caused by dragging out the case.
“An indefinite stay in this case … would cause Plaintiffs ongoing and irreversible harm where the federal action being challenged — the construction and operation of an immigration detention center in the Everglades that imperils sensitive wetlands, endangered Species, and communities in the area — would continue during the indefinite stay period,” the attorneys wrote.
When the Eleventh Circuit released its order against them, Eve Samples, executive director of the Friends of the Everglades, put out a statement calling the move a ruse to avoid accountability.
“There’s a growing mountain of evidence that Alligator Alcatraz was built in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act,” Samples said. “Meanwhile, the government is dragging its feet in court to dodge accountability — using the federal shutdown as an excuse to delay the appeal.
“We’re more resolved than ever to keep fighting to restore the lower court’s injunction to protect the Everglades.”
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
The court agreed with the Department of Homeland Security that the case should be paused until government attorneys can work again.
‘We must call it what it truly is: the documentation of the sexual abuse of children’
The judge issued a stay of the lawsuit until after the Supreme Court decides whether a law prohibiting drug users having guns violates the Second Amendment.
A Florida Republican filed a bill Tuesday that would fine law enforcement agencies for not partnering with ICE and allowing families whose loved ones were killed by a noncitizen to sue certain local governments.
HB 229, filed by Seminole state Rep. Berny Jacques, would use the new $10,000 fine for out-of-compliance law enforcement to compensate the aggrieved families. It’s the largest proposed change so far to Florida immigration laws ahead of the 2026 session.
“Florida stands against lawlessness,” Jacques — who’s also sponsoring legislation to require all employers to verify new hires’ immigration status — said in a press release. “We will stand with law-abiding citizens first and ensure that those who break our laws are held accountable.”
The four-page bill builds off a sweeping law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February. That law, which removed in-state tuition for undocumented college students and created state-level immigration crimes, requires county law enforcement to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in so-called 287(g) agreements.
Although cities are not required to enter into these agreements, the state has argued that they can’t purposely cancel the partnerships once they’ve been enacted. This would constitute active defiance of Florida’s mandate that cities use their “best efforts” to combat illegal immigration, Florida officials say.
HB 229 provides new penalties for noncompliance. Law enforcement agencies refusing to work with ICE would be fined $10,000 by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FDLE would use that money to compensate families whose loved ones were killed by noncitizens, as long as the crime was committed on or after July 1, 2026, and the family fills out a form with FDLE.
Similarly, these families would be able to sue out-of-compliance police or a local government if it has a sanctuary policy protecting undocumented immigrants — although these are already illegal in Florida — and if its negligence paved the way for the Floridian’s death.
Jacques’ bill is named the “Shane Jones Act” after a man who was killed in a traffic accident by an immigrant illegally in the country. He left behind two children and his wife, Nikki Jones, has since appeared alongside DeSantis in press events to call for stronger state-level immigration laws.
“For too long, American families have been left to pick up the pieces after their loved ones were taken from them by crimes that could have been prevented,” Jones said in Jacques’ press release. “The Shane Jones Act represents a turning point — finally holding local governments accountable when they fail to enforce immigration laws.”
Other immigration-related bills filed ahead of the 2026 legislative session include Jacques’ bill expanding the E-Verify system to all private employers, and Sen. Don Gaetz’s bill to prevent undocumented immigrants from driving commercial vehicles.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
Florida officials received a hefty lump sum of cash from the federal government Tuesday to cover the cost of the Everglades immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
As reported first by WPLG, the Department of Homeland Security revealed two days after the fact that Florida had been awarded the full $608.4 million stockpile of funds within the Detention Support Grant Program, a new program housed under the Federal Emergency Management Agency designed to compensate states for detaining undocumented immigrants.
Florida was the only applicant for the grant program, FEMA told the Florida Phoenix last month. That money will foot the construction, housing, feeding, and equipment costs spent on the Everglades center — on which the state has already spent at least $245 million — and the “Deportation Depot” facility in Baker County.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in August that Florida may build a “Panhandle Pokey” in northwest Florida, which the grant would also cover.
“Another bogus narrative bites the dust. I said all along that we would be reimbursed,” DeSantis posted on social media Thursday, hours after the news broke.
Although the governor had vowed for months that the federal government, not state taxpayers, would pay the bill, neither he nor his office could confirm to the Florida Phoenix as of Tuesday whether the state had been reimbursed.
FEMA had not responded to a request for comment at the time.
What is the Detention Support Grant Program?
The Detention Support Grant Program is an initiative by President Donald Trump’s administration to encourage states to assist with federal immigration efforts. It’s part of FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, partially used by President Joe Biden to set up short-term shelters for migrants released by Border Patrol.
Florida officials applied for federal reimbursement in mid-September, just days after a three-judge panel tossed a lawsuit to shut down the Everglades center over environmental concerns. Of note, the court nixed the case on the theory that the center was not subject the federal environmental laws because it had not received any federal dollars.
More money for Florida’s anti-illegal immigration efforts first began to pour in last week. ICE announced last Friday that Florida’s state and local law enforcement would receive $38 million for equipment and transportation involved in detaining non-citizens.
On Tuesday, the first $14 million of a $250 million state grant was awarded to law enforcement by the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, a new task force headed by DeSantis and the Cabinet.
The reimbursement for the detention centers came on the final day for FEMA to award the DSGP grant. A day later, the federal government shut down — and is still inoperative — meaning FEMA will not process further grant requests until the government comes back online.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
The Florida governor’s office is vowing continued vigilance at the state’s detention centers hours after a now-deceased shooter killed two detainees and injured another at a Dallas ICE facility Wednesday morning.
“Florida will continue to be vigilant in ensuring safety and security at our detention facilities,” Molly Best, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, told the Florida Phoenix in a statement.
“Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” are Florida’s two main migrant detention centers working in conjunction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They were mostly constructed by the Florida Division of Emergency Management at the direction of top leaders, and together can hold over 5,000 people. Specific security details at the facilities were not provided by the state due to cited security risks.
FDEM did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, a gunman attacked an ICE Dallas field office Wednesday morning, firing “indiscriminately” at both the building and a van near the entrance. This is where three detainees were shot, killing two and putting the third in critical condition.
The gunman then committed suicide, DHS continued.
“We can confirm, the shell casings were found with anti-ICE messages on them. This was an attack on ICE law enforcement,” the statement posted on social media says. “This horrific attack occurred amidst the 1000% increase in assaults against @ICEgov.
“Politicians and media pundits must stop the vile lies and smears designed to demonize and dehumanize ICE law enforcement. This shooting must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences,” the agency added.
The Dallas attack came a month after an individual was arrested for threatening Dallas ICE officers with an alleged “detonator” on his wrist.
“Alligator Alcatraz,” located deep within the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve, was the nation’s first major ICE facility constructed after Donald Trump assumed the presidency. Trump joined DeSantis and other top federal and state officials on July 1 to celebrate the center’s opening.
Since then, Florida has opened “Deportation Depot” in Baker County and has floated the “Panhandle Pokey” in northwest Florida. Florida also has four other, smaller, state-run centers.
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A federal appeals court last week ordered the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center to remain open partially because it lacked federal ties. A week later, Florida formally applied for federal funds.
The state’s request for reimbursement for its spending on the migrant detention facility in the heart of the Everglades came just days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit hit pause on a federal judge’s order shutting down the center over environmental concerns. The 2-1 vote claimed that federal environmental laws don’t apply because Florida officials haven’t used any federal money.
But less than eight days after the ruling — which stayed all aspects of the case — the Florida Division of Emergency Management asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be reimbursed, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Florida Phoenix in an email.
“The State of Florida submitted an application for reimbursement to [FEMA],” the spokesperson said. Although they didn’t comment on what day the application was made nor for how much money, this confirmed Politico’s reporting that FDEM’s executive director, Kevin Guthrie, said the state had applied for federal money.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has long promised that Florida would be reimbursed for its detention center spending, although neither his office nor FDEM ever clarified when they planned to ask for the money. Federal authorities similarly lauded the facility as a joint effort, but showed no signs of chipping in until last week.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” the DHS official said. “These new facilities are in large part to be funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program.”
The Shelter and Services program allocated $608.4 million toward FEMA’s new Detention Support Grant Program, specifically designed to expedite Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mass detention and deportation agenda. If FEMA approves Florida’s request, the money will be awarded by Sep. 30. The Everglades facility is estimated to cost around $450 million for the year.
The attorney general’s office redirected questions to FDEM, which did not respond to questions about the application’s timeline.
‘So what do you say, judges?’
In a 2-1 decision on Sep. 4, the Eleventh Circuit both paused federal trial judge Kathleen Williams’ order to shut down the facility and fully stayed the case. The lawsuit was brought against the state by the Miccosukee Tribe and environmental groups Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biodiversity.
They claimed the center, located within the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve, was harming the environment and violating the National Environmental Policy Act.
But judges Barbara Lagoa and Elizabeth Branch, both Trump appointees, ruled that Williams had erred by applying the federal law to a center that had exclusively received state funds. Florida hadn’t even applied for federal reimbursement, they argued. The activists have since asked the appeals court to reconsider their decision to halt the lawsuit.
If the judges don’t, Miami attorney Joseph DeMaria said the plaintiffs would be stymied unless they can “un-stay” the case — even though the majority opinion was largely predicated on the lack of federal ties.
“Unless they can get the case unstuck, there’s nothing they can do,” said DeMaria, who once worked as a prosecutor with the Justice Department’s Miami Organized Crime Strike Force. [The state] played it cute by saying, ‘We haven’t formally agreed yet, so federal law doesn’t apply.’”
He posed a rhetorical question to the appellate judges on the case: “You said that the feds haven’t agreed to pay, so there’s no jurisdiction to enforce the federal environmental law, but then almost immediately after you said that, they went and agreed to pay. So what do you say, judges?”
Attorneys for the Friends of the Everglades declined to comment, while the governor’s office, the Miccosukee Tribe, and the Center for Biodiversity did not respond to requests for comment.
Fresh off a court victory ordering the “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center to remain open, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that Baker County’s “Deportation Depot” is in operation.
“Deportation Depot,” a DeSantis-coined moniker, occupies the old Baker County Correctional Facility north of Gainesville. The center can hold up to 2,000 people and opened Tuesday, the governor’s office confirmed to The Florida Phoenix.
It’s “receiving” migrants as of Friday.
“We’re not only doing Alligator Alcatraz, we’ve now opened the Deportation Depot up in Northeast Florida, and we’re working on opening a Panhandle Pokey in northwest Florida,” DeSantis said Thursday night on FOX News.
The announcement came hours after a federal appeals court sided with DeSantis by pausing a lower judge’s order that would have dismantled the Everglades facility and blocked it from receiving more migrants by September’s end.
The 2-to-1 decision by the Atlanta-based court was a massive victory for DeSantis and top GOP leaders, who had touted the first-in-the-nation center as a powerful buttress in President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-undocumented immigration agenda.
DeSantis first announced plans for “Deportation Depot” in mid-August, a month and half after the Everglades facility hosted Trump and other top federal authorities for a grand opening event.
The new center’s opening comes weeks after The Associated Press first reported that Alligator Alcatraz, located firmly within the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve, was nearly empty. Molly Best, a spokesperson for the governor, said that added migrant facilities in different Florida regions facilitates quicker deportations.
The “Panhandle Pokey” is a third center planned by the state government in western Florida. DeSantis has yet to select a location or timeframe for it’s opening.
“You know, you’re in the Panhandle sending to Alligator Alcatraz, that’s a long way. Even sending to the Deportation Depot in North Florida, that could be three to five hours depending on where you are in the Panhandle,” DeSantis said at a press conference earlier this week.
‘There’s a demand to have way more than just Alligator Alcatraz,’ he said
Judge Williams ordered that no more immigrant detainees be sent to the facility and gave both the state and federal government 60 days to move out existing detainees
The state’s attorneys argued that the National Environmental Policy Act does not apply to the facility
After speaking behind a placard that said “stop illegal immigration,” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed three bills that proponents argue will be deterrents to undocumented immigrants coming to the state.
The measures, approved during the legislative session that ended last week, seek to crack down on the use of what are known as “community” identification cards, strengthen criminal penalties for people who previously have been deported and stiffen punishments for repeatedly driving without licenses.
“We really appreciate what people are doing who are wearing the (law enforcement) uniform to help keep our communities safe. So I think these bills will go a long way to helping make their job easier and make them even more effective,” DeSantis said during a news conference at the Polk County sheriff’s office.
Perhaps the highest-profile bill (HB 1451) is designed to further curb community identification cards. The bill will prevent counties and municipalities from accepting community IDs if the cards were issued by groups that have provided such identification to people who are in the country illegally.
The cards, which typically are issued by non-profit organizations or other non-governmental groups, cannot be used for purposes such as driving or voting but are intended to serve as an alternative form of identification.
Broward County, for example, authorized the use of community ID cards in 2021. Legal Aid Service of Broward County runs the Broward Community ID Project, providing cards to people who can prove they reside in the county.
“Any resident of Broward County can apply for a community ID card. This ID is especially useful to formerly incarcerated persons, foster youth, transgender persons, the homeless, new immigrants, refugees, or anyone who might face difficulties obtaining a state-issued ID. Immigration status will not be asked,” the organization’s website says.
Before signing the bill, DeSantis referred to community IDs as “rogue identifications.”
But during legislative debate last week, Democrats defended the use of community IDs.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said law-enforcement officials have backed the use of community IDs. Eskamani said the cards “can help residents who are experiencing homelessness” and “can help link some of our most-vulnerable residents to resources.”
Rep. Johanna Lopez, D-Orlando, said “restricting access to valid identification jeopardizes public safety.”
The bill builds on a measure approved last year that prohibited local governments from providing money for issuing identification cards to undocumented immigrants.
During the appearance Friday in Polk County, DeSantis also signed a bill (SB 1036) that will increase criminal penalties for immigrants who are arrested for felonies after illegally re-entering the U.S. following deportation for earlier crimes. Also, he signed a measure (HB 1589) that will increase penalties for driving without a valid license more than once.
“In the state of Florida, if you have been deported and you come to this state, and enter our state and you’re here illegally, and you commit crimes, we are throwing the book at you,” DeSantis said about the bill dealing with previously deported people.
DeSantis also said the driver’s license measure is a deterrent for illegal immigrants to travel to Florida.
“We don’t recognize drivers’ licenses from other states that have been issued to illegal aliens. So, that’s smart,” DeSantis said. “But you still have people that come and drive without a license. One of the big cures we can do for illegal immigration is to make sure people that are doing that are facing serious consequences.”
The ACLU of Florida, however, has argued that the drivers’ license measure “disproportionately impacts and targets undocumented immigrants who the state refuses to allow to obtain a valid Florida driver license, and thus forces them to subject themselves to criminal penalties for the simple act of driving their children to after-school activities or doctor appointments.”
We’ve previously banned local governments and NGOs from issuing IDs to illegal aliens.
Today, I signed HB 1451, which prohibits counties and municipalities from accepting IDs issued to illegal aliens. pic.twitter.com/1rk417PwBO
A federal appeals court Tuesday ordered a district judge to reconsider rulings that backed Florida challenges to Biden administration immigration policies, citing a U.S. Supreme Court opinion last year against Texas and Louisiana in a separate case.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Pensacola-based U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell to determine whether he had “jurisdiction” in the Florida case “in light of” the U.S. Supreme Court opinion.
The jurisdiction issue involves whether Florida had legal standing to challenge the immigration policies. Plaintiffs must show standing before judges have jurisdiction to decide cases.
While Tuesday’s one-paragraph order remanding the case to Wetherell did not provide a detailed explanation, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in June that Texas and Louisiana did not have standing to challenge Biden administration immigration-enforcement policies. That opinion came after the federal government appealed Wetherell’s rulings in the Florida case.
The Supreme Court opinion said the Texas and Louisiana case “implicates the executive branch’s enforcement discretion and raises the distinct question of whether the federal judiciary may in effect order the executive branch to take enforcement actions.”
“In short, this (Supreme) Court’s precedents and longstanding historical practice establish that the states’ suit here is not the kind redressable by a federal court,” the Supreme Court decision said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Attorney General Ashley Moody have made a high-profile issue of challenging federal immigration policies as migrants have streamed across the country’s southwestern border.
The state filed a lawsuit in September 2021 alleging that the Biden administration violated laws through “catch-and-release” policies that led to people being released from detention after crossing the border. The state has contended that undocumented immigrants move to Florida and create costs for such things as the education, health-care and prison systems.
Wetherell, a former state appellate judge who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump, issued rulings in March 2023 and May 2023 that said immigration policies known as “Parole Plus Alternatives to Detention” and “Parole with Conditions” violated federal law.
The Biden administration went to the Atlanta-based appeals court in May. After the Supreme Court ruling in the Texas and Louisiana case, U.S. Department of Justice attorneys filed a brief in July arguing the appeals court should reject the Florida case for similar reasons.
“In United States v. Texas, the Supreme Court held that two states lacked standing to challenge DHS’s (the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s) immigration enforcement policies because they lacked ‘a legally and judicially cognizable’ injury where their alleged injury were costs associated with having more noncitizens in their states. Florida similarly fails to satisfy the ‘bedrock constitutional requirement’ of standing,” the Justice Department brief said.
But on June 26, just three days after the Supreme Court opinion, state attorneys filed a brief that tried to differentiate the cases. As an example, they said the Texas and Louisiana case involved policies related to arresting and starting removal proceedings against migrants who crossed the U.S. border, while the Florida case involves “parole” policies that involve releasing people.
“Because the parole policies are not enforcement policies — because they both concern only detention and grant affirmative legal benefits — Florida has a judicially cognizable interest in remedying the sovereign and financial injuries they cause,” the state’s lawyers wrote.
A panel of the appeals court heard arguments in the case Jan. 26. In Tuesday’s order, the appeals court directed Wetherell to make a determination on the jurisdiction issue and then return the court to the higher court for “further proceedings.”
