An Arizona-style crackdown on illegal immigration is gaining ground in Florida, the state with the third-highest undocumented population.
The state House’s top legislator on criminal justice issues says he wants to see legislation to mirror Arizona’s controversial illegal immigration crackdown. The Arizona law requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop, if they reasonably suspect them to be here illegally.
“I would absolutely, 100 percent, unequivocally support an Arizona law,” said Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, a former police officer and chairman of the Criminal and Civil Justice Committee. “The state has its own sovereignty and we have a right to participate in federal efforts to stop illegal immigration. I’m not at all opposed to introducing that bill — it’s something I’m considering.”
Even though Florida has a high concentration of illegal immigrants, the issue has not been a high concern to the Republican-controlled state Legislature in Tallahassee. Efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, such as a bill two years ago to deport some state prisoners here illegally, haven’t gone anywhere.
That might be changing. Upstart Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott, a Naples multimillionaire, has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. In his latest TV ad, Scott pledges to bring the Arizona law to Florida and attacks his GOP primary opponent, frontrunner Attorney General Bill McCollum, for not wanting to do the same. McCollum supports the Arizona law, but says it’s not needed in Florida.
“Rick Scott backs Arizona’s law. He’ll bring it to Florida and let our police check if the people they arrest are here legally,” the ad says.
The leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, CFO Alex Sink, opposes the Arizona law and says it “unfairly discriminates against U.S. citizens, residents and lawful visitors.”
“American citizens should not be made to fear that their citizenship will come into question during a routine traffic stop,” she said through her spokeswoman, Kyra Jennings. Sink said the federal government needs to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
In Arizona, police are not allowed to use race, color or national origin in enforcing the law, but immigrant advocates are still concerned it will lead to racial profiling.
Well more than half — 58 percent — of Floridians support the law, according to a poll earlier this month for several media outlets, including the Herald/Times.
In 2009, Florida had an illegal immigrant population of 720,000 — the third largest in the country behind California and Texas, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Cheryl Little, director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, said she’s worried about what the current political climate and lack of a federal solution to the immigration problem could mean for Florida. “There’s a significant number (of undocumented workers), and so many of them have lived here for years,” she said.
Snyder, a former police officer in Miami and Stuart, said illegal immigration is also a human rights issue, since migrant workers are “underpaid, they’re not insured, they’re really taken advantage of.” The state, he said, should be trying to stop people from being here illegally, whether they’re Irish immigrants or Hispanic immigrants.
“I think people like to cast this as right-wing. That’s not the issue,” he said. “It has nothing to do with race.”
He added, “I’m not saying we’d have a law exactly like Arizona’s, but it’s something to consider. The one part of the Arizona law that seems pretty clear: racial profiling is strictly prohibited. If there’s an arrest, if there’s a stop for an investigation or a crime, it’s completely legal and the law allows them to ask the question” about immigration status.
