Legislature announces third special session on immigration after agreement with DeSantis

by Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix
February 10, 2025

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican leaders of the Legislature announced Monday evening their agreement on the state’s immigration enforcement response under the Trump administration after a month-long public dispute.

Lawmakers will convene starting Tuesday at noon to consider three bills in the third special session aimed at combatting unauthorized immigration this year. The announcement came with a vastly different tune than just a couple of weeks ago, when the Legislature passed a bill stripping DeSantis of his immigration enforcement powers, which the governor bashed on TV, social media, and in press conferences.

“We are proud that over the last few weeks conversations and debate within the Legislature on these issues have been civil and respectful,” Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez wrote in the Monday memo outlining the special session. “By working together with the Governor towards a shared goal, these proposals and appropriations ensure Florida continues to lead by example with the strongest crackdown on illegal immigration in the nation.”

As the governor vowed to veto the legislature’s bill, Perez in particular took to conservative radio and the Miami Herald to defend his decision to oppose the governor, saying DeSantis wasn’t being honest about the bill, nicknamed the TRUMP Act.

But Monday’s announcement also doesn’t come as a surprise as the governor discussed last week that an agreement would come soon.

The legislative leaders’ defiance signaled DeSantis’ waning influence after his failed bid for the presidency.

Not one single chief immigration enforcement officer

It appears the legislative leaders and DeSantis compromised on the governor’s biggest problem with the bill: It anointed Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson as the state’s chief immigration officer. Instead, under the new bill, the Florida Cabinet, comprising the governor, Simpson, the attorney general, and the chief financial officer, would serve as the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, which must make unanimous decisions under SB 2C.

However, it’s important to note that while all the members of the board are elected officials, DeSantis has the rare opportunity to choose the attorney general and CFO following his appointment of Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate and Jimmy Patronis’ run for the U.S. House, which he is expected to win. DeSantis has already said he intends to name his former Chief of Staff James Uthmeier as attorney general.

“I want to thank the Florida Legislature for convening in special session on this important topic,” DeSantis wrote in a press release shortly after Albritton and Perez sent their memo. “In working together on this bill, Senate President Ben Albritton and Speaker Danny Perez have been great partners, and we have produced an aggressive bill that we can stand fully behind. I thank the members of the Florida House and Senate for delivering on behalf of the people who sent us here.”

The governor’s comments counter the rhetoric he pushed while labeling the TRUMP Act as weak and promising to financially back primary challengers to Republicans who went against his proposals. In the Monday press release, DeSantis even thanked Simpson, whom he had repeatedly referred to as “the fox guarding the henhouse” on ground that the agriculture industry relies on labor from immigrants without legal permanent status.

Some of the changes in the new proposals

Going in line with the governor’s initial proposals, SB 4C would make it a crime to enter the state by avoiding immigration enforcement officers. That crime and its repeated offenses would be punishable with nine months to up to two years’ imprisonment, and law enforcement would have to notify ICE of the arrest.

The three proposals (SB 2C/HB 1C, SB 4C/HB 3C, and SB 6C/HB 5C) maintain most of the provisions in the TRUMP Act, including a $250 million in grants to reimburse local law enforcement for assisting with federal immigration enforcement and a $1,000 bonus for officers who participate in Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. SB 2C gets rid of the in-state tuition program for college students who are not citizens or permanent legal residents.

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