JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis is heading into the next legislative session with a long list of proposals for lawmakers to consider. All are focused on cracking down on illegal immigration.
The governor visited Craig Airport in Jacksonville to make the announcement alongside Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass.
You can watch the entire news conference here.
“This country is unable to control its own borders," DeSantis said.
He is proposing a laundry list of policy changes broken down into 3 categories:
- Stricter penalties for human smuggling
- Expanded E-Verify requirements, which cracks down on employers ensuring they get proper documentation from their employees to work in the state of Florida
- Initiatives to deter illegal immigration
One proposed policy change would prohibit out of state tuition waivers to undocumented immigrants, a policy which was put in place in 2014 to increase access to affordable higher education.
I asked him why he wanted to change this policy.
“We work really hard to make higher education affordable for Floridians and we are proud of that. We have the most affordable higher education in the country. You can go university here in state it’s like $6,000 - $6,200 on average," DeSantis explained. "Very tough to beat. However, you know, there’s a movement. They want to raise tuition. I won’t let them raise tuition, but they want to do it. We have had inflation. So the costs have changed. So if we want to hold the line on tuition, then we got to say you need to be a U.S. citizen who lives in Florida.”
The policy as it stands allows undocumented immigrants to receive in state tuition instead of out of state tuition. The policy went into effect in 2014 and was actually sponsored by Lieutenant Governor Jeannette Nunez.
Here is a full list of the Governor's proposals.
