DeSantis calls special session to implement Trump's immigration policies
Send a link to a friend
[January 14, 2025]
By KATE PAYNE
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling state
lawmakers into a special session to help carry out President-elect
Donald Trump's promises for a swift crackdown on immigration. But he's
facing pushback from the legislature's Republican leaders, who have
pledged their support for the incoming president but said a special
session would be “premature” and “irresponsible."
Trump is preparing more than 100 executive orders starting Day One of
the new White House administration, in what amounts to a shock-and-awe
campaign on border security, deportations and a rush of other policy
priorities.
While Trump and his advisers have pledged mass deportations, many
questions remain about how they would deport anywhere close to the 11
million people estimated to be in the country illegally.
DeSantis announced Monday he's scheduling the special session for the
week of Jan. 27, the week after Trump is sworn in, so that state
lawmakers will be poised to help implement the incoming president's
policies immediately.
“State and local officials in Florida must help the Trump administration
enforce our nation’s immigration laws,” DeSantis said. “In order to do
that effectively, we are going to need legislation to impose additional
duties on local officials and provide funding for those local
officials.”
The Republican governor said he's prepared to suspend elected officials
from office if they are “neglecting their duties” under the new
immigration mandates. DeSantis has removed multiple officials from
office, including two state attorneys, arguing they were failing to
prosecute certain crimes.
DeSantis said he anticipates allocating tens of millions of dollars in
new funding to help state and local officials expand their enforcement
and detention efforts and said he would consider activating the Florida
National Guard and the Florida State Guard to carry out in-state
enforcement measures.
“There also needs to be measures to hold people accountable who are
violating our anti-sanctuary policies,” he said. “Florida needs to make
sure that we don’t have any lingering incentives for people to come into
our state illegally.”
In a strongly-worded joint statement released Monday afternoon, Senate
President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Danny Perez said that without
any specific guidance from the incoming administration and only
“fragments of ideas” from the governor, it's too soon for lawmakers to
hold a special session.
“It is completely irresponsible to get out ahead of any announcements
President Trump will make, especially when uninformed or ill-timed state
action could potentially impair or impede the success of President
Trump’s forthcoming efforts to end illegal immigration,” the Republican
leaders said.
While the governor can call a special session, Albritton and Perez said
that "the Legislature, not the Governor, will decide when and what
legislation we consider."
[to top of second column]
|
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gestures during a news conference,
Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at the Tampa Electric Company offices in
Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
It's a striking show of independence from Republican leadership in
the state, where lawmakers in previous years worked in lockstep to
help advance DeSantis' agenda as he ran for the Republican
presidential nomination.
Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell told the AP she
doesn't see a reason for holding a special session instead of
addressing the issues during the regular legislative session, which
begins March 4.
“During special session, there’s restricted ability for the public
and stakeholders to have input, and this is a really big issue,"
Driskell said.
DeSantis is also calling on Florida lawmakers to pass hurricane
relief and work on reforms for the state's condominium market, which
has seen rising prices following a safety law passed by state
lawmakers in 2022 in the wake of the Surfside condominium building
collapse, which killed 98 people in June 2021. The governor also
wants legislators to overhaul Florida's citizen ballot initiative
process for proposing constitutional amendments, after alleging
fraud in the petition drive that got a measure on the 2024 ballot
that would have expanded abortion rights.
The Senate President and House Speaker pledged to take up the issues
during the upcoming regular session.
Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, criticized the
governor for not calling for steps to address the state's stormy
property insurance market or rising cost of living, saying the
Republican Party prefers to “play politics instead of solving
problems.”
In other states, Democratic governors are mounting a resistance
movement against the incoming Trump administration, looking for ways
to shield their states from potential federal policies restricting
abortion and transgender rights, among other things. Some prominent
Democratic governors, meanwhile, have taken a more conciliatory
approach in an effort to forge a working relationship with the new
administration.
___ Associated Press writer Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach,
Florida, contributed to this report. Kate Payne is a corps member
for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News
Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service
program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on
undercovered issues.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
|