Florida Cracks Down on Businesses Transporting Illegal Aliens Around the State

The Florida Senate has passed legislation that would prohibit government agencies from contracting with companies that are transporting illegal aliens around the state.

Senate Bill 1808 passed along party lines and now heads to the Florida House for discussion and voting.

“You look at the border we want, [Biden] said we want a secure border, well he’s the one that opened the border,” DeSantis said recently. “Are you kidding me? If you look at the increase in people that are coming here illegally, two million people came illegally from over 100 different countries over the last year.”

 “That was all as a result of the policy choices that were made upon him becoming president,” DeSantis said.

NBC affiliate WFLA in Tampa, Florida, reported on the bill:

The bill also revises what Florida’s government considers a “sanctuary policy” and beefs up the requirements to work with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under the bill, as written, “common carrier” companies would be required to disclose to state agents if they transport undocumented immigrants, or “unauthorized aliens.”

Specifically, SB 1808 says that carriers who “willfully provide” any service to take an unauthorized alien into Florida, except to put them in detention, removal or departure processes, any state agency, corrections facility or department, or law enforcement entity would be prohibited from entering into contracts with those companies.

The bill does not specify a process to check if the service is provided knowingly or willingly by a company, and does not include language to require a company to check legal immigration statuses before transporting individuals.

If the legislation is passed by the House and DeSantis signs it into law it will also require the state’s law enforcement agencies to enter into a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which calls for local and state law police to cooperate with ICE in enforcing federal immigration law.

Follow Penny Starr on Twitter