Florida’s latest misguided immigration adventure | Editorial

It must have been a letdown in some quarters when no tidal wave of migrants inundated the southern border after the Title 42 exclusion expired May 11. Crossings declined by more than half. No chaos. No crisis. Nothing new to blame on President Joe Biden.

No matter. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the state’s taxpayers would send a lot of help to Texas “to secure the Southern border.”

Actually, his office said “Florida” would do it. We say “taxpayers” to make it clearer how the governor extracts a high price from taxpayers to pay for his presidential campaign.

DeSantis spent $1.56 million last year to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard — a cruel and costly stunt. The Legislature gave him the money to remove migrants, but only from Florida. Lawmakers legalized the embezzlement retroactively.

Paid by you, going to Texas

Here’s what he said he may send to Texas this time: 101 Florida Highway Patrol troopers, 200 FDLE officers, 20 fish and wildlife officers, 800 National Guard soldiers, 20 emergency management technicians, five fixed-wing aircraft with monitoring and communication equipment backed by two crew teams, two mobile command vehicles and command teams, 17 drones and support teams and 10 water craft.

DeSantis didn’t quantify the potential cost. He hinted at Florida being reimbursed by FEMA — which should say no.

There’s no evidence that the Department of Homeland Security is unable to manage on its own. But there’s serious concern at DHS about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and DeSantis making a mess with their meddling. Florida’s misguided adventurism coincides with pending Texas legislation to establish an anti-immigration force of citizen vigilantes.

There are genuine unmet needs north and south of the border. But they are humanitarian in nature rather than a justification for more arrests. A case in point is the death of an 8-year-old girl whose mother accuses the staff of a Customs and Border Patrol detention center of neglecting her illness.

‘The real crisis’

Biden administration policy requires asylum seekers to have first applied for asylum in a third country, almost certainly Mexico, with exceptions for medical emergencies, unaccompanied minors and Mexican nationals. Some migrant camps south of the border are notorious for squalid conditions, lack of food and medicine and infestation by criminal gangs. In March, a detention center fire at Ciudad Juarez killed 40 men.

“This is the real crisis — a humanitarian one,” said Amy Fischer, advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA.

It would be gratifying to see leaders like Abbott and DeSantis care about that kind of crisis.

Back in Florida, people will likely pay higher prices for fruit and produce on account of the new anti-immigration law DeSantis signed — price hikes that, experts say, could be caused by fearful migrants fleeing to other states.

The new Florida law penalizes employers of 25 workers or more who don’t consult the federal government’s E-Verify system to see if new hires are properly documented. Aside from being error-prone, E-Verify is easily foiled with borrowed documents. The greater harm in this law is intimidation: criminal punishment for anyone, even a family member, who “knowingly” transports an undocumented immigrant across state lines. Other facets of meanness forbid them from using driver licenses issued in other states and require hospitals to account for immigrants they treat.

Worker shortages are anticipated in agriculture, construction and tourism, three pillars of the Florida economy. It has been estimated that those industries would be in trouble nationwide if anti-immigrant Republicans could somehow get a sealed border and the expulsion of all 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Diversity is our strength

Those of us whose ancestors weren’t here to welcome the Mayflower ought to remember that the United States owes its vitality and its reputation to the fact we are all immigrants or their progeny. Diversity is our strength. Now, we need more immigrants to fill our vacant jobs and pay the taxes to support an aging population.

It wasn’t until early in the 20th century that there were any significant restrictions on immigration. The political pressure for a crackdown was racist, the same as now.

Rather than unnecessary displays of police power, politicians like DeSantis and Abbott ought to be advocating for comprehensive immigration reform that America urgently needs.

Everyone knows what it must entail: Fairer quotas and family reunification, swifter determination of asylum requests, a comprehensive guest worker program allowing people to come and go easily, and a path to earned citizenship for the more than 11 million people who are already part of our national fabric in every respect but the law.

Ten years ago, the Senate gave strong bipartisan support to a reform written by, among others, Sen. Marco Rubio. It was dead on arrival in a hyper-partisan Republican House. The divisions are now worse, and Rubio is missing in action.

That’s the fault of opportunistic politicians like Abbott, DeSantis and Donald Trump, who prefer to exploit bigotry and to demagogue about a problem rather than solve it.

Florida needs to keep its highway patrol officers here, on places like I-95, to protect us. If we send anyone to Texas, they should be doctors, nurses and social workers.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email to letters@sun-sentinel.com.