Florida a 'dangerous and hostile environment,' Hispanic organization says in travel warning

TALLAHASSEE — The League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's largest and oldest Hispanic organization, has issued a Florida travel advisory and is threatening litigation against the state.

"We believe that Florida has committed several very cruel, immoral and unjust uses of immigrants as political piñatas for the purposes of basically just getting votes,” said Domingo Garcia, LULAC's national president, at a Wednesday afternoon press conference. “Florida is a dangerous, hostile environment for law-abiding Americans and immigrants.”

At issue is Senate Bill 1718, a sweeping, strict anti-illegal immigration measure Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law last week.

Garcia says LULAC plans to file a lawsuit in federal court when the law takes effect in July. He also says the organization will launch a campaign and hire organizers to "punish those politicians who engage in this racism and this xenophobia."

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Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis' press secretary, dismissed LULAC's announcement.

"We aren’t going to waste time on political stunts but will continue doing what is right for Floridians," he said in a Wednesday email.

Redfern also referred the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida's to comments the governor made at a Monday press conference: “You can't build a strong economy based on illegality," DeSantis said.

The law strengthens employment requirements and allows state law enforcement officials to conduct random audits of businesses suspected of hiring undocumented workers. 

It devotes an additional $12 million for DeSantis' migrant relocation program, which is now run by the Division of Emergency Management and is similar to the one used by the governor last year to lure nearly 50 mostly Venezuelan asylum-seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

It also increases criminal penalties for human smuggling, with third-degree felony charges imposed on anyone caught “knowingly” and “willingly” transporting anyone illegally in the country across state lines into Florida. Transporting a minor or more than five undocumented people into the state carries a second-degree felony penalty.

"We need to make sure that everybody understands that you can be arrested for literally taking somebody to the hospital, for literally taking somebody to Disney World," Garcia said.

Illegal migrants also could face felony charges for displaying a false ID to obtain employment. In addition, businesses with 25 or more employees would be required to use the federal E-Verify system to check the immigration status of new workers. 

This all coincides with the end of Title 42, an emergency immigration restriction that allowed easier expulsion of migrants at the southern border. Its expiration created concerns of a surge of asylum-seekers entering the country. (Though, the surge and chaos, so far, hasn't materialized as expected.)

“We’re bracing for some turbulent times ahead,” said DeSantis, who is expected to soon announce a presidential campaign. “And I think when you have a president who has turned a blind eye to what’s gone on at the border... you’re likely to see it get a lot worse. We’re protecting Floridians, to the full extent of our ability.” 

LULAC, though, doesn't see it the same way.

"It's not presidential to use immigrants as scapegoats and to use fearmongering, Gov. DeSantis," Garcia said. "It's little and small."

Lydia Guzman, the LULAC Immigration Committee chair, warned there would be economic consequences, too, as immigrants, here legally and illegally, make up a large chunk of the Florida workforce. And she said the law would lead to discrimination of legal residents.

"People that look like me will be harassed," Guzman said. "We will have to prove that, because of the color of our skin, that we belong in this country."

Guzman said she also worried that migrants will forgo going to the hospital, potentially leading to their deaths, due to a provision of the law that requires Medicaid-accepting hospitals to ask patients if they are U.S. citizens and if they are here legally, and report that data — without personally identifying information — to the governor.

In its 94-year-long history, the organization has only issued one other travel advisory: over a 2010 Arizona immigration law.

The Florida Immigrant Coalition, in anticipation of DeSantis' law, issued a state travel advisory last month. The LGBTQ civil rights group Equality Florida also warned people to stay away from Florida over DeSantis' policies.

And, currently, Latin American truck drivers are threatening to stop delivering to and in Florida because of the law.

USA Today Network-Florida government accountability reporter Douglas Soule is based in Tallahassee, Fla. He can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com. Twitter: @DouglasSoule. Contributed: USA Today and the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau's John Kennedy.