Gov. Ron DeSantis said he will veto an immigration bill passed this week in a special session by the Florida Legislature at a roundtable Wednesday.
The body passed a $500 million immigration package late Tuesday night, naming it the “TRUMP” act and saying they drafted it with collaboration from the Trump Administration. It came after they rebuked the governor by gaveling out a special session on immigration DeSantis called where he wanted to pass his own legislative package.
The governor claims the legislature’s bill doesn’t go far enough to work with the Trump administration.
“I think that gives away the store. I think that gives away the game…this is like a half step forward and five steps backward, the way this bill is structured,” DeSantis said.
He is critical of the legislature’s decision to place immigration under the purview of the Florida Department of Agriculture instead of the law enforcement agencies he oversees. The bill provides money to local law enforcement to help carry out immigration duties and eliminates in-state tuition for some undocumented students.
Lawmakers have pushed back against DeSantis’ criticism. House Speaker Daniel Perez released a statement accusing DeSantis of lying about the bill.
State Sen. Randy Fine (R-Melbourne), the bill’s cosponsor and one of few state lawmakers to endorse Trump when DeSantis ran against him in the Republican Presidential primary, said in debate on the bill that the governor isn’t the one to talk about collaborating with Trump.
“I’m not going to take lectures from someone who, a year ago, didn't think Donald Trump should be President. Welcome to the team. And there has been no one on the team more dedicated to President Trump being successful than the guy in the front row who is running this bill,” he said.
With a veto coming, Republican state senators may need to rely on support from some Democrats down the line if they want their package to become law. While the 82-to-30 margin the bill passed in the Florida House is enough to override a veto, the 21-16 margin in the Senate is not.
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