Immigrants in the country illegally convicted of first-degree murder or raping children would face mandatory death sentences, under bills advanced Wednesday by key House and Senate committees.
The bills are part of a suite of measures state lawmakers are slated to vote on Thursday during a special legislative session centered on boosting President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The death penalty provision is included in bills (HB 3C and SB 4-C) that also would make it a misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants over age 18 to “knowingly” enter Florida “after entering the United States by eluding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers.”
The proposal would carry a nine-month jail sentence for first-time violators. Second-time offenders would face felony charges carrying a minimum sentence of a year and a day behind bars.
The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee approved the House version of the bill in a 22-8, straight party-line vote.
House Democrats questioned the constitutionality of the proposed requirement for the death penalty.
Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, pointed to a House staff analysis that said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that mandatory death sentences are unconstitutional.
“Why are we moving forward with a bill that we know has unconstitutional language in it?” Driskell, an attorney, asked.
Rep. Sam Garrison, a Fleming Island Republican and attorney who is helping sponsor the bill, acknowledged the issue would be litigated. But he said nothing in the bill “erodes the rights” of people in the criminal-justice system and said the death-penalty proposal targets people who commit the “worst of the worst crimes.”
He said undocumented immigrants accused of the crimes would still have to be indicted and convicted as in the current system. If juries also determined that the defendants were undocumented immigrants, that would trigger the requirement for judges to impose the death penalty.
Under current law, juries make recommendations to judges about whether to sentence defendants to death. The process includes looking at what are known as “aggravating” and “mitigating” factors in determining whether a defendant should be sentenced to death.
During debate Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations Committee, Brevard County Republican Randy Fine defended the proposed death penalty requirement. He pointed to last year’s murder in Georgia of Augusta University student Laken Riley by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela.
“What makes this constitutional, in my opinion, is what we're basically saying is, there could be no greater aggravator than the fact that, if you had followed the law, you wouldn't have been here and you couldn't have committed a crime. That's what we're saying,” Fine argued.
But Sen. Barbara Sharief, a Broward County Democrat, said she strongly opposed legislation that would apply the death penalty based on a person’s immigration status.
“The constitution guarantees equal protection under the law, and justice must be applied fairly, without discrimination. Creating a separate harsher punishment for immigrants violates the principles of fairness and due process that define our legal system,” Sharief said.
She also pointed to Florida’s history of wrongful convictions and “racial disparities in capital sentencing.”
Supporters of the death penalty proposal have indicated that the U.S. Supreme Court could revisit previous decisions establishing that mandatory death sentences are unconstitutional.
But Maria DeLiberato, an attorney who is executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said in a letter to state House and Senate leaders that “it is extremely unlikely” that the court “would ever overturn 50 years of established precedent — primarily because this proposed bill text attacks the fundamental 6th Amendment right to a jury trial.”
DeLiberato said justices recently affirmed “the sanctity of the right to a jury trial, which is in the plain text of both our state and federal constitutions,” in a 2020 Louisiana death-penalty case.
The Senate committee approved its version of the bill in an 11-7 vote, with a single Republican, Ileana Garcia of Miami, joining Democrats in opposition. Garcia said that, “as a devout Christian,” she could not support the death penalty provision.
The House and Senate committees also signed off on a sweeping immigration enforcement plan (HB 1C and SB 2-C) aimed at strengthening illegal immigration enforcement efforts.
Part of that legislation would create a State Board of Immigration Enforcement made up of the governor, agriculture commissioner, attorney general and chief financial officer. The board would coordinate immigration enforcement activities with federal officials and dole out $250 million in grants to law enforcement agencies to assist federal enforcement efforts. Decisions made by the board would have to be unanimous.
Much of the discussion about the plan Wednesday focused on a proposal to eliminate in-state college tuition rates for students brought to the U.S. as children illegally by adults.
The tuition issue has drawn fierce pushback from Democrats and migrant advocates.
Critics argued, in part, the plan would harm students who have already started at colleges and universities but would lose the tuition break.
House bill sponsor Lawrence McClure, R-Dover, said the change stems from an effort to eliminate “incentives” for illegal immigration.
Florida AFL-CIO lobbyist Rich Templin, however, said immigrants come to the United States for jobs, not in-state tuition or to commit crimes. He said the Legislature can’t solve the country’s immigration problems, which need to be resolved by Congress.
“This legislation can’t fix this,” Templin told the House committee. “You as a body can’t fix this.”
The House and Senate committees also advanced a memorial (HB 5C and SB 6C) that seeks guidance from the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about immigration enforcement efforts. Memorials are resolutions that are not laws.
Thursday’s expected votes on the bills will cap a series of events that included a fierce clash between Republican legislative leaders and DeSantis over immigration plans.
DeSantis last month called a special session on immigration and other issues, but his decision irked lawmakers.
House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, on Jan. 27 abruptly ended the special session called by DeSantis, quickly launched their own special session and subsequently passed a measure that included a provision that would have made Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson the state’s chief immigration officer.
DeSantis threatened to veto that bill.
After negotiations, Perez and Albritton on Monday called this week’s special session.
Senate bill sponsor Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, called the current legislative plan — which DeSantis has said he approves — a “win” for the governor, the Legislature and Trump.
“You always have squabbles in families. But I’m glad we were able to get together on a bill like this and get a product that everybody can agree on. It’s not easy and there’s still hurt feelings on all sides,” Gruters said. “But ultimately for the greater good of Florida and to make sure we support the president, we’ve got to come together on this issue and a lot of other issues.”
