Florida's 2025 legislative session starts on Tuesday, and though lawmakers have already gathered for special sessions this year, there is a lot of ground to cover over the next 60 days.
Reporters with the state government reporting project Your Florida have been asking residents to share what issues matter most to them this year. The responses were diverse.
How to enforce Florida's new immigration laws?
Immigration is a top concern for some people. Florida lawmakers already passed new laws in February to crack down on illegal immigration, but there are more proposals they could take up during the regular session, such as whether to require more business owners to use E-Verify to verify their employees' residency status.
The new laws increase penalties for people who enter Florida without legal status and expand local law enforcement agencies' ability to assist with the Trump Administration's deportation efforts.
Miroslava Cortez of Pasco County understands lawmakers want to curb illegal immigration. But she worries the new policies could unfairly punish people who may not have legal status, but are working hard and raising families — not committing violent crimes.
"It has to be something like, in the middle, not too drastic with the immigrants because not everyone is bad," she told Your Florida at an outdoor food hall in Wesley Chapel.
County Sheriff's Office Sheriff's Operations Center. February 24, 2025.
Clearwater activist Eliseo Santana fears the political rhetoric on immigration from some Republican leaders could give people with discriminatory views of Hispanics the "power and energy to act on their biases."
Santana is the Gulf Coast Region manager for the Alianza Center — an organization that serves Puerto Rican and Hispanic communities in the Sunshine State. He also led an unsuccessful bid to unseat Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri in 2020.
He fears law enforcement efforts to round up immigrants without legal status could lead to racial and ethnic profiling of all Hispanics, including Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens. That frustrates Santana, who said he values the privacy clause built into Florida's constitution meant to protect citizens from government intrusion.
"The feeling from the Hispanic community is that we have been targeted. We're being singled out," he said. "Our rights to be left alone are being infringed upon."
But University of South Florida student Michael Fusella said he is happy the new immigration bills passed and wants to see lawmakers go further this session.
Fusella leads the College Republicans club at the Tampa campus.
"Florida does have a good amount of illegal immigrants, and that's a problem," he said. Especially the criminals — well, they're all criminal, they broke the law when they came to the country."
Debates over gun rights
However, one of Fusella's "most passionate issues" is the Second Amendment: the right to bear arms.
Multiple proposed bills would roll back regulations put in place after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 that left 17 people dead and 17 more injured.
The measures would also lower the minimum gun age back to 18, which Fusella, who is 20, supports.
“I know the law was passed after the tragic Parkland shooting, to make it (that) you have to be 21 to buy any firearm,” said Fusella. “But I just don't think it's, you know, you're 21 and suddenly you gain all your rights. I think the standard should be at 18.”
However, some respondents who filled out the Your Florida online form with their concerns disagreed — like Jim Serina of Lutz.
He lives in the Tampa Bay area, but has a personal connection to the shooting in South Florida — two young members of his extended family were at the school when it occurred, stuck in a closet.
“We're heading in the wrong direction,” said Serina.
“I thought that the bills that passed after Parkland were a good first step. So we had more to get done, and rolling them back is about as counter-safety as possible,” Serina added. “It goes against every sense that we're trying to do something positive.”
Ocala resident Lynn Miller, 70, doesn't support relaxing the state's gun laws either.
“People want their children to be safe,” she said.
“When I went to school, all we worried about was bullies. We didn't worry about guns, we didn't worry about knives, (and) we didn't think we'd die at school. It was never a thought whatsoever. But the legislators just keep pushing the gun thing,” she added. “And it's not about gun control, it's about gun safety.”
A Tampa resident named Benjamin pointed to the high rates of adolescent gun deaths as one reason lawmakers should make it harder to buy a firearm. The 35-year-old asked Your Florida not to share his last name because he is applying for a job in state government and fears retaliation.
“If we could control, put a little more regulation on like buying guns, maybe more background checks and then where you can take guns and how you can carry them, that would be great,” he said.
Addressing rising housing costs
Another concern for Benjamin is property insurance.
His home was damaged during the last hurricane season, but he had trouble making a claim because of his high deductible.
“I'm essentially paying for home insurance that won't cover any damage to my home, or it will, but like under very specific circumstances,” he said. “So if home insurance is going to be required for people that have a mortgage, I think that there should be some intervention from the state in order to make it affordable.”
Lawmakers will weigh a bill to expand access to property insurance in the state and take other measures to reduce costs for homeowners. There are also some proposed constitutional amendments that could wind up on the 2026 ballot.
State leader should prioritize helping people meet basic needs, like accessing health care and finding a place to live, said Theresa Jones. She's retired, but spent a long career working for the City of St. Petersburg. Now she joins advocacy groups to push for issues like Medicaid expansion and expanded support for unhoused people.
"There's a lack of affordable housing in this state, and it's increasing by the day," Jones said. "So that would be one of the things that I think that they need to address."
What about the birds?
One measure proposed is a bit more lighthearted than some of the other issues lawmakers may tackle this session.
Rep. Jim Mooney, R-Islamorada, filed a bill (HB 81) to change the state bird from the mockingbird to the flamingo. The bill would also designate the Florida scrub jay as the official state songbird.
Shaqulea Joyce from Lakeland said she'd "keep it as the mockingbird because that's cuter."
Nick and Cody Romano both said they'd choose the flamingo.
But Natural Parks and Trails Manager for Pasco County Kawika Bailey said he is divided.
"I feel that the state bird being a flamingo would bring attention to the issue of the flamingo — that I don't think there's many in the wild now," Bailey said. "I love the history of the mockingbird, being a part of our history here in Florida, and it's largely throughout the state."
Do you have concerns or questions about how something in your state government works?
You can join the conversation too — email Meghan Bowman at bowman4@wusf.org or comment on Instagram at @yourfloridameghan.
