A month after new Florida immigration laws took effect, advocates report rising in fear, confusion

ORLANDO, Fla. — Before July 1, Marlyn Bonzil-Juste’s van carrying people back and forth to doctors’ appointments and Central Florida hospitals was an everyday occurrence through her company, Top Choice Medical Transport.

Now, a month after new state immigration laws backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis went into effect, Bonzil-Juste said she is beginning to see its impact on the immigrant community she serves.

Bonzil-Juste said her drivers, who are mainly Haitian and Hispanic to cater to the patients she typically transports, often hear immigrants say they are scared of going to the hospital.

“We have had a couple instances where my drivers have talked with the passengers and they’re leaving after we drop them off because they don’t know if when they get to the hospital if your personal information that is gathered where that information is going to go and what that means,” Bonzil-Juste said. “So our people, a lot of them, will do everything to avoid going to the hospital just for the sake of that and being exposed.”

In May, DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718 into law and it went into effect on July 1. The law requires companies in the state with 25 or more employees to use E-Verify, a federal system that determines the eligibility of employees to work in the U.S.; creates penalties for those employing or smuggling undocumented immigrants and prohibits local governments from issuing identification cards to them; invalidates ID cards issued to undocumented immigrants in other states; and requires hospitals to collect and submit data on the costs of providing health care to undocumented immigrants.

In July, migrant workers and advocates filed a lawsuit that challenges a section of the law that makes it a felony to transport undocumented immigrants into the state. The lawsuit argues that it is unconstitutional for a state to unilaterally regulate federal immigration and that it is unconstitutionally vague.

Paul R. Chavez, senior supervising attorney for the Immigrant Justice Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, is one of the attorneys who helped file the lawsuit.

“Section 10 is what creates felony for anybody, citizen, non citizen, everybody to transport somebody into the state that entered unlawfully and has not been inspected,” Chavez said. “So that’s such a vague phrasing and that’s phrasing that doesn’t comport with federal government’s understanding of either human smuggling or what it means to be inspected so it’s unclear how it’s going to be enforced and when it’s unclear, of course, the fear is that it’ll be done so in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, migrant workers and nonprofits plan to file a motion for a preliminary injunction this week that would pause this section of the law in Florida through the end of the lawsuit, Chavez said.

“We have to show that we’re likely to win at trial… and so I think there’s a good chance of us showing that,” Chavez said. “There’s existing case law from you know a decade ago where Georgia, Alabama attempted to pass similar laws adopting their own human smuggling statutes and they were found to be preempted so I think the case law is on our side.”

Renata Bozzetto, deputy director at the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said a pause in this section of the law would be beneficial because it allows time to educate the immigrant community about their rights — but the harm, in terms of fear, is already done.

“It will depend on how much we can mitigate with people knowing that a pause is not a resolution so I think that it’s a different space for us to navigate,” Bozzetto said. “The end goal is to have the law repealed for its many harmful provisions.”

The Florida Immigrant Coalition runs an anonymous hotline where immigrants can report discriminatory incidents in Florida, Bozetto said. Now the coalition is partnering with the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican Consulate and other entities with similar hotlines to gather data on incidents.

The data will be used to first understand and measure the law’s impact and help immigrants, inform future policies, possibly file lawsuits or to help challenge SB 1718, Bozetto said.

In the month since SB 1718 took effect, Bozetto said she has seen an uptick in people calling with questions about hospital care, transporting loved ones and reporting cases.

“The majority of the calls have been with inquiries and preventative which shows us that the community is more concerned about how to do things right and to protect one another versus being out there,” Bozetto said. “So the concern that we have is, are people actually seeking care?”

Bozetto said there have also been reported incidents of police checkpoints in Florida and she is concerned about the law’s implementation and implications.

Under SB 1718 it is a felony to transport undocumented immigrants into the state. The law also invalidates driver’s licenses issued by other states to undocumented immigrants, factors that Bozetto is worried are contributing to these checkpoints.

“The incident was several police cars on the road pulling over individuals,” Bozetto said. “What we are trying to figure out is were they pulling over everybody or were they pulling over certain individuals and why were they pulling people over.”

Melissa Marantes is the Orlando Center for Justice co-founder and director, a nonprofit that provides legal services to underrepresented groups who cannot afford a lawyer.

Marantes said her organization has pivoted to educating immigrants across Central Florida about the law because she has found there to be so much confusion. Her office has seen a 20% increase in calls over the past month that the law has been in effect, she said.

In June, Marantes held an informational session about immigration and SB 1718 where she told immigrants to stay at home as much as possible while the law took effect for their safety.

“We’ve heard of a couple of incidents, but not as many as I originally expected, of people being detained after being stopped,” Marantes said. “Especially near the border between Florida and Georgia.”

Marantes said she has seen an uptick in people coming in worried about driving kids to school as the school year begins.

“Just these questions about how the law was going to, you know, affect different members of their families, that was a big concern in the community,” Marantes said. “We also had people call again and say they take their neighbor’s kid to school — like, should they be worried?”

Another local nonprofit looking to document impacts of the law is the Hope Community Center. Executive Director Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet said documenting the law’s impact is one of the main reasons the nonprofit is creating new local Hope Community neighborhood committees across Central Florida.

“They [immigrants] can learn about what the law is so they can also learn about their civil rights, what to do if an immigration agent comes to their house and what to do in the case of a police stop,” Sousa-Lazaballet said. “These same committees will also be documenting potential abuses because we want to be able to have that in order to fight back.”

Sousa-Lazaballet said the Hope Community Center is also working with the Southern Poverty Law Center and others on identifying potential plaintiffs for the lawsuit challenging SB 1718.

“We have several stories of people who have left [the state] and also we are working to identify people with different profiles,” Sousa-Lazaballet said. “We have identified some people.”

Immigrants leaving the state over fear is another worry of many advocates who say it negatively impacts the state’s economy.

Prashant “Peter” Patel, president of the Indian American Business Association and Chamber, said most of the chamber’s over-800 member hotels and motels are having trouble keeping staff because many hire immigrants who are leaving the state out of fear.

“We’ve seen that great decline and people are feeling jittery and they are very anxious for what the future holds for them and then looking for other opportunities in other states,” Patel said. “I don’t know where they are headed towards but probably Texas or where the economy is thriving and while in Florida [the economy] is great they are feeling real heat about this and all the business owners as well.”

Patel, who also owns his own technology installation business that often relies on immigrant labor, said business owners are looking for local and national resources to help ease the impact of the labor shortage caused by immigrants leaving the state.

“Business goes on right, so they have to find the help but they’re feeling the pinch and the heat about this… they’re suffering,” Patel said. “They need immediate help to resolve this and make sure people stay here and be part of the system and contribute to the system.”

On August 1, the American Business Immigration Coalition held an event to celebrate immigrants’ contributions to the Florida economy. The organization’s Florida State Director, Samuel Vilchez Santiago, asked the 360 attendees to sign a petition to ask President Joe Biden to expedite work permits for undocumented workers to help fill the labor shortage.

“Here in Florida we have a particular need because of the new SB 1718 and if the president wants to bring work permits to these undocumented people, they no longer have to go back to the shadows and they can contribute to our Florida economy,” Santiago said. “We have a great need in agriculture, hospitality, construction and currently we just don’t have the labor force in order to fulfill those needs and immigrants are doing that type of work.”

Santiago said so far 200 employers and 70 organizations have signed the petition.

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