Florida Senate's Anti-Immigration Nonsense

The Florida Senate is holding a dog and pony show of a hearing on immigration. The purpose of the hearing is to stir up the conservative base. Don't expect any actual solutions to be implemented in legislation. Miami Herald reporter Mary Ellen Klas tweets on Sen. John Thrasher's reaction to hearing an inconvenient truth.

Sen. Thrasher acks: How do we stop illegals entering the workforce? Answer from FIU prof Ediberto Roman: hold employers accountable.

Go after the business community is the last thing Thrasher and other Republicans want to do. It is very simple. Cut off the employment and illegal immigration will go down. Illegal immigration has already gone down because of how bad the economy is in the United States.

It is no secret that Plant City, Florida is staunchly Republican and is home for many illegal immigrants. The Florida Republican establishment does not want INS agents arrested illegal immigrant in Plant City. It is bad politics and would destroy the strawberry farming business.

Klas has a another quote from FIU prof Ediberto Roman.

FIU prof Ediberto Roman: "We can put all the fences we want but...if the business sector is creating that demand they're going to get here."

I don't see where we could build a fence. Is there a stampede of illegal immigrant from Alabama that I don't know about? I certainly don't expect Mexicans to swim from Mexico to Florida.

Nothing will come from this hearing.

Update: Klas has filed her article. An interesting finding is that illegal immigration is down 25 percent in Florida. I guarantee that dramatic increase is because the Florida economy tanked.

The Senate hearings an immigration gave the Senate few (if any) options. Republicans are now trying to slow walk this back.

``There probably will not be an Arizona-immigration style bill that passes the Florida Senate,'' said Sen. Mike Bennett, a Bradenton Republican.

Bennett said he's deeply concerned with the part of the bill that's most identified with Arizona's law: The requirement that local police officers with ``reasonable suspicion'' attempt to determine a person's immigration status during a routine traffic stop or arrest.

Scott hasn't committed to Rep. William Snyder's bill. Scott has mostly avoided talking about illegal immigration after he won the Republican primary. This is a lot of political posturing. If the Florida legislature passes a bill local police officers won't have enough officers and resources to enforce it. Law enforcement will mostly ignore the bill and focus and violent crimes and thefts in the districts. It is not like Scott and the Florida legislature are going to give money to hire new law enforcement officers. There are tax cuts to be passed and a 3.5 billion deficit to deal with.