Florida House passes E-Verify measure, but bill looks dead in the Senate
Despite the Senate's inaction, the House passed a bill Wednesday requiring all employers to use an online system to verify that their new hires can legally work in the country.
Public agencies, their contractors, and companies with more than 25 employees are now required to use E-Verify, but companies with fewer than 25 employees would also have to use the system under HB 955 from Seminole Republican Rep. Berny Jacques.
House lawmakers approved the change, 88-25, with seven Democrats joining every Republican in supporting the bill.
However, it's unlikely that the proposal will make it to Gov. Ron DeSantis' desk because the Senate didn't take up in any of its committees other proposals to expand the E-Verify requirement. That's despite the fact that the proposal enjoyed bipartisan support in the Legislature's upper chamber, with bills that would require all businesses in Florida to use E-Verify filed by South Florida Democrat Jason Pizzo (SB 782) and Hernando County Republican Blaise Ingoglia (SB 1498).
The Florida Legislature passed a bill in 2021 requiring all public employers, contractors, and subcontractors to use E-Verify. They followed that up with a measure two years ago requiring that only private companies with more than 25 employees have to use the system.
More than 441,000 Florida companies have fewer than 20 employees, according to a 2023 report from the Office of Advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Florida law now allows businesses with fewer than 25 employees the option of using E-Verify or the federal form I-9 issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. North Miami-Dade County Rep. Dotie Joseph noted that provision in arguing against the proposal, saying that nothing stops Florida businesses from choosing to use E-Verify right now.
'If they choose to use I-9, let them,' she said. 'If they choose to use E-Verify, let them. But most businesses just say no to E-Verify. You know why? Because it sucks.'
She called the bill a 'politically motivated anti-immigrant attack that hurts Florida businesses and hard-working people who are looking to hire and work legally in this country.'
Orlando Democrat Anna Eskamani said of the proposal, 'We're basically taking a population of hard-working people and rejecting them, purely based on what the federal government defines as an unregulated status. And I think that's dangerous, bad for economy, [and] does not make any one of us more safe.'
Duval County Republican Kiyan Michael co-sponsored the measure. She lost her son Brandon to a 2007 auto accident blamed on an undocumented immigrant who'd already been deported twice and who was driving without a license.
'Those who are voting down on this bill, who did you take an oath to?' she asked, looking at the Democrats on the other side the House chamber. 'I'm sure it was not for people who were not able to vote for you, and who did not vote for you.'
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