The Florida Roundup - DeSantis presidential campaign; NAACP travel advisory; Florida’s new immigration law

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis kicks off his 2024 presidential campaign; the NAACP issues a Florida travel advisory; is Florida’s new immigration law prompting some to leave the state?

Welcome to the Florida Roundup. I'm Danny Rivero in Miami. My co-host Melissa Ross is off today, but we look forward to welcoming her back next week. Let's start off this week with one major but entirely expected announcement. I'm Ron DeSantis, and I'm running for president to lead our great American comeback. This week, Governor Ron DeSantis officially announced that he's running for president in 2024. DeSantis decided to announce his campaign in an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. But that conversation was delayed with 20 minutes of technical snags and the long silences as more than half a million people tried to join the stream.

Of course, we've known for a long time now that the governor is planning, was planning to run the campaign for president as a lot of the groundwork for that campaign was laid. Joining us now to talk about this presidential bid and what it means for us Floridians is Gary Fineout, a reporter with Politico. Gary, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. And we also want to hear from you on this segment. Did you watch the live stream? What are your thoughts on the governor's presidential campaign? You can give us a call from anywhere in the state at 305-995-1800. And you can also tweet us at Florida Roundup. So, Gary, let's get started. Let's talk about that governor's announcement on Twitter.

Why do you think DeSantis chose to make his announcement in this way and not in some kind of, you know, in-person event without any potential for technical snafus? Well, I mean, I think the governor himself has, you know, addressed it somewhat in his comments over the last couple of days, everything from, you know, wanting to go to Twitter because it's, you know, become more hospitable place for conservatives now that Elon Musk has taken over it. I think there's the issue of them trying to do something different, to use a medium. I mean, although even without the technical glitches, there were a lot of questions as to the efficacy of it. glitches there were a lot of questions as to the efficacy of it um you know i mean obviously if he had done a kind of traditional kind of event uh then that would have been you know broadcast by all the cable networks and television stations and things of that nature you know i think you

know there's there's a argument to be made that you could have probably reached more people and and de sanchez's team has said it said like well this many people watched it and this and the day later millions have uh eventually watched it um but then you have the question as to but are you reaching the right people who are going to help you in a republican primary i mean it's interesting as is politico uh you, we had a story where we talked to Republican voters in Iowa, and they didn't really care about the Twitter glitch. But more importantly, it wasn't something that they were likely to be planning to be paying attention to anyway. So, I mean, so the point is, what was the goal here? Now, we know that he has a, you know, sort of an animus towards traditional media, legacy media, corporate media. Just this morning, he gave a speech where he lashed out and said, you really can't believe them.

You know, you need to really be cautious about what you hear from them. You need to really be cautious about what you hear from. So, I mean, a part of it appears to be there is this ongoing effort by DeSantis to try to sort of get his message out and do it through either through conservative media where the questioning is going to be a bit more, you know, I guess more friendly, more friendly. Yeah, that's the word. So you're going to have that. But, you know, so but at some point in time, you know, whether it's on the debate stage with Donald Trump or sometime on the campaign trail, I mean, there's going to have to be a moment when he's going to have to ask, you know, answer tough questions and deal with deal with that. But for now, they're not you know, they're doing it this way. Right. And I'll just mention for our listeners sake, we have a running ongoing invitation to the governor to come on this program. And we've had it for years and he has never accepted. I mean, Gary, you briefly touched on it, but I mean, obviously the Trump campaign just had a field day with the technical glitches.

As did Biden. As did Biden. As far as just the narrative of the campaign launch, it does not seem to have gone well, but do you think that will have any long term impact on the campaign or is it just, you know, tripping up on the face of first base? Well, no, I think I think what it is, is it sets it sets a tone. And if there's more mishaps, then you're going to have the inevitable story about, well, they did this wrong or they did this wrong and they did this wrong. So but we'll have to see i mean you know they pointed out that they raised uh what 8.2 million dollars in the first 24 hours in terms of uh right after he jumped in the race and that that was a pretty healthy amount of money and so they've you know they're they're kind of moving on and they're

rotating to a different sort of focus. He's going to be on the campaign trail all next week. He's going to hit South Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire. So meet with regular voters. And so they're clearly coming out onto the next steps. We see people in his campaign orbit starting to go after Trump and Trump people more aggressively than they were in the past. I mean, to the point that some of the commentary that's been out on social media, which again, let's remember is not real life necessarily. But it's just been interesting to see that there's been a ratcheting up to somewhat. The governor yesterday made some comments that

were more direct to Trump and, you know, made some comments to the fact that Trump's not the same person he was. the governor has done things to try to move to the right of Trump, to try to appeal to conservative voters to say, look, I'm more conservative in some areas than even he is. And so, but at the same time, when they get into this running war, how are Republican voters going to react? I mean, you know, there are some people who are Trump supporters who have gotten rather harsh with their criticism of DeSantis. It's been right. And we've seen something. It's interesting to watch.

Right. The chair of the GOP in Florida has essentially called for some level of unity, said, you know, no matter who wins this nomination, they're going to need the support of everyone. So there's a little bit of a call to pump the brakes on that a little bit. I do want to go to the phones. Our number again is 305-995-1800. And I want to go to Marlon calling from Miami. Marlon, thanks for calling. You're on. Thank you guys for taking my call. I have a quick comment and I just want to for you guys to elaborate on this. My only issue with Ron DeSantis running for president is the Florida GOP allowing him to remain as governor. Well, we elected him to be the executive officer here in Florida, not in D.C. What bad president are they setting by allowing him to remain on as governor and allow him to run? I'll take your comments. Thank you, guys.

Thank you for that, Marlon. Gary, I mean, DeSantis was asked in a debate by his challenger if he was planning to remain in the governor's mansion the entire four years. The governor looked very awkward and did not exactly answer it. But to Marlon's point, the legislature has handed DeSantis quite a few things that he really wanted, including his ability to run for president. But there's also a lot of other legislative victories that he's now touting as he crosses the country talking to voters. Can you tell us a little bit about what some of those big victories he's touting are? Yeah, sure. I did want to just briefly on the whole,

the whole issue is to your point, he was asked about resigning in the debate. And I think the counter argument would be from the DeSantis team would be, you know, this was out there. This was kind of known. It's a possibility. And he still got a huge win in November. So I'm sure the DeSantis people would say, you know, sort of asked and answered on that point. Right. And yes, the legislature did. It was a pretty monumental session in terms of now you could disagree with the policy. And I know there are a lot of people who do disagree with the policies. But from a standpoint of things that were passed, it was quite a lengthy list.

And everything from the six week abortion ban to lifting, repealing the law requiring a permit to carry a concealed weapon. There were there deals with laws of higher education. There was the ban on gender-affirming care for minors. You know, just an immigration bill that I know that you're going to discuss later today. So just a lot of lot of bills. There was stuff that probably in another day, in another era, wouldn't be so sure it would have gotten through. But in this instance, you know, pretty much almost everything that he wanted,

he got. There were a couple of things he didn't get in the end. There was a bill dealing with defamation in the media. That bill, that stumbled and did not get through. But but but but, you know, at the end of the day, yeah, he got pretty much nearly everything he wanted. And, you know, this this week, dozens of left leaning protesters lined up outside of a DeSantis fundraiser in downtown Miami. And an interesting thing is they were actually joined by protesters on the right,

by supporters of former President Donald Trump, who say DeSantis is just an establishment Republican of the sort that they want to get rid of. And the scene was a little bit surreal because you had people on the left and the right protesting at the exact same time against the same candidate. Can you tell us a little bit about what that picture means when we're talking about the atmosphere of the 2024 campaign? in his record here in Florida. And, you know, there were multiple groups who were coming out and commenting on him running for president and how much they were opposed to him. For those on the right, again, it's this matter of it seemed to be as disloyal to Donald Trump

since Donald Trump played such a pivotal role in getting elected governor. And now it's been this interesting sort of like the Trump people are sort of beginning to wage this campaign where they're going after him over past support for the fair tax proposal in Congress, trying to suggest that he wasn't strong enough on immigration and that he would cut social security and Medicare. He has said,

no, he would not cut social security and Medicare. But so it, you know, I think it's just a matter of the people who are in the Trump orbit who are who remain supporters of Trump. They're just like, no, you know, you should not be running against Trump. You should be helping Trump win another term. Right. I want to I want to go back to the phones again. The number is 305-995-1800. And we have Kerry calling from Delray Beach.

Kerry, thanks for calling. Oh, thank you for having me. I just want to say that Ron DeSantis running for president would destroy this nation. He's already destroyed Florida because he's turned it into an authoritarian state

and he wants to be a dictator. He's an evil man and I don't think anybody should vote for him. But that's the way I feel. Thank you for the call, Kerry. Gary, I do want to ask about some of these victories and the legislative agenda that Governor DeSantis has supported, and he's largely won on, especially in this last session. I mean, Florida has become ground zero for a lot of culture war battles. We have, you know, also on the backdrop, there's a property insurance crisis, cost of living crisis. About a quarter of a million Floridians just lost access to Medicaid over the last month or so. And the Trump campaign has started to use a lot of these pocketbook issues in Florida by saying, you know, Governor DeSantis is good at PR, but the free

state of Florida is actually a mirage and that things are not doing so well here. I mean, how is the message of this free state of Florida playing already on the national stage? Is everyone buying it? Well, I think that you would see that for Republican voters, many of the things that he has done resonates with them. I mean, when he talks about where I mean, you know, again, he's in friendly territory. But when he goes out and he talks to these groups of voters and other people, supporters who are Republicans and and whatnot, when he talks about Disney, the fight with Disney. I mean, the room just erupts

in applause. When he talks about, you know, the parental rights and education bill, which triggered the battle with Disney, again, among those supporters, they go, they are really receptive to that message. So I think from that event, and back to the things of what's going on in Florida, I mean, Florida has very low unemployment rate right now. The economy is doing very well. But yes, there are the affordability issues. There are problems with affordable housing. There are problems with insurance. We're heading into another hurricane season. And, you know, basically, if you look at things, the rates are going up all over the place, especially in terms of insurance companies. You have Citizens, which has now become pretty much the largest insurance carrier in the state, is seeking additional rate hikes.

So you're going to continue to have this financial pressure on people who are living in Florida. you're going to continue to have this financial pressure on people who are living in Florida. Now, Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist tried to make the affordability argument in the last election, but, you know, it wasn't, they didn't have a lot of money to really reinforce that message, and it really never seemed to keep traction. Now, yes, the Trump campaign has already pointed out some stuff, especially in insurance. They called it a bailout, you know, said he's in the pocket of special interests. You know, I don't know how that's going to play in other states when you're talking about these culture war issues. But the point is, the point remains, yes, there are everything is not 100 percent hunky dory in the state of Florida in terms of things that are going on.

And the question is whether or not, you know, and you're not rooting for a hurricane. Let me make that abundantly clear. But if a hurricane happens, a big hurricane, you're going to have people like citizens and like other carriers who are going to come under tremendous pressure financially. And, you know, will we have more insolvencies in the insurance market and things of that nature? You can call us 305-995-1800. We have Julie calling from Largo. Julie, thanks for calling your own. Hi, I'd just like to express the fact that he's not, he doesn't have a vast majority despite his win.

He has created, you know, an extremely polarized environment. He has gerrymandered and suppressed the vote in ways that are completely unethical and potentially illegal. And, you know, the media that continues to talk about how he's supported in Florida is just not looking at how he has rigged that support or that appearance of support. rigged that support or that appearance of support. Thanks for the call, Mildred. I mean, Gary DeSantis did win by 19 points. So, I mean, there is a strong mandate on the governor's side. Just quickly, if you can just tell us before we're out, like what are the governor's strong points and some of his weak points when it comes to running for president though

well I think what we're going to see is is the question of sort of personality and charisma versus uh you know technical you know strategy and being able to get things done and I guess for lack of a better word competence uh I think that that's going to be a big part of it. I mean, he's very DeSantis, you know, can point to everything he's passed and everything he's done. And and then, of course, he also says that he brings a culture of winning to the Republicans who have not won the last couple of cycles or are done as well the last couple of cycles. the last couple of cycles or are done as well the last couple of cycles so that's his argument right but you know you're going to have trump and and the fact and trump is just so much more you know a lot of people it's just his personality and and his charisma you know there are a lot of people who like that the personality issue is going to be front and center um we've been talking with gary fine out reporter with politico about the DeSantis campaign. We will obviously be following it very closely in the months and the year ahead.

We'll be right back on the Florida Roundup talking about travel advisories. សូវាប់ពីបានប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្� Terima kasih telah menonton Thank you. Welcome back to the Florida Roundup. I'm Danny Rivero in Miami. The NAACP over the weekend issued a travel advisory for Florida, joining other civil rights groups and warning potential tourists that recently passed laws and policies are openly hostile towards African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ plus individuals. The civil rights group joined Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group, as well as the League of United Latin American Citizens, a Latino civil rights organization, in issuing

travel advisories for the Sunshine State. Representative Byron Donalds, a black Republican who represents Florida's 19th congressional district, has spoken out against the travel advisory. Let's listen to what he had to say on Fox & Friends on Monday. This is silly and it's dumb. It's political. It makes no sense. We should be focused on making sure people actually have the opportunity to achieve, which Florida is actually doing and thriving in way better than other states, let's say New York or California or Washington state. We're doing a significantly better job helping black Americans succeed. And it's not just about me, it's about all the millions

of black people that live in our state. Joining us now to talk about this, we have the NAACP's Florida Fort Lauderdale Broward chapter president, Marsha Ellison. And we're also joined by Marvin Dunn, a Florida historian and retired FIU professor of psychology. Marsha, Dr. Dunn, thanks for coming on.

Thank you for having me. Glad to be here. And we also want to hear from you on this segment You can call us at 305-995-1800 And you can tweet us At Florida Roundup Marsha Let's address that criticism

From Representative Donalds That we just heard off the bat The representative says that this is a political stunt What do you say to that? I say that Representative Donaldson is a very good soldier for the Sanctus and the Republican campaign. We are talking about saving lives and the safety of our community. The Florida State Conference voted unanimously back in March to ask our national board of directors to issue this travel advisory. It's not a travel ban. It's not a boycott.

And the purpose of it is to educate those folks to say if you must travel to Florida and being just bear in mind, we're not asking anybody not to travel. What we're saying is if you do come, just know that there are issues happening here and your existence may cease if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time and dealing with these issues. It's also a wake-up call to the nation to understand what's going on here in the state of Florida. So if you want to have the erasure of black history in your state, if you want to have books banned, if you want to have voter suppression laws happening in your state and an all out effort to keep minorities and blacks particularly from voting,

then this would be your person when you go to the polls next year. So we are making sure that folk know that when you come here, support Black businesses, support the individuals who appreciate your dollars. And so it's not a travel ban. It's not a boycott. It is an awakening and a call to action for our community. So, I mean, I. And Marsha, when the NAACP in the state conference was talking, I mean, was a boycott or something of that sort on the table? Was that was that discussed?

Because it was not. OK. And it all came from Florida. It came from we have a very large membership in the state of Florida. We of which I am an elected officer voted and took this to the National Board of Directors back in March, the first time that they met. They meet in our National Board, all 64 of them meet in May of every year in recognition of Brown v. Board. And that was the earliest they could make the decision. And they voted, they too voted unanimously for the travel advisory.

and they too voted unanimously for the travel advisory. And Marsha, this travel advisory comes as Florida just released numbers a few weeks ago showing that the state has had the highest number of tourists ever between January and March of this year. We're expecting record tourism this weekend, Memorial Day weekend. We're expecting record tourism this weekend, Memorial Day weekend. So it's happening on the backdrop of this record tourism in the Sunshine State. Obviously, you have stress, and I will repeat that this is not a boycott or a ban in some kind of way. But I am curious to know how you're going to measure if this campaign is successful or not.

Well, it's going to be an awakening. There are, I mean, dozens and dozens of organizations who've contacted us who want to join in this effort of awakening and education for our community. There are certainly a number of organizations who are contractually required to come. We're not saying break the contract. We're not saying come, but while you're here, then make sure that you do some civil, you know, you do some civil engagement work, you encourage your folk to register, to vote, and then you do that when you go back to their homes.

From there, a number of, for example, Tampa is a very good spot. They have, as far as the facilities facilities to house a large number of people. And we will be at that convention. And we are working with, you name it, if the group are coming and they are a Black group, we are working with them. And we will see that they understand exactly what this is and what it isn't. And so we are getting ready for 2024 through the knowledge of what's happening here. And I don't think that the rest of that America wants to be Florida in this space once they find out what it's really like here. You have publicly butted heads with the governor and the state, in particular when it comes to education curriculum. Do you agree that the state is becoming openly hostile to black people under this administration? Becoming? Has been for quite some time. But you know, going back to what that black Republican had to say, what is really silly and dumb and makes no sense is putting immigrants on an airplane

and flying them up to Washington DC in the dead of winter and dumping them in a public space. That is what does not make sense to me. I don't think, I understand the point about the NAACP is not calling for a boycott. I appreciate that. However, I would,

I would call for an outright boycott of Florida in a second. Why should black people come here to spend money in a state where the governor is openly hostile to black people come here to spend money in a state where the governor is openly hostile to black people? Why? I would hope that people, not just black people, but I think there are folks who are listening to

this discussion about not coming to Florida who are not black, but who will heed the message. Who will respond to the fact that we don't need to have people coming here into a state that is trying to lead this country into deputism. Dr. Dunn, I do want to add here, the DeSantis administration points out that Florida does mandate the teaching of African-American history. Oh, yeah.

And other Governor DeSantis, the state has expanded that mandate to require students to learn about the Election Day massacre in Oconee in 1920. So their argument is basically. No, no, no, no, no. Well, but back up. Let's take that one second time. Yes, he likes to say the state of Florida requires the teaching of African-American history. But of the six or seven school districts in Florida, only 11 of them do it. What is he doing to enforce that law? Nothing. He's just wearing that as if that is some sort of a badge of honor. It's not being

enforced in Florida schools, and it's just a lie to suggest to people that African American history is being required to be taught in Florida. Secondly, what they are requiring people to teach about Ocoee, Florida, where the 1920 event happened in which several black people were killed, they got that wrong. They have the whole story wrong. I take my students on the Teach the Truth tours to Ocoee, and we tell the story of that event as it happened. So even when the state tries to do the right thing in requiring black history to be taught, they're putting up the wrong lesson, the mistakes and that just mis-tell the story. But let me just close by saying this. This is war. He's right, cultural war. This is war. And it's been brought onto this state and onto the country by a man who desperately wants to be president and is taking no hostages

in order to get there. I don't believe that DeSantis is a racist. It doesn't matter to me whether he is or not. A racist believes that he's a racist. And the things that he's doing in terms of public policy clearly are racist. So don't come to Florida. Go someplace else. A little bit of the two guests feel somewhat differently here. So that's good to hear. I'm sorry. A little bit of a... The two guests feel somewhat

differently here, so that's good to hear. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. I didn't get you. I do want to go to the phones quickly. You can call us at 305-995-1800. We have Sandin calling from Hawthorne. Sandin, thank you for calling. You're on.

Yeah, thanks for having me on. I just wanted to point out a few things about DeSantis, just a few small critiques. You know, he talks a lot about freedom in America and having a free state, but it's a little bit hypocritical because he actually doesn't want marijuana to be legalized. Matter of fact, he said he doesn't like it because of its putrid smell. And even Joe Rogan thought that was pretty goofy that he said that. Also, another criticism is like he wants a lot of people to be arrested that were formerly felons that now want to register to vote. And I think that's just kind of hypocritical

because he talks a lot about freedom and neither of those two things really sound like freedom to me. So that's kind of my main thing about this. Thank you for your call, Sandin. Marsha, I do want to kick that to you. I mean, can you expand a little bit more about, in your view and in the NAACP's view, what makes Florida a hostile place for Black Americans right now? Well, remembering that this didn't just, our battle with this governor started from probably the day he was sworn in. And so we were been and we've been litigating when it came down to just go back to the ex-felon, the ex-felons who were we worked so hard.

All of us work so hard to get the returning citizens back to availability so they could register and get them back on the voting rolls. What does he do? The first thing he does is move to change that to take hundreds of thousands of folk off the voting rolls. Many of those we know that are people of color, black people. We go to court, you know how that works. He stacked the courts.

And so it's hard for anyone to get justice. Remember the George Foreman? And we have the George Floyd murder. We have the protests, peaceful protests. What does he do? He then has this HB1 bill to stop peaceful protests. Who was protesting? Black people were protesting. You can now be charged with a felony simply if you're peaceful protesting. If someone who's not with you comes and, you know, does something, says something, the officer decides that it is going to, that it is a riot just from his or her interpretation, you can now go into jail and have to stay there until,

you know, you can get before the judge. And that is being litigated in the courts, I'll just add. We have many, we probably have, as of yesterday, maybe seven lawsuits against them. We just filed to run against 70-50. And to the gentleman's point, when you talk about voter registration and this is his we call it the election police. I know they have a very nice name for it. If you recall, there's 20 people that were arrested who had received voter registration cards from the administration. And clearly, if you get the card, you know, that means to any voter that now, obviously, I've been checked out and I'm eligible to vote. So now in this 70-50 bill that just passed, it says that, yeah, we'll send you

the card and we can say, you know, this is your voter registration, but it's your voter ID card. So that doesn't mean you can vote. It just means that we sent you the voter registration card and we checked and we didn't find anything at the time. That's now in, you know, in statute. That doesn't work well for us. That keeps us off. We have a member, a lot of folk who are at the hands of law enforcement, permitless carry. My wallet already looks like a gun. My cell phone already looks like a gun. already looks like a gun. My cell phone already looks like a gun. This is going to be a travesty for us as we go on about our daily lives with this permitless carry. And nothing he's done works well for us. And so when you're here, we were asking people to be very safe this weekend. You know, law enforcement's on edge, even though the bill's not here yet. People don't know that

it's not. And so we're, you know, nothing's working well. We're asking people to, you know, be very much- To be careful as they come here. Very, very- You're listening to the Florida Roundup from Florida Public Radio. I want to go back to the phones. We have May calling from Jacksonville. May, thanks for calling. You're on. Thanks for taking my call. It's hard to believe it's actually 2023 in this state. This governor, you know, first it was the mask. He went and told school districts he would withhold their funding if they had a mask mandate for students to not get COVID. The bottom line in a word is he does vilify those who disagree with him. He takes a personal vendetta.

And good Lord, if you're a black person in this state, it is not good. It is harder for you every single step of the way. He refuses to denounce the KKK, the neo-Nazis. Thank you for that call, May. Dr. Dunn, I do want to ask you, a few months ago there was a well-publicized incident in Rosewood in Central Florida where a white man yelled the N-word at you and threatened you with his pickup truck. Just a horrific incident. Can you share quickly just a little bit about that incident? Certainly. This happened on September 5th of last year. I was at my property in Rosewood. I owned

some vacant land in Rosewood, and I was preparing it for a celebration in January and I was with four of the black men and two white men and as we were leaving our property, this is a very rural area, dirt roads and what have you, and as we were leaving the property my neighbor, who I've not spoken to since I got the property in 2008, comes out of his driveway in his truck and approaches me and he asked me what's going on out here? And I say to him, this is my property and before I could go further, he said, then why don't you all park on your side of the road? To which I said, this is a public road, we'll park wherever we wish to. And this threw the man into a rage, he goes back into his property, comes out again in his truck at full speed and almost kills my son. And had we not stepped out of the road, we would have been seriously hurt. So we call the police. The charge has been leveled against him. He's been officially

charged in Levy County with assault with a deadly weapon. And he's also been charged with hate crime, six counts of hate crime against the six people who were involved. And Dr. Dunn, do you look at that incident as a one-off random act of racism, or do you see that in the context of larger events happening here in the state of Florida? It's not a one-off, but there are enough people in these kinds of areas who are capable and inclined to do the sort of thing that my neighbor did. But Roseville, Florida is an all-white community now. It's a rural sort of a bedroom community to see the key Florida. But let me be very clear.

I've been up there. I'm the only black person who owns land in Rosewood. And I've been up there since 2008, and no one's bothered me. A lot of folks would rather I wasn't there. But this is not a situation where the Klan and also folks are going to attack me as a small element where that could happen. But for the most part, the people in that community have been very nice to me. Thank you. We're going to have to leave the conversation there. We've been talking with Marcia Ellison, president of the Fort Lauderdale Broward

chapter of the NAACP, and Dr. Marvin Dunn a Florida historian and retired FIU professor of psychology. Thank you both so much for coming on. Thank you. We'll definitely continue these conversations in the months ahead. Still to come on the Florida Roundup, are undocumented immigrants leaving Florida in response to the state's new immigration law? A new report says, yes. We'll be right back. Thank you. Welcome back to the Florida Roundup.

I'm Danny Rivero in Miami. Governor Ron DeSantis last week signed a sweeping immigration bill into law that in part requires employers with more than 25 employees to check their immigration status using a federal database known as E-Verify. Employers who don't comply with the law face fines of $1,000 per day until they provide proof that their workers are legal citizens or able to work legally. Additionally, the new law invalidates out-of-state IDs such as driver's licenses issued to undocumented immigrants in other states. It also prevents any Florida-based government from using public money to issue new ID cards to undocumented immigrants. People who transport undocumented people living in the United States into the state of Florida could face steep fines and up to 15 years in prison under the new law. And while the law won't officially go into effect until July 1st, some people might already be making plans to leave

the state in fear of what it might mean for them. To get a better understanding of the new law and its impact, we welcome Jacob Reyes, a Tampa-based reporter at Axios. Jacob, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. And we also want to hear from you for this segment. You can call us at 305-995-1800, And you can tweet us at Florida Roundup. We did get one tweet that I'll add here from April tweeting us at Florida Roundup.

And April says, people love living here in Florida. I appreciate the government trying to keep the immigrant population at hand. There's no housing for them. Gainesville is full. Now, Jacob, just to get us started here, you are based in the Tampa Bay area. And according to the Migration Policy Institute, more than 81,000 people in that

area in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk counties are undocumented. Can you tell us about what you've been seeing and hearing in response to this new immigration law? Yes. Before the legislation was actually signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, I was able to talk to an undocumented Tampa Bay resident who told me he had visited the hospital maybe twice in five years. And he couldn't even remember the last time his parents went. When I was telling him about what was in the bill, he told me that it was highly doubtful that he would ever seek health care again, you know, even if it was an emergency. And now, I mean, there's been reports of farmers, you know, not having their workers turn up. And also, you know, recently I spoke to a woman who said, you know, she had spent her entire, almost her entire life here since she was six years old.

And now she had to make the difficult decision to leave. And can you tell us a little bit more about her, specifically what her fears are once this law goes into effect in Florida? Right. So, I mean, this law really touches upon many aspects of daily life for undocumented immigrants. In her specific case, I mean, it's going to avoid out-of-state driver's licenses. Her father drives, obviously, for work and other things. And he is driving with an out-of-state driver's license that he was able to obtain without proof of citizenship. Beyond that, she always wanted to be a lawyer in Florida. Beyond that, she always wanted to be a lawyer in Florida.

And this new law would repeal the provision that allowed some undocumented immigrants to obtain a license to practice law in Florida. And so, I mean, all of like, if, you know, if she stays, will she be able to leave or what could happen if, if she does stay? And, Jakob, the US Constitution says very clearly that every state in the union must accept the laws of other states. So when Florida passes a law declaring that driver's licenses issued in other states are invalid, is the state running headfirst into a legal challenge? Is that part of what they're trying to do here? I mean, it's certainly something that I can see being litigated in the courts. I think that what they're what they're trying to say is that if you have an out-of-state driver's license and you live in the state of Florida then you know and you're a Florida resident then you should have a Florida

driver's license and that you're supposed to get that within 30 days if you're driving with Florida license plates. I mean some of these things are obviously, you know, embedded in the law before this bill, but obviously this takes a more divisive step towards enforcing some of them. And, you know, we were talking, you spoke to this one woman in her family, it sounds like, that are thinking about leaving. Do we have any sense of the scale of people making similar calculations or determinations? Like, do we know the scale of people thinking this way? It's difficult to estimate.

I mean, it's difficult to even estimate how many undocumented people live in our state. I mean, it's difficult to even estimate how many undocumented people live in our state. However, leaders at the Farm Workers Association of Florida, for instance, said that they anticipate about 300,000 of their workforce are undocumented and many of them will either end up losing their jobs or leaving. I mean, there have been some reports, obviously, about workers not showing up for work, whether they're staying here and just not showing up for work. I mean, it's difficult really to estimate how many will leave. But what we do know from the legislation is it's not clear how many different groups of immigrants this law affects because it doesn't align with the framework of federal immigration law. And so it could apply to a large amount of undocumented people. And whether they decide to stay here is, you know, it's unclear. But, you know, there's definitely going to be an economic impact.

And it's certainly heartbreaking for some of their family members. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from Florida Public Radio. And I want to remind our listeners, we're live and taking your calls at 305-995-1800. So, Jakob, I mean, you were just mentioning the agriculture sector is one industry that might be impacted. Do we know of other sectors that might be impacted or any estimates of the potential economic fallout if these

sentiments of people wanting to leave the state or just stop working become widespread so the non-partisan florida policy institute estimates that florida's economy could lose around 12 billion in one year um and the industries that they've kind of identified as being the most impacted by this law are construction, waste management services, and some retail food services and arts and entertainment companies. So, I mean, it's going to be pretty, pretty large, the impact.

measure, and there are quite a few supporters of this measure, say that it's aimed to stop human trafficking into the state and reduce the harm caused by illegal immigration into Florida. You know, obviously the law has not gone into effect, but is all this part of the plan? And, you know, the economic potential impact is just, it just, it is what it is. Is this going according to plan? I mean, you know, they've stated multiple times that, you know, this legislation is intended to target immigrants who are here illegally and, you know, try to curb them from coming. I think that, you know, it's certainly having a chilling effect on immigrants who are, you know, fearing for, you know, the end of their livelihoods as they know it. And so some of them obviously won't come for fear of what might happen, especially with the fact that, you know, getting driven in to the state, you know, whoever's driving them or helping them or aiding them to get to Florida could face criminal charges, I think it will certainly accomplish, you know, what lawmakers are trying to do and whether that has an effect that impacts the rest of Florida and our economy. That's just something we'll have to see.

I want to go to the phones. We have Ricky calling from Panama City Beach. Ricky, thanks for calling. You're on. Are you on, Ricky? I'm a general contractor, and we already had labor issues with trade. And just a simple example of this, so maybe not Florida-based issues, but we have crews that come in from out of state, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia. And now we're having trouble. Some of those subcontractors that we use, they're saying, hey, you know, listen, with all that new law and those issues down there, our workers are not even willing to go down there and actually, you know, do that job for you. So I actively have two jobs that I need to re-assess and re-bid just because of this issue here. So just wanted to add that to the conversation. Wow. On top of other affordability issues, we have this on top of it.

Very quickly before we're out, Jakob, what are you looking at between now and when this goes into effect? I'm going to keep talking to see which people are deciding to stay and if they're trying to stay, what differences they're going to be making to their daily routine. And I'm going to keep track with those who are leaving and seeing where they're going to and kind of just try to see what this overall impact is going to be on Tampa, but also Florida at large. A lot of things to talk about, a lot of calls coming in, a lot of conversation this hour. We want to send thanks to all the guests that have joined us, everyone that's called, tweeted us. We'll definitely be keeping everyone updated on this. Jakob Reyes covers the Tampa Bay area for

Axios. Jakob, thank you so much for calling. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. And that is our program for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WJCT Public Media in Jacksonville and WLRN Public Media in Miami. Heather Schatz and Bridget O'Brien are the producers of the show.

WLRN's vice president of radio and our technical director is Peter Mayers. Engineering help from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels, and Isabella Da Silva. Richard Ives answers the phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Libos at aaronlibos.com. I'm Danny Rivero. Melissa Ross will be back next week. Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend, everyone. We'll see you next week. Thank you.