The Florida Roundup - Florida’s Immigration Bill, federal spending freeze, school start times and Dreamers’ in-state tuition

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke about a new immigration bill passed by the Florida legislature with its sponsor, Sen. Joe Gruters (01:24). Then, we heard from U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost about a slew of executive orders this week from the Trump administration (11:52). And later, we talked about a state mandate to push back school start times for middle and high schools with Jude Bruno, president-elect of the Florida PTA (27:41) and then Tampa Bay Times’ education reporter Jeff Solochek (32:28). Plus, more on immigration including Florida lawmakers push to end in-state tuition for DACA recipients (37:35) and we share some of your emails (44:42).

Covering Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for all Floridians looking to explore health care coverage options within the federal health insurance marketplace. Help is available at 877-813-915 or at covering florida.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you along this week. On Monday at 10.30 in the morning, the gavel fell in the Florida State Senate in Tallahassee for a special session called for by Governor Ron DeSantis. The Senate will be in order. After an opening prayer and a speech

by the Senate president, 19 minutes later. The Senate is now adjourned. Signed he die. But the senators did not head home. Senators, please consider going to the lounge. But regardless of where you go or what you do, please stay close. We will be reconvening momentarily. Just 18 minutes later, a little after 11 o'clock in the morning,

they were back in their chamber. Senators. Senate will be in order. The Senate along with the House stood up to the governor and his insistence that lawmakers pass an immigration enforcement bill. The lawmakers did pass a bill but not the one the governor wanted. The governor has threatened to veto the version passed by members of his own political party. Republican Senator Joe Gruters of Sarasota and Manatee counties was the sponsor of the bill that passed out of the legislature this week. Senator, thanks for joining

us today. Why was this immigration legislation necessary? Listen, the president has a mandate from the American people. This has been his major focus right out of the gate with these executive orders. And I think Florida wants to step up. I think the governor, rightfully so was ringing the bell, decided to call for this special session and, and what we try to do is try to give a bill and a product that the president could use to accomplish everything he needs to do.

You know, I'm obviously a longtime ally of the president and my entire focus is to do everything the president needs so he can be successful at his job. The bill that you wrote was different than the bill that the governor wanted and I'll talk about the politics in this a second, but let's focus on the policy here, Senator, what do you hope the intended consequences are of the legislation that you wrote and your colleagues passed? This will give the president the tools that he needs to do his job. I worked with the White House.

They gave us a lot of technical guidance on things they were looking for, things that we're not looking for. This is probably the strongest, most conservative immigration bill that's been passed in the country. You know, we've done a lot of good bills over the years in Florida and Governor DeSantis is sure to give credit with that. You know, I passed the sanctuary city ban here in Florida a couple of years ago and I walked in lockstep with the governor and it was a much stronger bill the other day because of the involvement.

We also passed the e-verify bill a couple years ago, but you know what? Both of those bills ended up falling short in certain ways. And what this bill did is it picked up the pieces and it closed the loopholes in the Sanctuary City bill that I passed. This bill also strengthens and puts more teeth in the E-Verified than it passed a couple years ago. But that's just the start of what we did in this bill. You know, this is the first time anybody's ever tried to make it a mandatory death sentence

to illegals who commit capital offenses like rape and kill children. That's never been done before. This also enhances all penalties across the board for illegals. The teeth that you talked about here, particularly the stiffer penalties, that mandatory death penalty for undocumented immigrants accused of certain crimes. Is there evidence that those stiffer penalties will deter unlawful migration to Florida? Well, listen, that's the entire deal. We want to make sure there's no incentive whatsoever for illegal

immigrants to come to Florida. And if you're an uninvited guest and you're bad and you're a criminal, then we want to do everything we can to make sure that the federal government can deport you. That's what this is all about. It's about providing the tools for the federal government working working with them hand-in-hand to make sure that they're successful with what they want to do. How do you imagine the cooperation will work as local police balance local policing duties? Well

listen, we've had a lot of cooperation since we passed the Secretary of City ban out of the 67 counties. Every county where they have a detention, it's like a jail, they've all been working hard, making sure that they collaborate with the federal government. But you got to remember, the federal government has been at the sleep at the wheel the last four years under President Biden. What this bill does, yes, it provides the funding the local governments need to make sure because when you get processed and there's a detainer request that comes out from ICE, the local governments by law can only hold

these criminal illegals aliens for 48 hours. Right. And then what's happened is, is ICE gets sometimes overwhelmed and that's why they need more beds. So this, what we'll do is we will make sure that there's as many beds as the federal government needs and yes We provide a total of five hundred and fifteen million dollars to make sure this program will work including three hundred and seventy five million That will go for reimbursements at the local level. This bill is intended to maximize cooperation and make sure that the President Trump can do everything he wants to do from an immigration standpoint. Do you anticipate the majority of that cooperation is happening inside jails of suspected illegal

aliens who are already in custody as opposed to cooperation out on the street in public? Well, listen, the 287G program doesn't allow street level enforcement. What this bill does and what the President's asking for right now is helping deport these criminal illegal aliens, the ones that are committing robbery, the gangs, the cartel members, the bad guys that exist out there. And what it's so in a jail. Anything street level in the collaboration and that will work between the local level the federal level will be in support type roles and that's why we've added 140 something new law enforcement officers investigators and we have this transnational gang task force headquarters that will be able to work with the federal government and help identify high priority targets like gang members and cartel

members and murderers and people who have been deported before. And at the local level, they can't do ICE's job, but they could certainly provide the support, identify, target them and make sure that they have eyes on them. So I can come take, you know, pick them up. Should local law enforcement in Florida be empowered to arrest someone suspected of crossing the border illegally? That's not what the president is asking for. And that's the that this bill does not go down that path.

Listen, everybody who comes across the border violates that. But right now what the the president's focused on is making sure we gather up all the gang members, cartels, bad guys, and that if you've broken our laws here as an uninvited guest, you're the first out. And so that's what this bill does. The bill also requires all governments, public, private organizations, and any groups

that contract on behalf of public agencies to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. Does this include private schools in Florida? Everybody needs to have maximum cooperation, but at the end of the day, if you have a detainer request, that's gonna happen in one place, detention centers. What's that? That's the jails.

That's the jails, right. Are you requiring private schools, for instance, that accept voucher money from the state to cooperate with federal immigration officials? It would be the same across the board. If you're accepting public dollars, we want cooperation. But what is that cooperation, right? This is not about, and that's what we heard from some of the Democrats is, are people going to start going to churches and schools and schools and churches or hospitals, for instance, airpods builders that listen, if you're not a bad guy, then you'd have nothing to worry about.

Like if you didn't, if you didn't rob a store in Kansas and there's a standard request outstanding on you, or if you haven't been previously deported and came back in committed another crime, don't worry about it. My guess is very few kids that are inside, that have detained requests as a result of committed crimes somewhere else in the country. The ICE has a very specific form that they use, and it's to catch the criminal illegal aliens,

the bad guys who are uninvited guests. So folks who have committed a crime in addition to crossing the border illegally, is that the kind of metric? Yes, that's basically it. So my advice to everybody, don't come over here. We don't want to incentivize anybody to come over here illegally. And number two, if you come over here and you get a committed crime, you should fully

expect that you're going to be on the next bus or plane out of this place. Let me ask you about the state politics here, Senator, because the governor has pledged to veto this bill. He's called it pathetic. He called it weak. It did not pass the Senate with enough votes to override a gubernatorial veto. You need 26 votes for that. 21 voted in favor of this bill. When will the legislature deliver the bill to the governor for his consideration? I don't know what the leadership decides to do in terms of the strategy with the veto I'm still optimistic that we can get with the governor and You know talk about everything that's good in this book. What's the sticking points for him that you think that the bill can answer?

Yeah, my guess is at the end of the day. It's about credit It's about who ultimately is in charge. And when the decision was being made is who should be that chief immigration officer. Your bill creates a chief immigration officer position consolidating immigration enforcement in Florida under that. You wanna put that power with the state agriculture commissioner.

The criticism is that that's an industry that has a number, lots and lots of non citizen immigrants working in it. Why is the State Agriculture Commissioner best positioned, do you think, to be that state immigration officer? We already patrols our borders, they already have these offices all across the state. But listen, it is a misconception that the illegal immigration is just for agriculture. We have a lot of migrants in my area come and go. They're all legal. They're legally allowed to come do work. There's a lot more industries out there that employ some of these illegal aliens outside of the agriculture industry.

As the author of this legislation, have you had direct contact with the governor or the executive wing? Yes, I have. And are those conversations ongoing as this legislation will wind up making its way to the governor's desk? I've always tried to take a position of how can we best work together. And I will say that I'm continuing to talk to a lot of different people on an ongoing basis to try to make sure that we win. I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus. I'm trying to do a job on behalf of the

people of Florida and making sure that we are in a position to do everything humanly possible to be successful to help the president be successful in what he's trying to do. Senator Joe Gruters representing parts of Sarasota and Manatee counties. Senator, thanks for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity. Maxwell Frost is a Democratic congressman representing the Orlando area. Congressman, thanks for joining us. Let's start with immigration. What do you think of the efforts in Florida that lawmakers passed to help local law enforcement assist

federal immigration enforcement? Yeah, I'm not in favor of the bill. And I think, obviously, we saw a complete, it looks like, breakdown between the GOP leadership in the legislature and the governor. The governor wanted all this power so he could be the immigration czar in Florida to stay relevant long enough to run for president in four years.

The legislature denied him that, which I'm happy about. But we got to look at the substance of this bill. And it's not something I support, you know, especially when we look at the fact that we have Floridians who were born here or we sorry, we have Floridians who grew up here, went to school here. We paid as taxpayers to help educate them in public schools. And the fact that they're trying to rip away their in-state tuition, I think, is irrehensible. So I'm against this bill. If not for that part that eliminates in-state tuition for those without legal status, if

not for that, would this bill meet with your approval, Congressman? No, still it wouldn't. Number one, I'm not in favor of this quote-unquote largest mass deportation campaign that the president is rolling through. I don't trust them. Every day that goes by I lose faith in the federal government, unfortunately. The president fired pretty much every inspector general in the federal government Which is supposed to be an independent watchdog because he's gonna fill it with political sycophants. And so I'm It's it's really unfortunate what's going on here and so because I have no faith in the federal government's mass deportation operation and because the White House sees any

Undocumented person as a violent criminal. I don't think we should be assisting in that whatsoever. I don't think local law enforcement should be assisting in it as well. Local law enforcement should stick to protecting the people within their jurisdiction. That includes people who are undocumented as well. We just spoke with the author of the Florida legislation, Senator Joe Gruters, and he emphasized to us that immigrants without legal status who have committed another crime are the focus. Senator Grutter said, if you didn't rob a store in Kansas and there's a detainer request outstanding on you or you haven't been previously deported and you came back in, then don't worry about

it. No, completely false. He needs to go speak with Trump. We just listened to the White House press secretary a couple days ago. They were asked what percentage of the people who have already been deported or detained are people with a violent criminal history. And what she said is she didn't give a statistic. She said everyone who is undocumented is a criminal. So that shows you the posture with the administration's going at. We've already had reports that in many of these mass raids, US citizens who just happened

to be Latino were detained as well. And so I completely disagree with the characterization of that. Everyone's at risk if you're undocumented and even people who just happen to be black and brown in the area are also at risk of being detained as well. I don't think we should be helping with that. Local law enforcement should stick to helping the people in that locality. This week, President Trump froze spending

on thousands of programs, only to rescind that order a few hours later. The White House has said, though, its review of spending will continue. What do you anticipate Congress to do in this? We'll have to see. The Republicans run, of course, the House of Representatives and the Senate, but even Republican members have to understand that this quote-unquote review

that they want to do could result in a lot of federal money being frozen, which by the way is illegal. What the President did, that OMB memo is an illegal thing. And if we look at Project 2025, this is part of the plan. They're gonna do illegal things, hope that it gets litigated, or hope that litigation is filed against it, and what they're hoping and praying is that it makes it all the way up to the Supreme Court so they can change long-standing standards in the United States. The way this works is simple. Congress appropriates the funds, The president administers the funds.

The president does not get to decide what funds go out and what funds stay in. He has to follow the law. And so I think what we'll see is obviously they tried to do it in mass all at once. Mass public outcry forced them to take a step back, which is good. We won a battle, but we haven't won the war. And the war is they're going to now go one by one and try to take away money that Congress has already voted on and that is in law. So it's something we really need to be watching. I want to ask you about another action by the Trump administration this week. It sent a memo offering federal workers what it called deferred resignation, essentially giving federal workers until next

week to decide if they want to quit their jobs in September. There's 160,000 federal government workers in Florida, about 17,000 in the Orlando area. What do you understand about this so-called deferred resignation offer? All part of project 2025, right? And the purpose of this is simple. Does the president have the power to do this, though? He's simply asking for a resignation. He's not demanding. He's not demanding, but this is part of Project 2025.

And what they're trying to do and what they're seeking to do is eviscerate the federal workforce. So that way, billionaires can run rampant and they can privatize as many programs as they can. And the president, to his credit, has been forthright in this. And to eviscerate it, what they're doing is now paying people to quit and not come to work, which is interesting because we have this whole DOJ committee, which is supposed to focus on making sure taxpayer resources are being used in the right way. DOJ being the Department of Government Efficiency.

Let me ask you about your relationship with President Trump or the Trump administration. You referred to the president as a threat to the planet. You've also said you're going to find ways to work with the administration. In terms of finding common ground, Congressman, what is your priority? My hope is that the president realizes we have a housing crisis in this country. Maybe there can be some bipartisan support on building more housing and making sure that we up the inventory of affordable housing, but we're yet to see. It's gonna be difficult, but I'm always searching for ways to work with my Republican

colleagues in Congress and yes, of course the president, but we also have to be honest about this moment. He's not interested in governing the country. He's interested in changing the foundation and institutions of the country so that way he can pass these massive tax cuts for billionaires and privatize as much as they can. It's the great betrayal. He ran on a campaign saying it'd be the golden age for working people, but it's going to be the golden age for billionaires and corporations for the dark ages for working people. And I'm going to be standing against that every step of the way. Maxwell Frost is a Democratic congressman representing the Orlando area.

Congressman, thanks for your time. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. And still to come on our program, Rethinking What Time Schools Start Here in Florida. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Covering Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for all Floridians looking to explore health care coverage options within the federal health insurance marketplace. Help is available at 877-813-915 or at coveringflorida.org.

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here. Next week on this program, Flamingos. The Florida Roundup will be live at Zoo Miami next Friday. It's you, me, and the Flamingos. Live in live at Zoo Miami next Friday. It's you, me, and the flamingos. Live in person at Zoo Miami next Friday. We are going to be right in front of the flamingos. Yeah. The top elected leader of the largest county in Florida will be there. The Miami-Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava. We'll talk with her about how the largest county in the state is tackling the condominium crisis, among other topics.

We'll also be talking with a wildlife veterinarian. This guy has done surgery on pythons to put tracking devices inside of them. He's also studied all sorts of invasive species. If you have a question about invasive species, email us now radio at the Florida roundup dot o RG. What about all those iguanas? Email us radio at the floridaroundup.org. We're also going to have some live music and it's all free. Register now we still have space for you at wlrn.org. And if you can't be here in person, be sure to join us live on the radio live next week, February 7 at

Zoo Miami. If you come out, bring your sunscreen. Now, school start times. If you are or have been a public school student in Florida, you have probably gotten to school just as the sun was rising. If you're a parent, how many times are you the alarm clock that wakes your kid up to get ready for high school? The first bell for about half of all high schools in Florida rings before 7 30 a.m. Two-thirds ring before 8 a.m. Now next year that is supposed to change. A new state law says high schools cannot start before 8 30. Middle schools are not supposed to start until at least eight o'clock. School districts are scrambling to figure all this out now with bus schedules and extracurricular activities and there is a push to

repeal that law. Research shows teenagers sleep schedules are different. Their sleep-wake cycle as scientists call it shifts. So what time should public schools start? Parents, teachers, students, we want to hear from you. How early is too early? How late is too late? And how would changing school times change your household rhythm? 305-995-1800 is our phone number. 305-995-1800. Or shoot us a quick note, radio at thefloridaroundup.org is our inbox. Now, maybe it's been a while since you've had to get up and get going for school as a teenager. This is why we asked high school senior, Nile Jones,

to take us along his morning routine. Nile is a high school intern at our partner station, WLRN, in Miami. ["The Morning Show"] Good morning, it's 5.03. I wake up at 5 every day. I'm feeling pretty fine. I'm feeling okay.

I don't know how many hours I slept. Normally I sleep about, you know, five to seven hours. It's very rare that I get that full eight. I have to wake up this early for multiple reasons, I guess, just because school is about an hour away for me. I leave the house around, I want to say 6 30, that's the ideal time. School's from 7 30 to around 3 30, but when I do have internship, you know, I gotta leave school and work until, you know, 5 30 to 6 30. And in those cases, I only get home around 7.30 to 8. And of course, that doesn't

account for homework, which comes afterwards, and that can keep me up for really late. So from here on out, you know, it's actually pretty risky for me to be doing this. I should be getting ready like immediately because I don't have that much time. Every minute counts, especially with Miami traffic. It is 5.39 and I'm sitting down for breakfast right now, which is an egg. We're making pretty decent timing right now in terms of getting to school and stuff. It's kind of interesting in the mornings because you have these kind of milestones of times that you kind of have to hit when like going through the morning to make sure you're going to leave on time.

It's 5.57 and I'm brushing my teeth now. I think I'm making pretty decent timing. I have about 30 minutes to do my skincare, do my hair care, pack my bags and if I have any little straight bits of homework to do which I don't think I really have today. It's 6.22 and we just left the house and we're on the way to school now. The drive time ranges, normally I say between 45 minutes and an hour. Us leaving at 6.30 is kind of imperative because if you leave five minutes later, if you leave ten minutes later, you're adding, you know, 20, 30 minutes, sometimes even 40 minutes onto your drive time, which is insane. So I could leave at, you know, 6.32 and get to school completely on time,

but if I left at 6.37 or 6.42 or like, you know, anytime a little bit later, then I could reach at 8 and it could be an entire thing. We were on the way to school and we are making good timing. You ask people how they're feeling at school, the number one thing people will say is tired. It's actually very interesting. It's like everyone's favorite word. We were talking about it in my AP Literature class the other day. The teacher is always telling us like, oh, we look like zombies. Oh, we look like we're so tired. He's a funny person. So he was joking

and everything, but he genuinely means it. And he's genuinely worried about us because we come in and we have such low energy levels. People aren't participating in class. People are tired and people are done. And especially during senior year, we're not only tired because we woke up you know at whatever early time and we're drowsy but we've been going to school for a long time so we're tired. So yeah it's 7 14 I reached. This is really early for me actually. Most of my friends aren't here. The school is relatively empty. It's because most people can't make it on time. That's just the truth of the matter with how early things are, the way things are set up. Why do I still feel like a race? Why am I still feeling like a race?

The way things are scheduled definitely has to change. I think we have to think about that. I think that needs to be addressed just because we aren't getting sleep. We're getting home really late. We have to wake up really early. We have all sorts of homework and stuff and it's just not ideal. Nile Jones is a senior at Design and Architecture High School in Miami where school starts at 740 a.m. Jude Bruno is the president-elect of the Florida Parent Teacher Association.

June, thank you for sharing some time with us today. Do you think that Florida public schools need to change their start times so high schools don't start so early? Absolutely. Research consistently shows that adolescents and teens need eight to 10 hours of sleep, but struggle to fall asleep before 11 p.m. so it's absolutely needed but we also recognize parents need to be involved in the process with their school boards. Should it be district-wide for the same start times? Should it be a school-by-school

option for instance? How to go about making those decisions? For us we'll always are going to say that we believe that the best decisions are ones that can be met at the local level. And Jude, by local level, you mean the school district, school district wide level, is that right? That is correct. Because there's many challenges. Communities are different. Highways are built different. Traffic patterns are very different across our various communities, whether you're from Miami-Dade, Broward to Palm Beach, or even Leon County, you have different factors you need to consider. We hope the legislature takes this opportunity,

perhaps funded, for those that are able to go about this venture. Talk to us a little bit more about the funding considerations. Because at least on paper, maybe, if we're just changing the school start times and end times, we're not adding more school or adding more students or more schools. Wouldn't it just be just moving around what time the buses go and where they go at which times?

It would be, but we know the school transportation system rely on staggered start times to run efficiently because they're utilizing the same buses in many cases to pick up the elementary kids, the middle school kids, and the high school kids. If you don't pick them up at the precise times where the system demonstrates that they're going to encounter the least amount of traffic based on our traffic patterns and taking consideration, kids are not going to be going to be able to go to school on time. And those are all factors that are taken into consideration when they're designing those bus routes.

How to navigate this friction between resource-limited transportation, and we didn't even mention the extracurricular activity impact on this, as you know. Absolutely. But how do you navigate that with what biology and the science is clearly telling us, which is adolescents, teenagers? The sleep pattern does not match what our school bell schedule is. It is definitely a tough question.

You will never find the best ideal solution unless you have a direct conversation with those that are most impacted by the decision. Florida lawmakers have passed a number of laws in recent years toward parental rights in public education. What role do you think parental rights play in deciding school start times? For us, it means having a seat at the table. That means making sure that we are having the necessary conversations

with parents that are actually in our schools, making sure that we're having conversations with our students even. So for us, it's making sure that we're having conversations with the stakeholders. That's for us as parental rights. Jude Bruno is the president-elect of the Florida PTA. Thanks for sharing your time with us. Thank you for having me. Kelly sent us this email as a person who went to public school and private college. I believe that teenagers who are going to go into the workforce very soon should be

able to get up and get going to school at eight o'clock. The working world starts at eight o'clock for the majority of people. So why should teenagers be any different? Kelly writes, it didn't hurt me to get myself to school at eight o'clock and I am now a medical professional. We pamper the youth of today too much. Steve sent us an email. It didn't hurt me to get myself to school at 8 o'clock and I am now a medical professional. We pamper the youth of today too much. Steve sent us an email.

I went to Nova High in Broward County being a magnet school. It started at 10 o'clock after school activities were scheduled before school. Steve says you never saw kids sleeping in class. McKenna has been listening in from Miami. Hey McKenna, thanks for calling. You're on the radio. Hi. I just wanted to add that I am a math tutor and I work with a lot of high school students. And my students who have their math courses at the beginning of the day, very

often struggle. So they can't focus in class, they have trouble recalling things that they learned in class. So not only does this affect kind of logistic things, but it really does have an academic impact as well, especially for students who may be athletes and might have practices before school even starts at that early start time. Yeah, athletes, those in the arts, the performing arts can go before school and after school as well. McKenna, thanks for adding your voice to the conversation. You are listening to the Florida Rundup

from your Florida Public Radio station. Jeff Solichek is with us now education reporter at the Tampa Bay Times. Jeff, you've been following this debate for a while. What are some of those challenges, some of those budgetary challenges that we hear the representative of the PTA point to? Well, one of the things that we hear about, and by the way,

first, thank you for inviting me, of course, to speak here on this topic. I I find that school districts are talking a lot about the need for bus drivers, which they already have trouble finding. And if they are to shift around all their bus schedules, as as Mr. Bruno pointed out, the the issue of having everything be staggered. If they switch elementary and high schools, where the buses have to go in different places and have to get to where they need to be,

they're talking about the need for more drivers and more buses even, so that they can cover the ground efficiently, but that winds up costing upwards of millions of dollars. That's just one example. How does the size of school districts impact their ability or willingness to shift start times around if they have to under the current existing law? Are you talking about size of enrollment or size of? Yeah, good geography.

Yeah, it's both, right? I suppose you've got some large geography counties, but with a very small student population and you have large counties with large student populations. Exactly. And so a rural county that's very large in size, but has few students, may have fewer schools. So the buses have to travel farther in order to get places and students, like that one student who did his presentation, takes him an hour or longer to get to school on any given day.

And so a lot of times shifting the bus schedules means shifting all that around. And so there's a lot of things to take into account. I spoke with Senator Bradley, who is the one sponsoring the bill to repeal this law. Senator Jennifer Bradley, yeah. Senator Jennifer Bradley, who's the one sponsoring the bill to repeal this law. Senator Jennifer Bradley, yeah. Senator Jennifer Bradley, who's from Clay County. And she said her district is large,

and it has rural and urban counties. And she's heard from all of them saying that they need some additional considerations. Kate has been listening into the conversation from Orlando. Kate, thanks for your patience. You're on the radio. Oh, hello. Thank you for talking to me. Sure thing. Go ahead. I was on the committee to change school start times in Volusia County pre-pandemic.

There were 19 of us for a district of over 62,000 students. I was at the time a teacher at Spurs Creek High School, senior English. And we did, we happened to, Volusia now happens to be aligned with what's coming down the pike. But that process was fascinating. That sounds like a very diplomatic description to the process, Kate. The issue, which I think you have already encountered, the biggest issue we ran into was transportation. Yeah. And it was a very real issue. We worked very hard to solve and make recommendations to our board. The fact of the matter is students who are teenagers learn better later in

the day and school is about learning. Yeah, the science is pretty clear. That was a huge problem, was what school is about, because school isn't daycare, and school isn't football practice. Kate, in Orlando, thanks for adding your voice to it. Jeff Solichek with the Tampa Bay Times. You heard a voice there of an educator. The reaction here, is it the difficulty of just changing a system that has been so entrenched

in kind of the schedules of parents and teachers and kids? I think that's a big part of it. People don't like change, but in Volusia County, where they did make those changes, I talked with one of their school board members not that long ago, and he said that at first people were kind of upset with the changes, but it kind of went away. People adjust, just like they always say, kids are flexible, kids can adjust. I live in Hillsborough County where it was 2018

and they made this change also without the benefit of a state law. And they spent a year or so planning it. They rolled it out. People were mad, people were glad. And after a period of time, it just became the way of doing business. Jeff Solacek is a education reporter top notch at the Tampa Bay Times. Jeff, thanks for sharing your reporting with us. Much appreciated. I will share in the Hudson house. I am the alarm clock in the morning. That is just the way it is for now. Listen, continue to share your thoughts radio at the floridaroundup.org and you are listening to the Florida Roundup

from your Florida Public Radio station. Covering Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for all Floridians looking to explore health care coverage options within the federal health insurance marketplace. Help is available at 877-813-915 or at coveringflorida.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here. This week's decision by most state lawmakers to approve a new law focused on immigration will impact people who are

living in Florida, some without legal status and others whose status gets complicated. It's because of decisions around immigration made in the past. One example is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA. It was established in 2012 by President Barack Obama. In 2020, the United States Supreme Court overturned the first Trump administration's effort to end the program. Now, someone qualifies for DACA if they were brought to the United States as a child, graduated high school, or were honorably

discharged from the military, and passed a background check. If they did all that, they are given temporary legal status. The program protects about half a million people from deportation nationwide. However, the program is no longer accepting applications. Reporter Elizabeth Ndarji from our partner station WGCU in Fort Myers brings us one woman's journey through the DACA program. I've known America all my life. You know, I was in kindergarten singing the Pledge of Allegiance every morning.

All I know is here. Meet Luz Maria Tubb, originally Luz Maria Castaneda, a DACA recipient. Her journey to the U.S. began 32 years ago. My parents moved from Mexico with my sister and I, or with myself first because I was six months old. And then at some point in those years, immigration got really bad. And so they were just kind of deporting everyone. And one of my last memories was laying down in like RV type thing in the dark hiding because they were having a Christmas party or something. And the neighbors had called the police and immigration showed up. My mom says that we packed our van with just the stuff that we had and drove all the way to Oregon. That was our initial move to the town that I grew up in. The emotional weight of that moment didn't sink in at first. It wasn't until Tug turned 15 that she realized her dream had turned into a

dark discovery. I asked my mother, hey mom, when can I go get my permit? And that's when she kind of let me know, you weren't born here, you don't have the same luxury as your friends, you don't get to go out and learn how to drive. I wouldn't say my world shattered, but it definitely made me look at things differently. Little did she know that a change was about to take place a few years later. News spread like wildfire that the Obama administration had established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. And at 23 years old, Tubb received her first DACA card.

For the first time, she could work legally. It was a milestone, but not without its own challenges. I have it right here, the very first one that was given to me. But I've lost hope in this card because there was a time where I lost my ID and the only form of identification I had was this to a bunch of different people. They had to pat me down to finally let me in. This card was so important. It signifies a lot, but at the same time, people aren't validating it.

Now, a mother of two US-born children is being held hostage by her husband. She's being held hostage by her husband. She's being held hostage by her husband. She's being held hostage by her husband. She's being held hostage by her husband. She's being held hostage by her husband. She's being held hostage by her husband. me down to finally let me in. This card was so important. It signifies a lot, but at the same time, people aren't validating it.

Now a mother of two U.S.-born children, Tupp says the stakes feel higher than ever. DACA recipients are required to reapply every two years. If individuals want citizenship, it's encouraged to go back to their home country and lawfully re-enter the U.S. And that's what's so frustrating is that the lawyers that I've spoke to have given me the option of, okay, you can pay $17,000 to start the process, you go to Mexico and you lead for forgiveness. What I was told is that their goal is to keep me there. That's so terrifying when you have two small kids who depend on you. Despite the challenges, Tab remains a fierce advocate for her peers.

Don't give up. We're dreamers. We have a right to be here. And I say that with all the respect in the world. I'm not saying it because I feel like we're entitled to it. But I do feel that we weren't given an opportunity to choose whether we wanted to come here or not. We were brought here young to tell us to,

okay, well now you know, go back. Go back to what? I'm Elizabeth Andergy. The crackdown on people without legal immigration status includes students. President Trump ended a policy that restricted federal authorities from making immigration arrests at schools. And as part of the legislation passed this week by state lawmakers here in Florida, students without legal status will no longer be able to pay in-state tuition for state colleges and universities. We have two reports from our partner station in South Florida, WLRN, about the immigration enforcement and students.

We start with reporter Tim Padgett. Dreamers are undocumented residents brought to the U.S. as children. In 2014, Florida granted them in-state tuition. Now, as President Trump pressures states to join his crackdown on undocumented migrants, Florida Republicans have passed a sweeping immigration bill that includes repealing the tuition benefit. Gabby Pacheco heads the nonprofit The Dream.us in Miami and argues the repeal contradicts Trump. They're trying to out-Trump Trump, but it goes against Trump because Trump has repeatedly said we need to do something for the dreamers.

Trump did say this on NBC's Meet the Press last month. Republicans are very open to the dreamers. You want them to be able to stay. That's what you're saying. I do. Florida Republicans now say giving the dreamers cheaper in-state tuition costs the state too much money. But Pacheco points out Trump says many Dreamers parlay their college degrees into successful businesses and professions.

A college degree close to doubles what someone with a high school diploma earns. So we're talking about billings and taxes and spending power. Almost 7,000 Dreamers have taken advantage of the in-state tuition each year. I'm Tim Padgett in Miami. This is Natalie LaRoche-Pietri. Each South Florida school district says they are committed to keeping students safe in the face of a recent directive allowing immigration and customs enforcement to conduct raids on school property. That said, spokespeople for Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe school districts say they will cooperate with the revised policy. Here's Carla Hernandez-Matz, president of the United Teachers of Dade.

Everybody in South Florida knows somebody that is undocumented. And so this makes our community uniquely vulnerable. Trump's border czar Tom Homan said recently immigration enforcement in schools won't be routine. Even still, teachers say their students are fearful. And that fear isn't just reaching undocumented students and mixed status families, says Adriana Rivera of the Florida Immigrant Coalition. It's also with US citizens who are part of minority communities.

And now we're also denying them the peace and tranquility that schools are supposed to bring. Rivera said parents, no matter their legal status, should make sure their kids know their rights. I'm Natalie LaRoche-Pietri in Miami. And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station.

Finally, on the roundup, let's open up our inbox this week. We got lots of emails sent to us radio at the floridaroundup.org. On the issue of immigration, Angela sent us this email. She writes, with all the vitriolic semantics and the reality of Florida, I wonder if the threats made are done to make people go and pack up out of fear. I'm very worried for the people that work hard for the comfort of so-called legal immigrants because we are all immigrants," writes Angela. In early January here on the floor to round up,

we featured an interview with Kathy Wood. She owns and runs an investment firm based in St. Petersburg. It's pretty well known in investment circles, at least. It's called Ark Investment. Now, Kathy Wood is best known for her technology investments, including her longtime support of Tesla and its founder, Elon Musk. I talked with Kathy Wood about Musk extensively during our interview. Cynthia heard that and wrote, I'm annoyed that you

even gave Kathy Wood a platform. But if you wanted to do so, I think you did a disservice to the listeners by not pushing back and questioning her much more about Elon Musk and President Trump. Why did you not ask her about what has happened in our recent history as a result of lack of regulation on tech industries? I understand she's local, but if you're going to interview her, ask her more and better questions. Cynthia writes, I'm very disappointed. ask her more and better questions. Cynthia writes, I'm very disappointed. Kenneth also heard that program and wrote us, the more I hear that woman speaking, the more my blood boils. Kathy Wood is just another crummy opportunist looking

to monetize everything in sight. She's only out to feather her nest and to hell with everyone else, Kenneth writes. A few weeks ago, we talked about Florida's new social media law going into effect. Now this law bans anyone under 14 here in Florida from having a social media account. Colin was listening to that program. He emailed us. The big problem is that to establish the IDs of everyone using social media, it means that you as an adult will also have to establish your ID, date of birth, social security number, driver's license number, etc. Facebook and others will love this even more data available to

them. Colin writes, jazz and Clearwater says I'm of two minds about these bands. On the one hand, I grew up without a phone or social media in school and knowing the issues with distraction, bullying and self image that it can cause for kids, I understand the idea behind it. On the other hand, having a phone and the ability for instant contact with a child's adult can be critical for safety and family issues. There's also the consideration for isolated or marginalized students who may only have

a community and friends online. And then last week, we spoke with NPR reporter Sarah McCammon. She wrote a book about growing up in the evangelical church and leaving the church. Melissa heard the conversation and wrote this short note to us. The place for faith in government should not be in government at all. Full stop. Well, don't stop sending those emails. We'd love to hear from you radio at the Florida roundup.org. We're always monitoring the inbox.

It's always open radio at the Florida roundup.org. We're always monitoring the inbox, it's always open radio at the Florida roundup.org. Next week, we will be live from Zoo Miami during this program. And among our topics, we're going to be talking about invasive species. So what do you want to know about iguanas, lionfish or peacocks? Man, I got to tell you the peacocks in my neighborhood. Yeah, don't get me started. Well, we want you to get started. What do you want to know about invasive species, even the pythons perhaps in the

Everglades? Email us now. We may put your question to the head of research at the zoo when we're live from Zoo Miami next Friday. Email us now radio at the Florida roundup.org. That is our program for today. The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter. WLRN's Vice President of Radio is Peter Merz. The technical director of the program is MJ Smith. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Ernesto J, and Jackson Harp. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at AaronLeibos.com. Don't forget live from Zoo Miami next Friday if you're in South Florida we'd love to see

you there. It's a free event you can register at WLRN.org. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and above all supporting public media in your neighborhood. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend. Covering Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for all Floridians looking to explore health care coverage options within the

federal health insurance marketplace. Help is available at 877-813-915 or at covering florida.org