The Florida Roundup - New immigration laws, love in the Sunshine State, 7 years after Parkland, weekly news briefing

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke with the Miami Herald’s Ana Ceballos and WLRN’s Danny Rivero about immigration bills passed this week and how the state plans to enforce the law (07:22). Then, we share what listeners love about Florida (20:12). And later, we spoke with U.S. Rep Moskowitz about the impact of the sweeping gun control laws passed in the wake of the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland (25:06). Plus, how some faith leaders in Florida are responding to the Trump Administration’s immigration policies (37:34), an update on Citizens’ home insurance rates (45:10 ) and changes to weather forecasting in the Gulf (46:27).

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. Great to have you along. It is Valentine's Day on this Friday. We have plenty of news to talk about this week, but we also have been asking what you love and love to hate about Florida. You know, few states solicit such strong reactions from people who live here and those who visit in Florida. After all, there is plenty to love about life here in the Sunshine State. What I really love the most is the weather. It's the weather.

The weather. I love because you can go to the beach. Like I love the fact that you can walk outside in a t-shirt and shorts every day. I don't have to put coats on my kids when we leave the house. Okay, maybe it's one big thing that we all love about this place. Send us a quick note on your thoughts radio at the floor to roundup.org the email address radio at the the Florida roundup.org. The email address radio at the Florida roundup.org.

Your notes coming up later on this hour. This week Florida legislative leaders and Governor Ron DeSantis found some mutual admiration. Top Republican leaders and the governor had been at odds for several weeks over immigration enforcement. The governor called a special session for lawmakers to pass his priorities. Legislators showed up. They met for less than 30 minutes before calling their own special session and passing a different immigration bill.

The governor called that bill weak. He threatened to veto it. This is the governor one week ago. We can do state level enforcement. We want legislation to say that we have a duty for both state and local, but I mean, I am going to do it. And so it makes sense to put it in law, but I'm going to do it anyways. By late Monday this week, we learned that the governor and top Republicans in the House

and Senate had forged a deal and lawmakers had their third special session in two weeks. By Thursday, this was the governor as he prepared to sign the legislation into law. The Florida legislature has passed the strongest legislation to combat illegal immigration of any state in the entire country. The Republicans may have found compromise with each other, but not with Florida Democrats. Fenchris Driscoll is the House Minority Leader in Tallahassee. A lot of time has been wasted on this. While the Republicans in the legislature and the governor tries to suck up to Donald Trump,

well, we're elected to do a job here, and that's to look out for Floridians. We'll have more on the legislation and enforcement efforts in a moment. First, as Florida Republicans have been debating about how they want to respond to President Trump's immigration enforcement campaign promises, residents in Florida without legal status

have been wondering what may come next. Sandra Victorova reports from our partner station, WGCU in southwest Florida. Another foundation almost complete in Sarasota County. For Rene Monroy and his dad, Daniel, business is strong. All along the coastline, we do big houses, big mansions all the time. Despite steady calls for these big projects,

this feels like the worst of times for the Monroys. Their time together is running out. Daniel will be deported soon. That's gonna be the hardest part, seeing my sister be without her dad. Daniel entered the U.S. illegally when he was 16 years old. He had no other choice to come over here. You know, there was no opportunity

for him over there. Daniel says he left his village in Mexico in desperation. His father had died while working in the U. S. And his mother struggled to feed him and his four siblings. I call me the lady. There's no food, no money. There's nothing. That's money, there's nothing. That's what makes us leave home. For 30 years, Daniel has worked in construction. He and his son have laid thousands of foundations from Tallahassee to Port Charlotte. Concrete slabs for everything from stores to condos to banks.

I think we've done a lot for this country. We pay a lot of money in taxes. We do so much for him just to get kicked out. But he's nothing to this country. Danielle brought his wife Santana and Renee and his older brother across the border about 20 years ago. Renee was a toddler. He has a work permit under the DACA policy. ICE ordered Danielle to return to Mexico by March. An ankle monitor tracks his whereabouts. Ricardo Scarrett is his attorney. He doesn't have any option. He's gonna have to leave.

And I don't know what he's gonna do. And probably he'll return illegally. And if he gets caught, he's gonna be put in jail. While the current deportation order was under a previous U.S. administration, under the Trump White House, the family worries the consequences of Daniel returning illegally would be more severe. This isn't Danielle's first deportation. Renee remembers his dad being deported when he was 13 years old. My brother had to get a job where my dad worked at almost like an adult and working everyday so he can pay the rent. Making Danielle's case harder is his criminal record. He was convicted of

battery in 2003, what he calls a dispute with a family member and driving while intoxicated in 2001. But he and his family say he is a changed man. I've made mistakes, but I haven't made them again like driving drunk. When I made that error, I gave up alcohol forever. He says he returned to the U. S. because of a responsibility to take care of his family. Most of these people come from extreme poverty and they really come to work and that's why we need to reform our immigration laws. Most of the people that come here do not come for asylum. They come for economic reasons and we have to recognize that.

And that's always been my complaint, that the immigration laws in this country do not follow the market realities. Scarrett says the market reality is businesses can't find enough workers, illegal or not. It is so cumbersome for an employer to employ a foreign worker in this country that I can't blame them for hiring illegal workers, undocumented workers.

Rene says all the construction sites he's worked at rely heavily on undocumented workers. Do most of these construction business owners know that the majority of the folks working in the industry are undocumented? Yes, everybody knows it. Rene worries how he'll make the family budget work in his dad's absence. It's also a worry for his 17 year old sister Jenny, the only US citizen in the family. I worry a lot. My mom can't work. She can't go work and provide for me and her. Without without my dad, we would have. Much things that we do now.

The family is finding the decision of what to do next. Impossible Danielle living alone in Mexico or Santana joining her husband and leaving the family as well. He's changed as a person and doesn't do the things he once did before. He's changed as a person and doesn't do the things he once did before. And I think he deserves to stay here one more time.

I'm Sandra Viktorova. Just one of the stories here in Florida that underscores the complexity and the impact of immigration policies and enforcement. Ana Sabayos is with us now here on the Florida Roundup. She reports on state government for the Miami Herald. She's with us from Tallahassee. So Ana, tell us about the new laws that were passed by this third special session in two weeks

and signed by the governor quickly into law. Hi, yes, so it's been a whirlwind trying to catch up with everything that lawmakers have been debating over immigration in recent weeks. But finally, on Thursday, so just less than a day ago, Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers came to an agreement on what needs to be in the books. And it really there's two bills that were signed yesterday that include really a wide range of issues that include enhanced criminal penalties

for people who are in the country illegally, an effort to pursue the death penalty against undocumented immigrants who commit capital crimes such as murder. There's a whole list of crimes, but that's just an example. It enhances cooperation as well for local law enforcement officers and state law enforcement officers with ICE and how they share information about undocumented people

in the state, and specifically the ones that are arrested and detained in county jails. There's also a new restructuring of who's in charge of overseeing the state's cooperation with the federal government. Governor Ron DeSantis is now part of a council with the cabinet members that will share the enforcement oversight powers and how it's going for the state,

and that includes approving new funding for local law enforcement agencies and how they can train officers at the local level in how to perform some of the functions of federal immigration agents, like interrogating people who are in the county jails and trying to figure out what their immigration status is. Who's in charge in Florida in immigration was a key sticking point between the Florida legislative leaders and the governor's office. But to the point of cooperation with local law enforcement, there was a bit of a tension

there as well. Are local police now in Florida under these bills required to more fully cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement than they had previously? Well, it's not an overt... Even though the bills do take effect immediately. So they were signed yesterday, so as of yesterday, these are the new laws that local law enforcement officers have to follow. However, the main message of this bill was that Republicans want the federal government

to be in charge of immigration enforcement, and that state and local officials are here and are being given tools to make sure they cooperate and are able to help with whatever the Trump administration wants to do. So when you try to put into context what local law enforcement officers are going to be able to do, say overnight, they really are waiting for a lot of the guidance that is going to be coming up at the state, at the federal level.

But also, even if they wanted to start participating in all these federal immigration functions, right, they'd have to go through training. And that training takes time, and it takes money. And so even though there are setting the stage, right, for creating all these new functions, it is something that is going to take a little bit of adjustment to really fully enforce. So I just want to talk about these tools even a little bit more and bring in my colleague

Danny Rivero, an investigative reporter with our partner station WLRN in Miami, because the bills came after an agreement that was signed a week ago today between the governor and ICE, the Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency committing the Florida Highway Patrol, State Police to some law enforcement role that they previously did not have regarding federal immigration. Try to sort out exactly the new responsibilities of the State Police and also to Ana's point kind of how this then is related to the new law today in Florida a week later. Right. When the agreement was announced, I was actually a little bit confused because the governor said that this was a 287G agreement, which is technical, but it's a kind of agreement

with federal immigration enforcement, which happens in jails and prisons. And the agreement with Florida Highway Patrol struck me as odd because they don't have in jails and prisons. And the agreement with Florida Highway Patrol struck me as odd because they don't have any jails or prisons. It's usually at the county level. Exactly. So, you know, when you look at the actual written agreement, it's actually clear that the agreement with FHP is actually giving them increased powers beyond jails and prisons to actually

interrogate people during a traffic stop, make essentially an arrest on behalf of ICE. They need to communicate with ICE before or after in the process, but expanding the role of state level enforcement. And if you look at the debate that was happening yesterday when these bills were being debated, Representative Lawrence McClure, Republican sponsor of some of this legislation in the House, he said, you know, we've been talking

with the Trump administration. We know they're going to be asking us to do more local enforcement at the street level. We know that the Trump administration is going to be asking us to do more local enforcement at the street level. We know that the Trump administration is going to be asking for this. So this was Florida saying, we are going to assist them in it. Now, as reporters, as residents, we're still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Does this mean the police chief in your town is going to start getting their officers trained by ICE and making stops and interrogating people?

They have signaled that is coming. Yeah. Ana, as you described, lawmakers were clear that immigration enforcement in Florida remains the responsibility of the federal government. However, as Danny has reported and as you've reported here, there seems to be more than just creeping into state law enforcement and even local law enforcement. Through the debate, how is that understood by those who supported what is now the immigration enforcement law in Florida? To consideration here is that the federal immigration laws are changing very quickly,

right? I mean, so what the state is doing is pretty much saying we're trying to lay the groundwork and so we can act as soon as they change the laws at the federal level. And one of the things that the feds have, the Department of Homeland Security specifically has done, I believe it was three weeks ago at this point, they issued a memo where they declared a quote mass influx of aliens, which kind of invoked a law that has never really been invoked that calls on states and local law enforcement officials to do more to help federal immigration agents and pretty much says that it will allow state and local law enforcement officers to perform any of the powers, privileges, or

duties of federal immigration agents. So this is something that the state legislature had, in addition to the bills that they passed on Thursday, they also issued a resolution and are pretty much asking the Department of Homeland Security to give them guidance on exactly what that means and how they can get the training and how they can get the guidance to know how to best act with what they have in place at this point. At this point, Danny, what is understood about local law enforcement agencies in Florida. Are they required to do these enforcement acts or hold? Somebody who is already in jail with a detainer from federal immigration

Authorities to hold them for 48 hours under the rules of this 287 G plan, you know, um it's it's already Florida law and it's been Florida law for quite some time that local law enforcement needs to help however they can help. What to the fullest extent of the law possible they need to help. What's shifting is what the federal government is asking of them. And in the proposal to the legislature that Governor DeSantis put forward, he wanted to require under penalties that police departments with 25 officers or more enter into these programs, specific programs.

And Republican legislators blocked that. That was actually watered down. That is not the outcome. They may enter into these kind of agreements, but it is the law that they need to assist with the federal government in this. But to Anna's point, it's very rapidly changing at the federal level. So whatever happens, what happened at the legislature is basically indicating local law enforcement, sheriff's offices are just going to have to follow the lead of whatever the Trump administration

does. What has been the quick reaction on the FHP agreement signed a week ago from immigration advocates? Do you expect, do they anticipate to file a legal challenge to this at all? I have not heard about a specific legal challenge, but I have heard that this is a whole new different kind of agreement. We've not seen this before, at least in the modern era. When Florida was the first state to have these 287G agreements, and that happened in 2002 in the aftermath of 9-11 under Governor Jeb Bush. And they did some street level enforcement back then.

And that program was severely rolled back under Obama. What I've been told is we're kind of going back to those times, emergency times like after 9-11. And Ana, what about advocates? Do they think they have any legal standing to challenge the new laws that were passed this week? We heard a lot this week that, you know, even Republicans who were sponsoring these bills,

they're like, you know, they're not going to be surprised if this is challenged. The question is exactly what provisions of these laws are going to be challenged. And I think one important thing to keep in mind as well is that while in addition to the federal laws changing and what the state has done, one important thing is that the new bills that were signed or the new laws

would make it easier really to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants and hold them for longer periods of time, giving ICE potentially more time to come and ask, you know, pick them up and potentially deport them. Because they're creating new state-level crimes that are intentionally focused on the, whether or not someone entered the country illegally.

They're making that a crime rather than a civil issue, right? So that would sweep up more people and put them in county detention. Creating more criminals essentially. Exactly, the act of crossing a border without legal status becoming that crime. Ana Sabayos with the Miami Herald covering state government,

Danny Rivero investigative reporter with our partner station WLRN. To both of you, thank you for sharing your reporting with us. Thanks, Tom. Thanks, Anna. We have plenty more to come here on the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Stick with us. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here. Next week on our program, home insurance.

Yeah, we're going to tackle home insurance again. We're going to team up again with our colleagues at KQED Public Radio in San Francisco for another cross-country conversation. This one on home insurance, both states, Florida, California, facing insurance crises, certainly, the Los Angeles wildfires, are really a tragic reminder again of how our insurance markets are interconnected by natural disasters. So what's the price of risk at your house or condominium? How has your insurance premium changed? And what do you want homeowners in California to know about paying to protect

your home here in the Sunshine State? We'd love to hear your questions and your stories. You can email them to us now. Radio at the Florida roundup dot org radio at the Florida roundup dot org. And we may use your story next week. It is Valentine's Day today, and we know there's a lot of news coming at you. And we will have more coming up in this program. But we thought since it is Valentine's Day, why not take just a little break here for a few minutes and talk about what we love and what we love to hate about Florida. You know, just about everyone has an opinion

about our state, those who visit, those who were born here, and those of us who moved here. There's a lot to love and a lot to not love. That's Tracy. We ran into her this week at a farmer's market in Jacksonville. She's right. There is a lot to love and not in this

big state of ours. There's a lot of division these days certainly. It's all amplified by social media, yes. And we spoke with about two dozen folks across the state. There was one resounding reason that they all love Florida. The weather is fantastic. We do definitely live where others vacation. It's consistently warm. It's the weather. It's beautiful down here despite the little snowstorm we had. I love that it's always warm, that we don't have any cold winters. The thing I love about Florida is probably... So the thing I like most about Florida is...

What I really love the most is the weather. The warm weather year round. In fact, I love it most when it gets really hot in the summertime. Well yeah, that last voice is Rick Kirby. He lives in Sarasota. He says he loves the heat and humidity because it's so anti-weather. That's how he put it. Francis Bermudez and I first came to Sarasota, moved here in 1978. One of the things I like the most about Florida

is the fact that there are people that come to Florida from all over the world, all over the United States, and they're looking to start again. Yeah, Florida is a magnet. Tens of thousands of people are drawn here each year and each with their own motivations, hoping to fall in love with Florida, like Deuce Ross of Kissimmee. I'm from Ohio originally, so Midwest, the snow, everything like that. I'm not really.

Yeah, not really. I hear you, Deuce. Yeah, it's the same thing for A.G. Laffley of Sarasota. It's what he left behind. I was born in New Hampshire, raised in upstate New York and spent most of my life in the Midwest. And I do not miss the cold snow ice a bit. I love that it's 85 here and it's snowing in Philadelphia. You know, I mean, who among us have texted pictures of the sun and sand or even the humidity this time of year, to friends or family up north. That voice there, that's Catherine Davie from Maitland.

From here, I was born here, raised here, came back here to raise a family. And I love all the amazing things we have to offer. Not the theme parks, but all the stuff that's Florida. All the stuff that's Florida. Yeah, uniquely Florida, right? Now that means getting out into Florida like Caitlin and Tracy do. I love the unique climate of Florida, so finding the Everglades and then you get the springs as well as the gorgeous beaches on either coast. Recently I was able to go see the manatees at Blue Springs State Park and as a Floridian for almost 25 years, that was the first time I ever

got to experience that many manatees in one place and it was really magical. I bet it was. Linda in St. Augustine wrote us, I love the nature of Florida. I love the sparkling light on the water watching a gopher tortoise nibble on greenery, dolphins leaping in the bay, herons waiting patiently for dinner, the rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker, the stealthy glide of an alligator. Hugh in Cedar Key, great to hear from you, Hugh. Hugh writes, the spiders and dragonflies. I like that they eat the flying biters. Yeah, so the mosquitoes, right?

One feature we can agree that we don't like about Florida, the mosquitoes. And there's a lot of us also, we don't like that, and that a lot of us are crowding the roads. Thing I love to hate about Florida is probably that it's getting way more busy. A lot of people are coming down here from like northern states. Yeah. I like that we have so many things to do, but it's always like super crowded. So I love people, but I mean, there's kind of a lot of people, especially in my city. It's a bit overpopulated. Well, Miami, particularly the driving is insane.

I've driven in LA, I drive in New York City, I've been in Boston, but driving in Miami, I'm glad we have a relative to help drive us around down here to show us around. It's not for the faint of heart, the driving. We all seem to agree that that is what we dislike. Jeff, by the way, sent us this quick note. I think you need to rename the show Moon Pie Town Roundup. You know it's the right thing to do, says Jeff. Jeff and everybody, happy Valentine's Day. February 14 is not only Valentine's Day in Parkland,

Florida. It's the day horror and tragedy came to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. A gunman killed 17 people and injured 17 more students and teachers. That was seven years ago. Jared Moskowitz remembers it well. It really feels just yesterday when I was coming home and seeing the school looking like a war zone and then going to funerals, passing funerals to go to other funerals, meeting with the family members and the parents and you know, the school I graduated from. At the time, Moskowitz was a leading Democrat in the Florida

House. He led the charge to pass bipartisan gun restrictions the first in years in Florida, including banning anyone under the age of 21 from buying a rifle, a red flag law allowing police to temporarily remove a gun from someone considered a danger, and to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on school security. Today Moskowitz is in his second term in Congress representing the Parkland area. Congressman, thanks for joining us. It's been seven years since the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. How do you think the gun laws that were passed by you and your colleagues then are working

seven years later? The Marjory Ston Dumber School Safety Act that I helped author and pass in the law. I mean it's completely intact. Everything we passed, not only is it intact, it's been strengthened since we put that in place. Raising the age to 21, three day waiting periods, red flag laws. It was the sixth state in the nation to put red flag laws in place. Those have now been used 19,000 times. If we can think about that, 19,000 times sheriffs in the state of Florida have deemed someone a danger themselves or a danger to others. I mean, if 1% of those cases dealt with a mass shooting, I mean, we've presented, we've prevented a significant number of tragedies.

And then obviously school safety, Florida has led the nation on school safety, and that's something that they've done on a bipartisan basis. And so I think Florida had the right response on a bipartisan basis after the shooting. We didn't do nothing. Looking back on it now, compared to where we are when we see the shootings in other states, we passed, you know, a pretty progressive piece of legislation, but also balanced to try to prevent something like that from happening again.

And so, you know, I hate to say that's the legacy of the shooting in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, because it shouldn't have taken a tragedy like this, we shouldn't have had to lose all of these young people and family members to for us to do the right thing. But but I think Florida got it right, compared to other places like, like Texas and elsewhere who have had similar events, and have looked parents and family members in the face and said, we're going to do nothing. There has been some legislative efforts to turn back some of the changes that you helped write into law after that tragedy seven years ago.

There's legislation, for instance, that would allow someone 18, 19 or 20 years old to buy a rifle that was outlawed after Parkland as part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Safety Act. Do you think that there's political capital that has been waning now for some of the reforms, some of the gun legislation that you were able to put into place after that tragedy? As you get away from tragedies, you know, people forget what it was like, the lessons that needed to be learned. With that said, you know, look, members can file pieces of legislation. It doesn't mean that they're going to become law. People have been filing these things for political posturing, and the legislature has not taken

them up. They were filed last year and they didn't get taken up I Suspect these won't be taken up. Remember in the law we didn't ban possession of an 18 to 20 year old Right. It was purchase. That's right. We've been the purchase now. Why did we do that? Why did we crack it in that way? Well, because what we said was that we looked at what happened in Parkland, and we looked at the other things. And that's where these troubled use going into a store and buying unlimited amounts of weapon, unlimited ammunition, body armor. And we said, well, constitutionally, there's a right to possess arms in this country. But in

this age group, let's shift that burden to the parents. We trust the parents, right? In fact, my Republican colleagues say that all the time. Parents, parents, parents should be in charge of a kid's education, which I agree with. And so we wanted to shift that burden to parents. So parents can take your kid hunting, you can buy them a gun for Christmas. That's allowed in the state of Florida. But what's not allowed is for that 19-year-old to go do it on their own without their parents knowing. We think just that level of parent supervision

can help mitigate these tragedies. We've seen in some cases, for instance, in Michigan, where the criminal justice system has foisted responsibility onto parents of students who are involved in school shootings. Would you like to see some legislation around that in Florida? Well, ultimately, I think they got it right in Michigan. In fact, I think you saw most of the country look at that and say, of course. I mean, look, if there is a student, if there's a kid out there saying they want to go shoot

up a school and a parent's response is, well, let me take you to the store to buy the weapon to commit the mass murder, then those parents should be responsible. And so I think they got it right in Michigan. I don't know that you need legislation to codify that in Florida. That's now the judiciary at the end of the day stepping in. Now, I think there shouldn't be legislation prohibiting that either, right? So there shouldn't be legislation that would prohibit a parent from being responsible in the event of these egregious cases.

Well, let me ask you, you're a member of the Judiciary Committee now in the House of Representatives. Has there been whisper or talk amongst the majority party, for instance, in this Congress about putting in place some kind of preemptive regulation, not allowing the parents to be held responsible? Well, we have that with gun stores, of course. We have that preemption here. And gun manufacturers are not liable for their products. That's right.

With gun manufacturers not being liable for their products. We already have that, but there's been no talk here about doing that. With the numbers that we have in the House, I don't think something like that would pass because we're talking about these egregious cases. We're not talking about a parent buys a hunting know, a hunting rifle for a student, and then two years later, without any warning or knowledge, the student does something heinous. We're talking about these kids that have mental illness. The parents know this. There are threats made by the student, active statements made by the students, social media posts made by that young person, and then the parent goes out and buys the weapon to do that. And so it is these egregious cases that we're holding parents responsible. Rightfully so. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida public radio

station. We're speaking with Representative Jared Moskowitz, who went to school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and represents the Parkland area in Congress. The gun issue did not seem to register much with voters last fall during the election. Is there much political capital or a mandate on the issue with this new Congress representative? Even in my district, which has Marjory Stoneman Douglas in it, when we polled issues, the gun issue polled, you know, seven or eight. You know, obviously people care about the economy and their job, cost of living, inflation, things of that nature.

Immigration. Immigration. And rightfully so. They should care about all those things. This is an issue that is really galvanizing a generation. This is an issue that young people are dealing with. Seniors have grandchildren, obviously, but this is not something that seniors in my community dealt with when going to a school. To that point, Representative David Hogg, who was a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, was a senior during the tragedy seven years ago,

has just been elected to a leadership position within the Democratic National Committee. Is that a position you support for David Hogg? And what would you like to see come out of his young leadership position? Yeah, I supported David for that position. And that's because David and I are aligned on one specific thing, and that is messaging.

Democrats have gotten dramatically outmessaged. Democrats think like, oh, if we do a bunch of good things, everyone will know about it. We don't have to tell them. Or, you know what, we'll tell them once, and then we'll move on. And I suspect here you're referring not just to messaging on firearms and guns, but messaging overall.'s exactly right because the position he got elected to you know is an overall position Obviously gun, you know, obviously his position on guns is a part of it But David also understands messaging in general and that we're losing the messaging war Politically we got out message dramatically you can criticize Donald Trump all day long But if you don't understand how he's messaging, then you're missing what he's accomplishing.

Repeating it over and over and over and over again, making it entertaining, going to several different mediums, podcasts, radio, television, going everywhere. The Democrats got outmessaged, period. I want to bring it back, Representative, though, to the gun issue, because that's what brought the national spotlight to David Hogg and now has taken him to the national stage with the Democratic National Committee. What is the messaging around guns?

It may be polling low in terms of voter concern overall, but as you mentioned, when it comes to younger voters, it tends to be a more important issue. David obviously has done tremendous work on that, you know, since the shooting. But I think the messaging on guns is still the same. We have a Second Amendment in this country. No one is doubting that. But that doesn't mean

that we can't have sensible gun restrictions. That doesn't mean that we need weapons of war on the streets. That doesn't mean that it needs to be easy. It doesn't mean that we should have people that be able to get silencers that are mentally ill. I mean, you know this, it was national news. I had a gentleman in my own district who was a former felon who had guns, a vest, a thousand rounds of ammunition, a scope, a silencer, and my name and as the target.

And only because he was target practicing in his backyard was he caught. How did he get all of that stuff? And so I think the position of Democrats is we're just trying to be reasonable. We're trying to find that balance. And so look, the numbers are the numbers in the House and the Senate. There aren't votes right now to do anything major on this, but I'm going to be proposing a number of school safety measures and I'm going to continue to work on red flag laws. I continue to believe red flag laws and universal background checks are two areas in which we do have not only bipartisan support, but like 80% of America

believes in these two critical things of universal background checks and red flag laws. Right? You can have the Second Amendment and your right to bear arms in this country coexist with red flag laws and universal background checks. Representative, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. Representative Jared Moskowitz from Broward County. Still to come on our program this week, the immigration crackdown and churches in Florida. I'm Tom Hudson, 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. We spoke earlier this hour about the state legislature's response to carrying out President Trump's promised mass deportation of people in the U.S. without legal status.

We now have two more reports on immigration enforcement and these focus on houses of worship. The Trump administration threw out a long-standing federal government rule that banned immigration raids from churches. Some church leaders worry about religious freedom and say the change is making people afraid to come in and worship. And then there's the impact from the White House changing temporary protected status for some immigrants. We start the reporting with Joe Burns with our partner Central Florida Public Meeting.

Colombians and allies of Colombians, such a hand for this beautiful family. His wife, Jeanette, seamlessly translates to the other. He welcomes a family of asylum seekers from Colombia. Don't be afraid, he tells them, because God is watching over you and you are not alone. Not only are you a God, you have a church here, you have a family here now that prays with you. Salguero wants the church to be a welcoming place, regardless of immigration status. People should feel free to come to worship and to serve God and sing and clap

and have their children come to Sunday school without the fear of them being separated. This is a holy place, and holy places need to be respected. Salguero leads the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. He says several members of the coalition have seen a drop-off in attendance. He's seeing some change too, but won't know the full impact for a few weeks. Other religious leaders, including Catholic bishops and Quaker groups,

have also protested the change in policy. But there's still disagreement among Christian groups. Matt Staver is founder of the Christian Conservative Liberty Council in Orlando. On immigration, he says, a complex set of issues has, quote, different people of faith focused on different priorities. On the one hand, I think there's a universality on wanting to help those who are immigrants, but on the other hand there is this idea of wanting to have law and order and protect our citizens. Religious liberty, along with opposition to abortion and to LGBTQ plus rights,

is a focus of the Liberty Council. But Staber does not see a problem with opening churches to immigration enforcement. I don't see this as a religious liberty issue. Churches are still able to minister to the homeless, to those who are illegal, and to do everything that they've always been able to do. But one thing that we can't do is

be a place where the law of our civil society no longer apply. At Christ the King Episcopal Church in Orlando's Azalea Park, Father Jose Rodriguez believes it does come down to religious freedom. The reality is many people who aren't directly impacted by immigration are directly impacted by this because this is a violation of their sense of safety, their sense of holiness, their sense of the sacredness of what church is. He says people are asking, will they kick in the doors? Will they stop the worship service?

It's not evoking images of law and order. It's evoking images of brute force and disruption and chaos. It's already having the effect of people saying, you know what, I'm not going to go worship. Rodriguez says that's especially true for Latino immigrants from countries with a history of religious persecution. The raids may never come, he says, but there's still the shock and fear of government interference in the free practice of religion. In Orlando, I'm Joe Burns.

I'm Wilken Brutus. That's the sound of the congregation at the Notre Dame de Haiti Catholic Church in Little Haiti, Miami, singing the lyrics, Glory to our God in Heaven. Father Reginald Jean-Marie, known as Father Reggie, has been with the church for 25 years. He is part of what has been a spiritual space, school, and community center, offering legal services and other support since the early 80s. Especially nowadays as the Trump administration is escalating its anti-immigration agenda. Here's Father Reggie. There are so many professionals who left Haiti who come here now without legal documents to work,

while in hiding, while crying, while suffering, who have their loved ones die in Haiti, they cannot go, and vice versa. Temporary protected status, or TPSPS for Haitians is set to expire in February 2026. Are Haitian community leaders pushing for an extension of TPS? Are you seeing that call for this? One thing that I want to be very honest, you know, we have witnessed deportations. So under the Obama, the Biden, there were significant deportations. But the difference is that those previous administrations were very compassionate in several ways.

You know, I have witnessed so many young people who came to me, even right after the inauguration of the president, you know, telling me, father, what I'm going to do. I haven't seen them around. If you look at the mass today, it's a mass that we have over like 1400 people. We did not have even a thousand people at that mass. That means people are in hiding, are running away. So the school, we dropped to 60 students from 261. The daycare center, I don't even know what those parents are doing with the children. They are in hiding, you know, because they were the one who came from Brazil, from Chile, you know,

with their children now. It is important also that we challenge the local leaders, especially our governor in Florida, that we continue to put the challenge to our legislators not to approve certain things, because we do know put the challenge to our legislators not to approve certain things because we do know that they are going to try hard, even to come on grounds that they should not be coming, like the church, the schools, you know, to pick up people and we're ready for the fight.

Has that happened already? The other day there was a car I saw in the parking lot. You know, it's believed that have some agents. I said, listen, guys, you cannot be here because you're going to intimidate people from coming to church and to schools. And they were very respectful and they said, father, we are not here for that, but we're going to live. You know, you don't want to see a community that is kneeling.

You want a community standing that we keep the smile while we believe that if there is one hour for Satan, there is a day for God. That was Father Reginald Jean-Marie, known as Father Reggie of the Notre Dame de Haiti Catholic Church in Little Haiti. I'm Wilkin Brutus. And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station.

Two stories now about language. The first regarding home insurance. Maybe you heard that some Florida homeowners who rely on citizens property insurance to protect their homes will see a lower insurance rate beginning this summer. That is not a guarantee that their premiums will fall, despite what the governor said last week when he spoke about homeowners in the county with more citizen policyholders

than any other. 73% of Miami-Dade primary homeowners will receive a premium decrease in 2025. He also announced citizen policyholders in some other counties will also see their premiums drop. Statewide, one out of every five homeowners with citizens insurance will see an average rate decrease of about five and a half percent. The decreases are for average insurance rates, not premiums. Premiums are what homeowners pay to have their houses insured and homeowner premiums may not fall says Mark Freelander of the Insurance Information Institute. It still could increase primarily because of replacement

costs but the good news is replacement costs are moderating. So homeowners your rate may go down you'll have to wait and check that renewal to see if your premium does too. And then there's what we call the big body of water west of our peninsula. Offshore water forecast for the Gulf of Mexico. This was the marine forecast on Wednesday this week as read by text to speech audio. Yes, you heard it referred to the Gulf of Mexico. Forecast for the Gulf of Mexico sees given a significant change. This forecast was three days after the name was officially changed to Gulf of America.

Offshore waters forecast for the Gulf of America and WLS. By Thursday, this was the marine forecast from the National Hurricane Center. 2025 offshore waters forecast for the Gulf of America sees given a significant the National Hurricane Center. The change had been made. It was now the Gulf of America for the country's official weather forecasting agency. Now, if you use Google Maps to find your way around, the name will depend on where you are. This is how Google explained it.

People using maps in the US will see Gulf of America, and people in Mexico will see Gulf of Mexico. And what about if you're using Google Maps but you're not in the US or Mexico? Everyone else will see both names. Now this is serious stuff. The Associated Press, which sets language standards

for consistency for many news organizations, said weeks ago it will continue to call it the Gulf of Mexico because the President's decision only carries weight in the United States while the body of water touches other countries. That decision led to the White House this week blocking the Associated Press from presidential events. The AP complained that it was being punished by the government for its language. In other words, its First Amendment right of free speech.

And that is the Florida Runda for this week. It 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 Maertz. Our program's technical director is MJ Smith. Engineering help each and every week, Doug Peterson, Ernesto J, and Jackson Hart. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. Don't forget we're coming live to a studio audience at WUFT, our partner station in Gainesville. It is March 7th. We'd love to see you there live on campus in Studio 2 at WUFT. Go to wuft.org for more information and register. It's all free. We'll see you on campus. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening and supporting Public Radio in your neighborhood. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.

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