TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — President Donald Trump’s push to quickly overhaul the nation’s immigration system is at the center of a civil war between Republicans in Florida, with Gov. Ron DeSantis facing off against the GOP-dominated state legislature.
DeSantis earlier this month called lawmakers back to Tallahassee for a special legislative session with the explicit purpose of aligning state law with an expected wave of immigration-focused executive orders from Trump.
But Republican leaders in both the House and Senate, who had previously panned DeSantis’ plans as “premature,” abruptly ended the special session Monday morning and quickly called their own.
The move effectively killed all the legislation already filed by DeSantis’ allies, and allowed Republican leadership to draw up their own immigration proposals, including language that puts the governor in a tricky political position. The plan from legislative leaders would take sweeping immigration oversight authority away from DeSantis and move it to Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, a statewide elected official who is eying a run for governor in 2026 and has had an icy relationship with DeSantis.
Florida state House Speaker Danny Perez said under their plan Simpson would be designated the state’s “chief immigration officer,” a position that does not currently exist. DeSantis also wants to create that position, but would have kept it under his authority.
“We need a singular point of focus in the state government for coordinating immigration,” Perez said. “We need an agency with broader reach in the state, and experience working with the federal government and law enforcement.”
The move backs DeSantis into a corner — and underscores he does not hold the political sway in the state that he did in the lead-up to his 2024 presidential campaign.
If the Republican leaders’ bill passes, as expected, DeSantis will either have to sign a bill that effectively knee-caps his ability to coordinate immigration enforcement in the state, or veto a proposal that includes hard-line immigration reforms, many of which he supports.
Republican leadership has faced significant pushback on social media from prominent DeSantis supporters who have said their hesitancy to follow in the governor’s footsteps signals that they are not in line with Trump’s agenda, something both Perez and Florida Senate President Ben Albritton have pushed back on. Their proposals do include provisions aligned with Trump’s immigration executive orders.
It requires state and local law endorsement work “hand-in-hand” with federal immigration authorities; requires that judges and state attorneys know a criminal defendant’s immigration status before any bail or pretrial release is considered; offers $500 million for local law enforcement to “fight illegal immigration;” and expands penalties for some crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
The proposal also would end in-state tuition rates currently extended to Dreamers, or undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, something DeSantis has publicly pushed for. That proposal has been specifically contentious because it was signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Scott and passed by Republican lawmakers, including current Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez.
Trump had publicly backed DeSantis shortly after he called a special session.
“Thank you Ron, hopefully other governors will follow,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Perez told NBC News that they Florida legislative leadership have spoken to the White House and agree with Trump’s immigration reform push, they just did not think what DeSantis was trying to do was the best direction.
“The American people have resoundingly rejected the policy of open borders, and President Trump is moving decisively to address this crisis,” he said. “There are actions that Florida must undertake now in order to quickly align with President Trump’s directives.”
“Unfortunately, the governor’s proclamation was just too narrow to accomplish all of the things that we must do to assist President Trump,” he added.
DeSantis was functionally pushing for changes that would allow state officials to carry out several actions currently reserved for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He wants to vastly expand the DeSantis-created Unauthorized Alien Transport Program, which was used in 2023 to fly migrants to destinations in Democratically-held states. The changes, according to draft legislation, would be “consistent with federal law.”
The governor’s reform proposals would also require state and county law enforcement agencies to train local officials to perform federal-like immigration duties, training that would be funded by $350 million in new funding DeSantis was asking lawmakers to approve.
Perez said that approach is too “bureaucratic.”
“We did carefully consider Governor DeSantis’ proposal, and he had some good ideas,” he said. “But many of his proposals are bureaucratic. We do not need to duplicate the functions of U.S. immigration and Customs and create a mini-me version of ICE.”
He said the proposals would also “hijack” local law enforcement operations.
The post Florida Republicans upend DeSantis’ Trump-inspired immigration push appeared first on NBC News.
