Florida lawmakers have taken several steps recently showing they are fully prepared to follow through with President Donald Trump‘s agenda.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed a series of immigration bills aimed at helping Trump enforce his mass deportation plans following a heated standoff with state Republicans.
The new laws include enforcing the death penalty for illegal immigrants convicted of a capital offense, including murder or child rape, as well as creating a new state crime for entering Florida after coming into the U.S. illegally.
Sean Freeder, an assistant professor of political science at the University of North Florida, told Newsweek that the passage of the hard-line immigration bills demonstrates “a desire of state Republicans to demonstrate fealty to Trump in an area of policy key to his reelection, to increase the odds that they will be able to remain in office or get promoted to a more desirable one.”
“Doing so means aligning with his aggressive approach toward immigration, which they do in terms of the volume of spending and the nature of new legal provisions,” Freeder added.
Newsweek has contacted DeSantis’ office and the Florida GOP for comment via email.
DeSantis described the laws as the “strongest legislation to combat illegal immigration of any state in the entire country.” The new laws include allocating nearly $300 million to state and local officials to assist in federal immigration enforcement and ending instate tuition for undocumented students.
Freeder said Florida’s plan to enforce the death penalty for illegal immigrants who commit child rape is “questionable” and may face legal challenges. He noted that the law is in “direct contradiction” to Kennedy v. Louisiana, a Supreme Court decision that ruled that imposing the death penalty for crimes other than murder violates the Eighth Amendment.
“This will likely be shot down by a later court case, but the goal of such a provision is again to demonstrate aggressiveness, not withstand legal scrutiny,” Freeder told Newsweek.
“Of course, it is also possible that state Republicans want the case to reach the Supreme Court so that precedent on such matters could possibly be changed, à la Dobbs on abortion.”
Trump has often tried to take credit for the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade’s guarantee of abortion access in June 2022. Three of the five conservative justices who voted to overturn the landmark abortion decision—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett—were nominated to the Supreme Court bench by Trump.
DeSantis Realigning With Trump
While DeSantis signed into law the immigration bills, he had to negotiate with the GOP-led Florida Legislature after receiving major pushback.
DeSantis was once a close ally of Trump, but their relationship suffered when the governor challenged him in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
Florida lawmakers had rejected DeSantis’ calls for a special legislative session to push through the governor’s immigration proposals, instead advancing their own legislative package on January 27.
The Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy (TRUMP) Act, put forward by state GOP lawmakers, largely rejected DeSantis’ proposals.
Following weeks of negotiations, during which DeSantis seemed to soften his attacks on the lawmakers who opposed his plans, the governor signed the sweeping package of immigration laws on February 13.
DeSantis now appears to be attempting to realign himself with Trump and the staunchly pro-Trump Florida Legislature as he enters his final two years as governor and considers his political future.
In addition to pushing pro-Trump immigration policies, DeSantis quickly adopted the president’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
DeSantis used the phrase “Gulf of America” to describe the body of water in a January 20 executive order discussing the state’s response to a winter storm.
‘We Will Champion an America First Agenda’
On Monday, DeSantis swore in his former chief of staff, James Uthmeier, as Florida’s attorney general. At the ceremony, Uthmeier said he is prepared to mirror some of Trump’s proposals in his role, such as targeting drug cartels and removing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
“We will champion an America First agenda, and we will fight back against the cartels, the gangs, and the traffickers that have wreaked havoc on our country for far too long,” Uthmeier said.
“We will not stand idly by as the left tries to infiltrate our institutions and use the court system to indoctrinate our kids. We will fight the activists that try to weaken our duly enacted laws, that try to challenge our constitutional order, and that try to harm the unborn.”
Florida was once considered the most important swing state in the country, as seen when the entire 2000 presidential election between Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush and Democratic Vice President Al Gore essentially came down to just a few hundred votes in the Sunshine State.
Since then, Florida has become an increasingly strong red state, with Trump defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election by 13 points.
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