TALLAHASSEE—With help from the White House, the GOP-led Legislature on Tuesday passed an anti-illegal immigration bill detested by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had his own immigration bills stunningly killed after a weeks-long power struggle.
Tuesday night, after 5 hours of bitter debate between and within parties, the 84-page bill clawed its way through both chambers in an 82-30 vote in the House and a 21-16 vote in the Senate. It will go to DeSantis—who called the measure “weak” and “toothless” after it replaced ten of his own bills killed after the rebellious GOP Legislature shut down his special session in favor of their own—to be signed or vetoed.
Filed by two Republican critics of DeSantis, Sens. Joe Gruters and Randy Fine, the sweeping SB 2B would crack down on illegal immigration by revoking in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, imposing the death penalty for illegals convicted of murder or child rape, and crowning Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson—another Republican DeSantis has feuded with—Chief Immigration Officer of Florida.
“To those who say that this bill doesn’t do enough to help Donald Trump with his message? I’m not going to take lectures from someone who a year ago didn’t think Donald Trump should be president,” said Sen. Fine, blasting DeSantis.
Gruters, meanwhile, revealed that he spoke to the Trump team on Monday to ask what they wanted from the measure, resulting in added incentives for compliant law enforcement, stricter penalties for criminal illegal immigrants, and a wider definition of gangs.
Democrats and DeSantis supporters forged a rare alliance in opposing the measure. Though all sides acknowledged that criminal illegal aliens should be deported, they had different objections.
“When I look at this piece of legislation, I think there are some big glaring holes in it,” said Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a DeSantis ally and rumored potential appointee to Chief Financial Officer.
Ingoglia, who had filed eight of the eleven now-dead bills in DeSantis’ special session, took issue with Gruters’ bill lacking points that Ingoglia’s measures had, including a ban on bail for illegal immigrants and a ban on undocumented immigrants sending and receiving money internationally.
Ingoglia also questioned why Simpson will be made Chief Immigration Officer, which DeSantis and his team have most publicly opposed.
“I do not understand why we are delegating authorities that is normally reserved to the governor to another branch of government, it's stuff that the governor is already doing,” he said, calling it “unconstitutional.”
Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo similarly opposed the measure, but he took issue with the bill’s constitutionality and DeSantis’s ability to lead on immigration.
“Those in good conscious…cannot vote for something unconstitutionally infirm,” Sen. Pizzo said, before pivoting to the governor spending tens of millions on illegal immigration efforts that Pizzo claimed hasn’t borne fruit.
“The Governor is not good at this,” he said. “The Governor performs a master class in what I call the illusory truth effect, which is we just say it enough times and say it loud enough and bold enough that people will believe it.”
The dramatic opposition arose after DeSantis called a special session to address illegal immigration. In a stunning move, Republican Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Danny Perez released a joint memo condemning the call as “irresponsible”—the first time DeSantis has faced a GOP rebellion since his presidential aspirations were quashed in 2023.
They adjourned his special session 15 minutes after gaveling it in—killing the ten DeSantis-backed bills filed—before immediately calling in their own special session and pushing forward their own bill.
The bill will go to DeSantis to be signed or vetoed. If he rejects it, the Legislature would need a two-thirds vote in both chambers to override his veto, or 27 Senators and 80 Representatives. On Monday, they overrode a line-item veto for the first time in 15 years.
