'Family Squabble Will Not Pull us Apart': Lawmakers, DeSantis Make Peace With New Bill

TALLAHASSEE—After weeks of ferocious infighting among Florida Republicans, the rift in the GOP Legislature appears to be closing as both factions touted new anti-illegal immigration legislation during the third special session of the year.

The conciliatory three-bill package, sponsored by Sen. Joe Gruters—who also carried the controversial TRUMP Act—is a compromise between proposals from Gov. Ron DeSantis and suggestions from the Legislature. The package marks the first olive branch in the rare public spat.

Senate President Ben Albritton, who played a key role in last month's conservative rebellion against DeSantis, thanked the governor as the third special session in the past three weeks began.

"While the majority of the legislation Senator Gruters has filed...is identical to what we passed last month, I'm supportive of the enhancements suggested by the governor, the House, and the Commissioner of Agriculture," Albritton said Tuesday from the Senate Floor, noting that the bill is "stronger" now. "Republicans in Florida understand that a family squabble will not pull us apart."

On the other side of the debate, Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, who had filed eight of DeSantis's original anti-illegal immigration bills, told The Floridian he was also "happy" with the new bills.

"I'm happy that we got a strong immigration bill," he said, noting how these proposals are "better" than Gruters's TRUMP Act. "It's a lot stronger than what it was, and a lot of the issues I was concerned with are out of the bill...It's very clear to me that the governor's fingerprints and policy proposals are all over this."

The softened tone between Republican lawmakers is a far cry from the harsh rhetoric that plagued the dialogue only weeks before, when DeSantis accused the Legislature of supporting a "grotesque" and "toothless" immigration bill. Lawmakers insisted the governor was lying and passed the TRUMP Act anyway, prompting DeSantis to vow a veto.

This led to a series of discussions that produced the three new proposals introduced Tuesday.

The compromise legislation spans 62 pages and was filed minutes after the special session announcement Monday night. It combines elements of Gruters' TRUMP Act and DeSantis's slew of anti-illegal immigration bills, none of which were debated because legislative leaders adjourned DeSantis's special session minutes after it began to start their own.

Like DeSantis wanted, the new bills create a presumption that illegal immigrants arrested for crimes are a flight risk and deny them pretrial bail. It also makes illegally entering Florida a state crime punishable by at least nine months in prison and allows the state to coordinate with federal authorities to deport illegal immigrants.

Like the Legislature wanted, it requires any illegal immigrant convicted of murder or child rape to be sentenced to death. It creates monetary incentives for law enforcement to be trained to assist the federal government. It keeps out the criminal penalties for non-compliant law enforcement like DeSantis had wanted and also omits DeSantis's desire to ban money being sent or received abroad by illegal immigrants.

Instead of a Chief Immigration Officer appointed by the governor, as DeSantis wanted, or crowning Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson the chief officer, as lawmakers wanted, the new bills create a State Board of Immigration Enforcement comprised of the governor, the Attorney General, the Chief Financial Officer, and the Agriculture Commissioner. Immigration decisions must be voted on and approved unanimously.