SPLC Vows to Continue to Fight Deeply Flawed Legislation

MIAMI – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) issued the following statement by Anne Janet Hernandez Anderson, a Senior Supervising Attorney with the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project, regarding the late-night passage of SB1808 in the Florida State Senate.

SB1808 represents a far-right measure which will harm local governmental agencies by:

dictating limits on their contracts;  
reducing travel into the state;  
exposing common carriers to inevitable legal liability; 
signaling continued alignment with anti-immigrant hate groups; and  
forcing law enforcement to waste taxpayer dollars on troubled federal immigration programs.

“While we are disappointed that the Florida Senate passed this deeply flawed legislation, which will harm the very victims its proponents claim they seek to protect, we are in no way deterred in our efforts to stop it from going into effect.

“Over the past several weeks, the myriad of issues with the proposed measure have been exposed. This legislation, pushed as part of an ongoing political effort and written with a total absence of understanding of the complexities of immigration law, will harm children, families, the state’s economy and Florida itself. Not only is this bill purposely cruel to some of the most vulnerable people amongst us, it is also constitutionally problematic for several reasons. Any way this proposed law is implemented will violate the U.S. Constitution. 

“We will continue to challenge this legislation and, if signed into law, we will stand with Florida families and non-profit organizations to stop the chaos this bill will create.”