For the past six or seven years, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a conservative stalwart in the Sunshine State, and the Republican-controlled state legislature has begrudgingly followed his lead.
But like so many other Republican states, Florida has a deeply entrenched uni party establishment, despite the fact that DeSantis has turned Florida from purple to ruby red, at least with respect to voting patterns.
Most recently, DeSantis called a special session of the legislature to back President Donald Trump’s immigration and mass deportation efforts. Rather than passing helpful immigration policies, the Florida Republican establishment gaveled out on Monday and started their own special session in an attempt to gut immigration enforcement in the state.
In a bill called the TRUMP Act, they named Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson as the chief immigration officer in Florida, and perhaps even worse, they failed to pass a meaningful duty for local and state law enforcement to help with immigration enforcement.
“By giving enforcement power to the agricultural arm of state government, it ensures that enforcement never actually occurs,” DeSantis said on social media. “In short, it puts the fox in charge of the hen house.”
DeSantis added that the move to appoint Simpson as the chief immigration officer “unconstitutionally removes authority to enforce the law from the governor to a lower-level cabinet agency.” He warned that the stakeholders in that agency “often oppose enforcement measures.”
Are you worried about what will happen to Florida when DeSantis leaves office?
Yes: 97% (1628 Votes)
No: 3% (48 Votes)
“The Legislature’s bill is a bait-and-switch tactic trying to create the illusion of an illegal immigration crack down, when it does anything but,” he continued. “It is an insult to name such a weak bill after President Trump, who has been so strong on this issue.”
The nerve that these lawmakers had to name their watered-down bill the TRUMP Act indeed showed they were signaling to voters that they are handling immigration when in reality they are trying to do the opposite.
Daniel Horowitz, a commentator with The Blaze, added that such efforts are “why so many Republican voters have become jaded with the party.”
Rather than executing on the immigration agenda Florida voters so clearly want, Florida Republican Senate President Ben Albritton is “working with the open borders lobby to undermine the best opportunity to end illegal immigration once and for all,” Horowitz cautioned.
The TRUMP Act bizarrely had a provision to create “more beds” for criminal illegal aliens, prompting DeSantis aide Christina Pushaw to respond.
“Why does it sound like these legislators’ priority is to ensure Florida pays for more beds to comfortably house illegal aliens here?” she asked. “We voted for MASS DEPORTATIONS.”
Lake County Republican Commissioner Anthony Sabatini likewise rebuked the Florida state legislature. He warned that the proposal is a “FAKE immigration bill” that watered down the DeSantis agenda to “nearly nothing” and put “pro-illegal immigration” Simpson in charge of enforcement.
Though we do not see the Republican establishment rear its ugly head as visibly in Florida relative to other red states, the swamp still needs to be drained in Tallahassee.
The latest showdown in Florida is a reminder that the Democrats are not always the problem.
Sometimes the establishment Republicans are actually the enemy.
Even worse, rather than directly opposing the conservative agenda, those sorts of Republicans coat their subversion in a veneer of conservatism in cynical attempts to fool voters.
That means conservatives in Florida, and the rest of the country, must remain vigilant.
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