PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Truck driver Rudson Nascinento said new laws targeting illegal immigrants is wrong.
"It's bad, right," he said.
So wrong that he plans to keep his work outside of Florida as much as possible.
"It's a bad situation," he said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed new immigration reform including Senate Bill 1718. The legislation cracks down on those who are undocumented, including increasing penalties for employers who hire someone undocumented. Hospitals are involved too by collecting data on patients' immigration status.
Representative Toby Overdorf said the legislation is the right move for Florida.
"We are seeing an unprecedented flood of illegal immigration into the United States," he said. "Florida, unfortunately, has to take a stand that the federal government just will not do."
Overdorf doesn't think the new law will hurt Florida's economy.
"There were some people in this state that were taking advantage of the situation and the illegal immigrant situation, where they would employ aliens and therefore wouldn't employ legal immigrants or legal citizens in Florida," he said.
Immigration attorney Renata Castro questioned if the governor's reform will hold up in the courts.
"He's trying to enforce immigration law when his office does not have jurisdiction to do so," she said.
Castro said there's no question the immigration reform will have an economic impact.
"It doesn't seem to me that the law he designed to keep migrants away will allow to keep his base, or large employers, in the state of Florida immune to the already critical labor shortage that we have right now," he said.
That new controversial law is expected to go into effect July 1.
