Florida House speaker attacks DeSantis after calling in special session to tackle illegal immigration

The Florida state legislature gaveled into a special session on Monday after Governor Ron DeSantis (R) ordered one to move with haste to help President Donald Trump crack down on illegal immigration.

Tension between DeSantis and the state chambers has been building, with DeSantis saying it does not make sense to wait until March to start addressing the issue, as House Speaker Daniel Perez and other Republican leaders suggested. When Perez convened the lower chamber, he called DeSantis’ special session a stunt and gaveled out of his session, then immediately gaveled in a separate special session.

‘In short, it puts the fox in charge of the hen house.’

“I believe special sessions should be used sparingly. It should not be stunts designed to generate headlines, and the truth is I dislike special sessions because they inhibit the very thing the legislative process should encourage: the push and pull of meaningful conversations that lead to the development of good and better ideas,” Perez said. “Special sessions should be reserved for those issues that truly cannot be addressed in the normal course of the legislative process.”

Perez went on to say that “most” of the issues raised in DeSantis’ order to convene the legislature, mainly addressing illegal immigration, “simply do not meet that threshold.”

Among the measures DeSantis wanted the legislature to pass included:

• Appointing a state immigration enforcement officer who will work with agencies at the state and federal levels.
• Expanding state law that allows transportation of illegal immigrants within the United States to include transportation back to country of origin.
• Using available state facilities to detain illegal immigrants who are in the process of being deported.
• Requiring a percentage of local law enforcement personnel to be trained to perform immigration duties in coordination with the federal government.
• Enhancing sentences for illegal immigrants who vote in elections.
• Requiring companies who send money to other countries to verify senders’ citizenship.

“We did carefully consider Governor DeSantis’ proposal, and he had some good ideas. But many of his proposals were bureaucratic. We do not need to duplicate the functions of U.S. Immigration and Customs and create a mini-me version of ICE. In addition, his proposals would hijack local law enforcement operations,” Perez continued.

The Florida Democratic Party posted on X that GOP state representatives had an “unexpected growth of a backbone” in their defiance of DeSantis.

In response, DeSantis said that while he is glad the legislature is including some of his proposals, the current bill is “substantially weaker” because it fails “to put an enforceable duty on state [and] local law enforcement to fully cooperate on illegal immigration enforcement.”

DeSantis also called out the legislature’s bill making Wilton Simpson, the current commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, the state immigration officer since the Department of Agriculture’s “stakeholders often oppose enforcement measures.”

“In short, it puts the fox in charge of the hen house,” DeSantis claimed.