The law, signed in May by Florida Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, seeks to further criminalize undocumented immigration in the state.
"We've seen some fallout on job sites, particularly as it relates to hourly labor as a result of this new law," said Tom C. Murphy, co-president of Coastal Construction, which has more than 30 active projects across the state of Florida.
In addition to increasing penalties on employers and workers, the new law requires hospitals that accept Medicaid to question a patient's immigration status, and invalidates out-of-state driver's licenses issued to people unauthorized to be in the U.S. It makes it a third-degree felony to knowingly transport into Florida a person who is undocumented and illegally entered the U.S. The law also adds $12 million to the amount of money the state has earmarked for its migrant-relocation program, bringing the total to $22 million this year.
Hundreds of people gathered in Homestead, Fla., to protest the law.
On Saturday, the day the law went into effect, hundreds of people gathered in Homestead, Fla., to march in protest.
At the march, the Farmworker Association of Florida announced that it and several advocacy and watchdog groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, were exploring how they might challenge the law in federal court.
Preview Subscribe Lawyers in Florida are rushing to figure out how best to advise their clients regarding their hiring practices to comply with the law.
"It's kind of extreme that Florida passed a law like this," said Daniela Barshel, an immigration lawyer based in Miami.
Typically, immigration is a federal area of law, and figuring out how to interpret these new statewide rules alongside federal law will be complicated, she said.
"While we fully support documentation of the immigrant workforce, the new law is aggravating an already trying situation," he said.
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