IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Across Florida on Thursday, employees didn’t present up at development websites and tomato fields and scores of eating places, outlets and different small companies by no means opened their doorways to protest a brand new state legislation that imposes restrictions on undocumented immigrants.
Organizers dubbed the protest “a day without immigrants.”
In the Orlando space, dozens of protesters, together with some driving vans with small development cranes, demonstrated at a busy intersection exterior the workplace of a state lawmaker who had championed the legislation.
In Immokalee, an space in southwest Florida identified for its tomato fields, tons of of protesters, many with households, marched two miles across the city, chanting and carrying indicators.
In Fort Lauderdale, opponents of the legislation chanted and waved flags exterior Isis Cordova’s Latin delicacies restaurant, which was closed in protest.
“I managed to get legal status in this country, and I said one day when I have documents I’m going to raise my voice. I’m also going to speak up for those people who don’t have a voice,” Cordova mentioned. “Because I know what it’s like to be in these shoes on the other side, with that fear and living in the shadows.”
PHOTOS: Opponents maintain ‘day with out immigrants’ in Florida to protest new restrictions
The laws Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into legislation final month bolsters his migrant relocation program and limits social companies for immigrants missing everlasting authorized standing. It additionally expands necessities for companies with greater than 25 staffers to make use of E-Verify, a federal system that determines if workers can legally work within the U.S. Another provision requires hospitals that settle for Medicaid to incorporate a citizenship query on consumption varieties, which critics have mentioned is meant to dissuade immigrants dwelling within the U.S. illegally from searching for medical care.
Last month, the Latino civil rights group LULAC issued a journey advisory for Hispanics, warning that the brand new legislation marginalizes immigrant communities and was immoral. Other civil rights teams, together with the NAACP and the Human Rights Campaign, even have issued journey advisories for Florida, saying new legal guidelines and insurance policies by DeSantis and Republican lawmakers are “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.”
DeSantis launched a marketing campaign for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination final week.
A spokesman for the governor’s workplace on Thursday mentioned the brand new legislation targets unlawful immigration, not those that are within the U.S. legally.
“The media has been deliberately inaccurate about this distinction between legal and illegal immigration to create this very sort of outrage based on a false premise,” mentioned Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for DeSantis’ workplace. “Any business that exploits this crisis by employing illegal aliens instead of Floridians will be held accountable. Every country defends its borders with a sovereign right to do so.”
Isaac Dubon, who owns a development enterprise in South Florida, mentioned immigrants are vital to Florida as a result of they do jobs that others gained’t.
“We work a lot in this country, 15 or 16 straight hours nonstop,” Dubon mentioned. “We go through a lot. We pay taxes too, like everyone else, and we sustain the country’s economy.”
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