Mexico slams Florida’s new immigration law banning ID for illegal migrants

Mexican government officials are voicing objections to a new law signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that prohibits counties and towns from providing funding to issue identification documents to illegal migrants. Saturday Mexico warned the law will “lead to acts of discrimination and racial profiling,”

The law “will affect the human rights of thousands of Mexicans, including children, and will exacerbate hostile environments, which may lead to hate crimes and acts against the migrant community,” the government also said. “Criminalization is not the way to solve the issue of undocumented immigration.”

Really? If a person is breaking a law, which illegal migrants are doing as soon as they enter the United States, by definition that makes the action subject to legal consequences. The illegal migrants are being allowed to remain in the country, which is a gesture few other countries would allow.

Governor DeSantis is taking steps to curb illegal immigration in Florida. Most people don’t think of Florida having to deal with illegal immigration but there is an increase in makeshift boats coming through the Florida Keys from elsewhere to get into the interior of the United States. He has done other things to battle illegal immigration, too, such as increasing penalties for human smuggling and shutting down employment eligibility. Like other border governors, he is doing what the federal government refuses to do.

The law took effect Saturday. One consequence is that Florida will no longer recognize driver’s licenses issued to illegal migrants from other states. Some open borders advocates are claiming that the migrants are leaving the state due to these crackdowns. Sounds like the new law is already working, right? The point is that these laws are put in place by law and order governors so that their states are not viewed as friendly to law-breaking migrants in the first place. When perks like legal IDs are issued to those in the country illegally, it is seen as an incentive to come. If they are being treated as legal residents, what prevents them from coming across the border or traveling by boat through the Florida Keys to a border state? Many will not stay in that state but move on further into the country. For those who do stay in the state, the more comfortable they are made to feel, the more others are encouraged to come. It’s a vicious cycle.

“We are hearing people are starting to leave,” Yvette Cruz with the Farmworkers Association of Florida told CBS News of reports of migrant workers abandoning fields and construction projects. “We’re just gonna keep seeing that more as the law will take effect.”

The law also includes harsh penalties for those who try and hire or transport undocumented migrants, which critics say can include family members.

It also requires hospitals that receive Medicaid funds to ask for a patient’s immigration status.

The Florida Policy Institute estimates that nearly 10% of workers in Florida’s most labor-intensive industries are illegal migrants. Employers and workers are uncertain about the future the new law will create. It sounds like it’s a future that requires residents to follow the law, and that includes business owners. If business owners don’t bother to require that potential employees are in this country legally, then they are not following the law.

It’s like when Nancy Pelosi said that we need illegal migrants so that they will come and “pick the crops.” She represents a district in San Francisco, a sanctuary city in California, a sanctuary state. She isn’t concerned about the porous border or the sovereignty of the United States. Without a border, we have no country. If farmers need workers, there are laws on the books that provide work visas and other legal routes for hiring additional workers when legal American residents are not available.

The world has changed from the days when Americans just turned a blind eye to illegal migrants being allowed to work and go about life as any other person legally in the country. Biden’s border crisis has increased our vulnerability to foreign threats and created a deadly drug epidemic while increasing the power of drug and human trafficking cartels along the southern border. Governors are left by this administration to secure their own borders and handle the flow of illegal migrants on their own. No one should be surprised when laws are created to benefit those states. Mexico officials can cry racial profiling and human rights violations all they want. The fact is that the United States remains the most generous nation in the world. Immigration laws must be followed. We need an administration in the White House who understands that and does not abandon its duty to secure the country’s borders.