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Tampa, Florida — Raquel Lopez Aguilar — a Mexican father of two who’s within the nation illegally — was working as a roofer within the Tampa space till he was charged with smuggling below Florida’s controversial new immigration regulation.
“I believe that it is going to be troublesome to show the human smuggling facet of this case,” Mark Arias, an legal professional for Aguilar, advised reporters. “This can be a model new regulation.”
Aguilar is dealing with 4 felony counts for driving a bunch of roofers in a piece van from a job in Georgia, together with a misdemeanor depend of driving and not using a legitimate license.
The brand new sweeping immigration laws, signed into regulation by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Could of 2022, prohibits anybody from transporting unlawful immigrants into the state.
Amongst different restrictions, the regulation imposes penalties on Florida companies that rent undocumented immigrants, and requires a citizenship query on affected person types for hospitals that settle for Medicare. Beneath the regulation, Florida additionally not acknowledges drivers’ licenses issued to undocumented immigrants from different states.
“That is the strongest laws in opposition to unlawful immigration anyplace within the nation,” DeSantis stated on the time of the signing.
However after Hurricane Idalia devastated elements of the state in August, some companies say the regulation created a employee scarcity, slowing Florida’s restoration.
Rogelio Rauda, an undocumented employee from Honduras doing building in Crystal River, Florida, says solely eight employees he is aware of got here to the catastrophe zone out of the a whole lot he says sometimes present up.
“The worry is that somebody goes to cease you, ask to your papers, and that you might be deported,” Rauda stated.
Tim Conlan, who runs a roofing firm in Jacksonville, stated the identical development can also be occurring exterior catastrophe zones.
“Traditionally, although, we have had loads of crews,” Conlan stated. “Within the final yr our crew depend has been minimize in half.”
The regulation requires companies like his, with 25 or extra workers, to examine workers’ authorized standing by way of a database referred to as E-Confirm. He says it is cumbersome and places him at an obstacle with smaller roofers who haven’t got that requirement.
“I’m not a fan of open borders,” Conlan stated. “However I’m a fan of placing folks to work on this group who’re contributing to the group. There’s received to be a approach to get them into this method the place they receives a commission a good wage, and so they pay their truthful taxes, and all people will get again to work.”
— Aaron Navarro contributed to this report.
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