ORLANDO, Fla. — A new Florida law in place since July 1, makes it illegal to “knowingly employ, hire, or recruit” an undocumented person to work.

What You Need To Know

  • A new Florida law in place since July 1, makes it illegal to “knowingly employ, hire, or recruit” an undocumented person to work

  • Eli Garcia volunteers for the Hope Community Center in Apopka. Garcia works with the undocumented community and said she’s seen dozens already leave the state

  • According to the Florida Policy Institute, the mandate does not apply to past hires or existing employees, “but future penalties could push Floridians without a documented immigration status out of the workforce”

The law imposes strict penalties, if a person or business gets caught doing so.

House Bill 1617 and Senate Bill 1718 require private employers and businesses with 25 or more workers to verify the potential employee’s status on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify system within 3 business days of starting the job.

Eli Garcia volunteers for the Hope Community Center in Apopka. Garcia works with the undocumented community and said she’s seen dozens already leave the state.

“So many of our community members are starting to leave, starting to move to Georgia, starting to move to California, starting to move to other states where they have other family members,” said Garcia.

Garcia arrived to the U.S. to reunite with her parents when she was 9. A dreamer and DACA beneficiary, she’s lived in Florida for 23 years learning English and graduating college. Both she and her family are impacted by the new law, pushing her to continue to fight for immigrant rights.

“It’s always been part of me, being with the community wherever there’s a need I always tell everybody: ‘God puts me in places where I need to be,’” she said.

Garcia said she’s anxious about her parents being deported. She said it’s a constant threat, being separated from family while dealing with the unknowns on how the new immigration law will be carried out.

“A lot of construction workers are letting go people because they’re also misinformed on how they need to implement E-Verify and the process of implementing E-Verify, so a lot of people are losing their jobs so they have to move, and they cannot be hired again because they’re undocumented,” she said.

Garcia said she took a trip to Savannah, Georgia recently. She was afraid of leaving the state, but part of her American dream is to travel and also take her parents with her.

Although she’s the only one that can drive in her family, she said she no longer has the liberty to take her parents somewhere new because it’s risky.

“It’s been a long time since I heard my parents saying, ‘We need to create a plan. This is serious. We need to create a plan, we need to figure out who’s going to take me to stores, we need to figure out who’s going to take me to do regular shopping,’” said Garcia. “How much do we need to prove that we’re Americans?”

Garcia said this will be another fight. She’s encouraging others to mobilize and keep legislators accountable for doing their part in passing the bill into law.

“We have to stand together and we have to fight together,” said Garcia.

According to the Florida Policy Institute, the mandate does not apply to past hires or existing employees, “but future penalties could push Floridians without a documented immigration status out of the workforce.”

Samuel Vilchez Santiago, the Florida state director at the American Business Immigration Coalition, said laws like this are creating havoc in the economy already.

He said without immigrant labor, Florida consumers and Florida businesses will pay the price with increases in housing and food costs.

“SB 1718 hurt our economy and our communities,” said Vilchez Santiago. “It mandates E-Verify for employers, it creates some felony charges for anybody who’s caught bringing in undocumented immigrants into the state, it bars dreamers and DACA recipients from becoming lawyers. It prohibits the usage of local funding for community ID programs, and it also decertifies driver’s licenses that are issued out of the state for any person who is an undocumented migrant.”

He said historically, Florida has been a welcoming place for immigrants.

“It has been built by immigrants. Here in Orlando, 36 percent of our job creators and entrepreneurs are either first or second-generation immigrants,” said Vilchez Santiago. “Where will we be if not for the labor of immigrants? And that’s the question we all need to ask as we look at this legislation, and instead of staying away, it is time to get off the sidelines and really raise our voices.”