The provisions of a Florida immigration law passed last year is pushing farmworkers out of the state, will contribute to a $12.6 billion drop in Florida’s gross domestic product and result in a corresponding decline in state tax revenues, critics of the law predict.
A federal judge, Roy Altman of the Southern District of Florida, last month temporarily blocked enforcement of one section of the statute, Senate Bill 1718, which was sponsored by state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill). Even so, critics expect the law to usher in new economic challenges in Florida, even though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the law would ensure that Floridians are shielded from “reckless border policies.”
“While we don't know the exact monetary value of the wealth that our state has lost due to Gov. DeSantis' war on people who are just seeking opportunities and stability, we do know that many of those people, who do essential work in our state, have fled since last year's signing of SB 1718,” Adriana Rivera, spokeswoman for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told the Florida Record in an email.
The Florida Policy Institute has indicated the law’s requirement that private employers of 25 or more workers use the federal government’s E-Verify system before hiring workers will affect several key industries in the state, including construction; management, administrative and professional services; accommodations, food services, recreation and entertainment; retail trade; and agriculture.
“Without undocumented workers, employers in these industries would lose 10% of their workforce and the wages they contribute along with them,” the institute said in a website post. “As a result, Florida's GDP could drop by $12.6 billion in a single year, or 1.1%. Cutting these workers’ spending power means state and local tax revenue would drop as well.”
Among workers in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sectors, 47% of them are undocumented, which will create a significant challenge for employers in those fields, according to the institute.
In addition, more than 11,000 Florida workers would get tripped up by the error rate within the E-Verify database, FPI said.
“It has been immigrants who have been behind all of our economic triumphs in the past as a country, and certainly as a state,” Rivera said. “... When you are hurting at the grocery store, due to high prices, remember that there is a whole labor chain that goes into the prices that you see at stores – and that is precisely what Florida is disrupting when they wage a war against its most vulnerable workforce."
The FPI also reported that after Georgia enacted its own E-Verify law, a single farmer saw 300 of his field workers leave his employment, leading to the abandonment of more than 100 acres.
But DeSantis said the law was needed in light of the ongoing influx of undocumented immigrants coming across the Southern border.
““In Florida, we will not stand idly by while the federal government abandons its lawful duties to protect our country,” DeSantis said in a prepared statement after signing the bill into law. “The legislation I signed … gives Florida the most ambitious anti-illegal immigration laws in the country, fighting back against reckless federal government policies and ensuring the Florida taxpayers are not footing the bill for illegal immigration.”