Florida Capitol in Tallahassee. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
Two bills filed for the impending legislative session would require all employers to verify that their new hires can legally work in the country.
Employers hiring immigrants unauthorized to work could face tens of thousands in fines and lose their business licenses under Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo’s bill, SB 782, filed last week. Another bill, filed Monday by Pinellas County Rep. Berny Jacques, HB 955, also would require all companies to use the E-Verify system to confirm new employees’ eligibility to work in the country but doesn’t carry penalties like Pizzo’s proposal does.
“We want to close all sorts of loopholes in our employment system to make sure that jobs are going to those who are legally authorized to work in our state and not those who are here illegally,” Jacques said in a phone interview with Florida Phoenix.
The bills haven’t been assigned to any committees yet and they don’t have companions ahead of the March 4 start of the legislative session. However, influential Republican Sens. Jennifer Bradley and Joe Gruters signed on as co-sponsors of Pizzo’s proposal. Jacques said he didn’t want to replicate anyone else’s bill and that’s why he didn’t file a companion to Pizzo’s Senate proposal.
Florida requires public agencies, their contractors, and their subcontractors to use E-Verify, but only private companies with more than 25 employees have to use the system. More than 441,000 Florida companies have fewer than 20 employees, according to a 2023 report from the Office of Advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration.
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Pizzo, a possible gubernatorial candidate, has been one of the loudest critics of the Republicans touting the state as a leader in immigration enforcement. One of the contradictions Pizzo repeatedly has pointed out is that large companies employing immigrants lacking work permits remain largely unscathed.
Jacques’ bill drew a stamp of approval from Gov. Ron DeSantis on X. However, Pizzo slammed it, pointing out its lack of penalties for employers.
“You’re kidding yourself (and public) saying you’ll ‘hold businesses accountable,’ but leave out actual accountability,” Pizzo wrote.
Jacques said he hopes Pizzo didn’t file the bill to troll DeSantis as a political stunt.
“What I will say is, if this bill looks different, it will not go in the weak direction. It will only go in the strong direction, but we will take all ideas that can make the bill even stronger,” Jacques said. “But rest assured, we’re very serious, at least I am, on making sure that we crack down on illegal hiring.”
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E-Verify enforcement scrutiny
Under Pizzo’s bill, companies would lose their licenses for a year and face a fine of up to $10,000 for the first violation.
State law ostensibly already punishes E-Verify violations; the Florida Department of Commerce can fine employers $1,000 per day if they get caught not using E-Verify three times within two years. Companies hiring people unauthorized to work get placed on probation for a year and they have to report to the department quarterly.
But the DeSantis administration threatened the first such sanctions only during his recent fight with legislative Republicans over how best to help the Trump administration carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, sending warning letters to 40 employers, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The Florida Immigrant Coalition opposes expanding E-Verify, said Thomas Kennedy, a policy analyst for the group, in a phone interview with Phoenix last week. Pizzo’s bill shows how the Legislature thus far has prioritized targeting workers rather than employers and repealing in-state tuition waivers for students lacking legal status, Kennedy said.
“There’s a lot of compassion for these multimillion-dollar companies, but there’s not a lot of compassion for students that benefit from in-state tuition, for example, that have grown up in Florida and want to finish their university degrees,” he said. “And there’s not a lot of compassion for workers that are putting food on our table or building our homes.”
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