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Implementation begins on Florida’s new immigration enforcement laws | Florida

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Steve Wilson | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-02-18 11:41:00

(The Center Square) – Larry Keefe has been chosen to lead Florida’s newly created State Board of Immigration Enforcement.

In a Monday meeting, Keefe was named executive director. The board also passed two resolutions.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is chairman of the board that includes the state’s chief financial officer, attorney general and agriculture commissioner. Unanimous consent is required for any actions taken.

Keefe is best known as public safety czar and was also appointed as a U.S. attorney in northern Florida during President Donald Trump’s first term. Keefe was part of DeSantis’ plan to send people illegally in the state to areas of the country with Democrats in power, most famously among them Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

“Larry Keefe is a great public servant who will do a fantastic job with immigration enforcement,” DeSantis said. 

Recently sworn-in Attorney General James Uthmeier said at Monday’s meeting that Keefe had already worked with law enforcement leaders statewide on interdiction efforts and “has the relationships, the intellect and undoubtedly, the work ethic to get the job done.”

Legislative leaders chose the sheriffs to represent counties on the State Immigration Enforcement Council on Monday, which will be composed of four sheriffs and six police chiefs and will advise the state’s immigration enforcement board.

Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, appointed Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd to the board, while House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, added Duval County Sheriff T.K. Waters and Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell.

DeSantis and legislative leaders rustled with immigration policy from the end of January until a resolution last week. Monday’s meeting began implementation of a package of bills aligning the state with federal government and immigration enforcement.

Senate Bill 4C and Senate Bill 2C created the State Board of Immigration Enforcement. It acts as a liaison with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on enforcement-related issues.

The measures signed into law last week appropriate $250 million to reimburse local law enforcement agencies for their costs to help with immigration enforcement efforts.

The laws mandate criminal penalties for people illegally in the state and would add harsher penalties for subsequent offenses.

For people illegally in the country, there’s a mandatory death penalty for murder or child rape; a ban on taking part in any post-arrest diversion programs; felony charge if voting in state elections; and prohibition of obtaining a driver’s license or identification card from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

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Judge pauses Trump administration plans to end temporary legal protections for Venezuelans

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www.news4jax.com – Janie Har, Associated Press – 2025-03-31 17:14:00

SUMMARY: A federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 350,000 Venezuelans, just a week before their protections were set to expire. Judge Edward Chen ruled that ending TPS would cause irreparable harm and disrupt lives, families, and the U.S. economy. The case, filed by the National TPS Alliance, argues that the actions of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were unauthorized and discriminatory. Noem had also planned to end TPS for 250,000 additional Venezuelans in September. The ruling applies nationwide, giving the government one week to file an appeal.

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PSC chair grilled over Supreme Court chief justice’s criticisms

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floridaphoenix.com – Mitch Perry – 2025-03-31 17:10:00

by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
March 31, 2025

Four months after Florida Supreme Court Justice Carlos Muñiz blasted the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) for not providing enough information to justify a public utility rate increase, the chairman of the PSC attempted to defend his agency before a Senate committee on Monday.

The PSC is a five-member board appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate that is responsible for facilitating safe and reliable utility services at fair prices. According to its own website, the commission “must balance the needs of a utility and its shareholders with the needs of consumers.”

Mike La Rosa, the sitting PSC Chair who was initially appointed to serve on the Commission by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021, came before the Senate Ethics & Election Committee seeking conformation to another four-year term.

Northeast GOP Sen. Jennifer Bradley asked him to respond to the thrust of Muñiz comments, expressed in December as the court heard arguments in an appeal of a 2023 PSC order approving rates for Florida City Gas. The Chief Justice criticized the PSC for not providing nearly enough information to justify a rate increase, after the PSC’s own staff recommended that they not approve the increase.

‘Black Box’

“The PSC is a black box,” Muñiz said in comments reported by the News Service of Florida.

“That is my problem with these cases. It’s a black box. And administrative procedure is not supposed to be [a black box]. It’s supposed to be the opposite of a black box. That’s the only justification for this whole mousetrap is to have reasoned explanations for fact-based decisions. And, instead, we get a regurgitation of the evidence and then like, ‘Oh, because so-and-so said this, we think that this is appropriate. We’re done.’ That is literally every order that we see from the PSC.”

“That is an alarming statement for me as a legislator to hear from our chief justice of our Florida Supreme Court,” Bradley said Monday.

La Rosa replied that while he couldn’t explain why the PSC didn’t provide more information in their orders in the past, that began changing in 2023 (he began serving as chair of the commission that November).

“Our chairman at the time, I think, guided us down the right path to make sure that our legal staff responded in a way that satisfied and frankly provided a better product of what the Supreme Court is looking for,” La Rosa said.

He added that commission orders have been of a higher quality ever since. But he said he could not defend why earlier orders were written the way they were. He also said that since that time the commissioners have stepped up their public comments from the dais during rate hike hearings, as well.

Broward County Democratic Sen. Mack Bernard asked why the PSC wasn’t providing the Supreme Court with meaningful information. La Rosa said he couldn’t really provide an “answer that’s satisfactory.” He added “that they should always have had the backup and the history and the depth of knowledge that we currently have.”

Committee Chairman Don Gates quoted another part of Muñiz’s comments, that “the Public Service Commission appeared to rely largely on what utilities told them, ‘as opposed to any facts and evidence.’” Gaetz asked whether La Rosa could give two or three examples of the last time his commission turned down a utility rate increase.

La Rosa countered that there wasn’t a single case he could remember when the PSC approved what the utility was exactly asking for.

“There are elements what the company is asking for that we do approve, but there are certain modifications that we make after we litigate and after we make the case,” he said, adding that he couldn’t remember the last time a public utility made a request that the PSC granted exactly.

Gaetz cited criticism that he has heard that utilities start out by asking for extraordinarily high rate increases that they expect won’t be approved, but use as leverage to bargain to get the rate increase that they really coveted.

“That might be what the company is asking for, but it also may not be,” La Rosa responded.

Gaetz is sponsoring a bill this session (SB 354) to tighten PSC requirements for deciding the return on equity levels to which utilities are entitled. Miami-Dade County Republican Bryan Avila asked La Rosa whether the commission factors in potential compensation, benefits, or bonuses for utility  executives.

“Probably every single time,” La Rosa said.

The committee ultimately unanimously approved La Rosa’s confirmation to serve on the PSC for another four years, but not before both Bradley and Gaetz both got a last word in.

“This was a situation that really was a black eye and I want to make sure that going forward that’s not the case,” Bradley said. “That, going forward, things are different.”

PSC put on notice

Gaetz added that next year the PSC and the public will likely see legislation similar to what he proposed this year regarding how much investor-owned public utilities can earn. “If you see it, it will be based on the commission’s performance between now and next year. And if the commission was a little troubled by the legislation this year, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Last December wasn’t the first time the Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice has bashed the PSC for what he said were inadequate orders. In 2023, he questioned whether the commission had adequately justified the approval of a 2021 legal settlement that increased base electric rates for Florida Power & Light.

“There’s no explanation whatsoever for the PSC’s thinking on how it got to approving this,” Muñiz said at the time.

“From a judicial review perspective and from a matter of the PSC complying with its obligations, how can the order not address the major issues that are in dispute in a way that allows us to kind of have a window into what the rational process was that led to the finding that it was in the public interest?”

La Rosa will ultimately need to be confirmed by the entire Senate to stay on for another four-year term.

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DeSantis wants $5.1B property tax relief with $1,000 rebates for homeowners | Florida

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Steve Wilson | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 13:00:00

(The Center Square) – Property property tax relief for Floridians through $5.1 billion in a proposed sales tax cut is being sought by Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

He wants lawmakers to issue $1,000 for each of about 5.1 million homesteaded properties in the state. The rebates would be issued in December, covering state-mandated school property taxes, which he says would prevent a loss in funding for districts. 

The state House of Representatives proposed reducing the state’s sales tax from 6% to 5.25% on Wednesday. 

DeSantis added a state-level version of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency should examine local budgets to determine savings that can be passed to homeowners being hit by rising assessments on property values. 

“Of all the taxes impacting Floridians, property taxes are the most significant,” DeSantis said. “So when you’re doing proposals, whether it’s working with the Legislature, whether it’s putting something on the ballot, to me, the threshold question is the tax relief needs to be Florida first.

“We need to focus on our Florida residents and to focus on in this case, Florida homeowners, particularly our homesteaded homeowners and we need to focus our relief there.”

The second-term Republican governor and former presidential candidate said he wants a ballot initiative aimed at lower property taxes on the 2026 ballot that he says will provide “robust protections” for homeowners in the state constitution. 

He also said property taxes are an anomaly because these taxes aren’t voluntary consumption based and basically mean homeowners are paying “rent” to the government for their property, even if the mortgage is fully paid.

“I know people that bought their homes for $250,000 30 years ago and now they’re assessed at over a million dollars. That’s not something out of the ordinary,” DeSantis said. “That’s a source of wealth if you’re free and clear of the mortgage, but one of the drawbacks is in the form of property taxes and so people have seen that even with a homestead exemption that has not be enough to be able to protect people against these rising assessments.”

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