IMMIGRATION

A coalition of advocates and community organizations that defend immigrant rights voiced their disappointment Thursday against District 25 State Rep. Carolina Amesty, who voted in favor of Florida’s newest immigration policy.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday finally announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race. Then came the interviews.

A sweeping immigration bill recently signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is sparking fears of deserted workplaces – and barren grocery shelves.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said Florida “stands ready” and will send Florida National Guard troops and law-enforcement officers to Texas to help with border control as he nears an expected announcement of a White House bid.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718 into law on Wednesday. But how might it impact the state's economy?

With Democrats saying the proposal could lead to racial profiling, the Florida Senate on Friday passed an immigration package that Republican supporters said is aimed at forcing the federal government to address an “invasion” of migrants into the country.

Florida Republicans are pushing forward more legislation that escalates the culture war that's dominated this year's session just one week before it ends.

In a win for Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers, a federal appeals court Thursday tossed out a challenge to a 2019 immigration law that banned so-called sanctuary cities in Florida.

A key Florida Senate panel on Wednesday approved a measure aimed at expanding Gov. Ron DeSantis’ crackdown on illegal immigration, drawing pushback from opponents who called it an attack on the state’s migrant community.

Siding largely with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody, a federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Biden administration’s handling of immigrants at the Southwest border violates federal law.

Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Jacksonville on Thursday morning to speak about what he calls an ongoing crisis when it comes to migrants coming into the United States illegally, according to News 6 partner News4Jax.

An underground market has emerged for migrants seeking U.S. sponsors since the Biden administration announced last month that it would accept a limited number of people from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti.

The Florida House Friday morning passed two bills clarifying controversial programs on migrant transportation and prosecuting election crimes, sending both measures to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature.

Republicans in the Florida Senate passed a bill that gives the state the authority to fly migrants who arrive here anywhere in the country to other locations.

A program aimed at assisting the immigrant community with the legal process in Central Florida officially launched on Thursday.

Florida is now one of 20 states suing federal immigration agencies and officials over the Department of Homeland Security’s newly-proposed parole processes for Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants.

‘We need to just hear out these issues,’ judge says.

A Leon County circuit judge will hear arguments Friday about whether he should toss out a lawsuit filed by a South Florida state senator after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration flew about 50 migrants from Texas to Massachusetts in September.

90 Cuban migrants arrive in 24-hour span

The Supreme Court is keeping pandemic-era limits on people seeking asylum in place for now, dashing hopes of migrants who have been fleeing violence and inequality.

The mayor of a Texas border city has declared a state of emergency over concerns about the community’s ability to handle an anticipated influx of migrants across the Southern border.

With only three weeks left for the current congress to act, Central Florida immigration reform advocates, including faith leaders, urged Florida senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott Tuesday to act now for Dream Act legislation.

Orange County commissioners are considering a proposal to issue community IDs to several groups of residents — including homeless persons and undocumented immigrants — to allow them to participate in everyday activities.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at Orlando International Airport are using facial recognition technology to help speed up screening lines that often stretch to 600 passengers deep.

A statewide grand jury empaneled at the request of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has called for lawmakers to create new criminal penalties for harboring undocumented immigrants.

Arizona voters have approved an initiative to extend cheaper in-state college tuition to some non-citizen students, cheering supporters who hope the measure’s passage Monday will spark momentum for wider immigration reform in Congress.

The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection has resigned from his job leading the nation’s largest law enforcement agency as agents encounter record numbers of migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico.

A Leon County circuit judge Tuesday ruled that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration did not comply with the state’s public-records law after an open-government group sought records about a controversial decision to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

Almost 100 people mostly from Haiti who were rescued from an overcrowded boat off the Florida coast had no food or water for two days.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration plans to continue flying migrants who entered the country illegally to Democratic strongholds.

H-2A visas are designated for people to come to the U.S. and temporarily work in agriculture.

Stetson University is set to host a U.S. naturalization ceremony at its campus in DeLand, which will see 39 people be sworn in as new U.S. citizens, according to the school.

As the number of immigrants seeking court permission to avoid deportation grows, foundations in Los Angeles have joined with local governments to direct millions of dollars to pay for lawyers to represent the immigrants, an effort they hope will be copied across the country.

A South Florida state senator late Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ controversial decision last week to fly migrants from Texas to Massachusetts and seeking to block similar flights in the future.

Roughly 50 migrants are now in Massachusetts after they arrived on flights Wednesday organized by Florida’s governor.

As a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Melani Candia did not qualify for federal aid when she was at the University of Central Florida.

U.S. immigration authorities are planning to issue photo ID cards to immigrants in deportation proceedings.

The Supreme Court has certified its month-old ruling allowing the Biden administration to end a cornerstone Trump-era border policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who fled their country’s humanitarian crisis and are in the United States under temporary legal protection will be allowed to remain for another 18 months.

Recent reports out of Volusia County show an uptick in drug-related deaths countywide — a trend that Sheriff Mike Chitwood said could be traced back to a ‘porous’ border, drug-smuggling cartels and an abundance of fentanyl.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has asked that a statewide grand jury be set up to examine networks that illegally smuggle people into the state.

The group is made up of men, women, and small children who recently arrived from countries like Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, and Colombia after crossing the southern border.

Many saying it’s been more than two weeks since their appointment date at the office, but the backlog has them still waiting. People simply trying to stay in the U.S. and obtain employment.

While community leaders and politicians attempted to help those waiting, some have wondered: how did the situation become this extreme?

Marytza Sanz, president of Latino Leadership, a nonprofit organization, recently found out about the conditions immigrants from Haiti, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Honduras, among others, are facing outside an Orlando Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

The line outside the immigration office on Delegates Drive in Orlando continued growing Friday following a week of hundreds lining up in an effort to see immigration officers.

At least 250 people, including small children, were seen waiting under the sun for hours, and in some cases, having to sleep two or three nights outside an Orlando Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

More immigrants from Cuba are coming to the U.S. by making their way to Mexico and crossing the border illegally.

A Florida man will stand trial in Minnesota this summer on human smuggling charges following his January arrest after authorities just across the Canadian border found four migrants who had frozen to death during a blizzard.

News 6 obtained the visas, which are a public record, and sent them to Rep. Sabatini's office.

Despite pronouncements to the contrary by a Central Florida lawmaker, migrants reportedly staying at a Maitland hotel are in the country legally as farmworkers.

All Florida government agencies would be prohibited from doing business with transportation companies that bring immigrants who are in the country illegally into the state under a priority bill for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Two Republican lawmakers file a proposal that seeks to ratchet up immigration enforcement.

The Biden administration says it plans to reinstate a Trump-era border policy next month to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, complying with a judge’s order.

Officials say more than 30 Cuban migrants were found hiding in a go-fast boat during a traffic stop in the Florida Keys.

Orange County Commissioner Victoria Siplin is on the ground in southern Texas from where she showed News 6 images of the current situation at Del Rio, Texas.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office among agencies pledging to send enforcement to Texas and Arizona.

Immigration attorneys are seeing a rise in DACA applications.

Rep. Darren Soto held a news conference on Wednesday to discuss the case of a mother who was recently reunited with her family after being deported in 2018.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans to put pressure on the Biden Administration to resume the federal policy of deporting undocumented immigrants who have served a sentence following a criminal conviction.

This photo provided by the US Customs and Border Protection shows a hole cut into Southern California's border fence with Mexico on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. Thirteen people killed in one of the deadliest border crashes on record were among more than 40 migrants who entered the U.S. through the hole cut into Southern California's border fence with Mexico, the Border Patrol said Wednesday. The Suburban carried 19 people, and it caught fire for unknown reasons on a nearby interstate after entering the U.S. All escaped the vehicle and were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents. The Border Patrol said its agents were not pursuing the vehicle before the wreck. AdA pandemic-related measure that allows the Border Patrol to expel people without an opportunity to seek asylum potentially leads some to try to evade authorities instead of surrendering, sometimes with fatal consequences.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON – After decades of failed attempts to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden are signaling openness to a piece-by-piece approach. They unveiled a broad bill Thursday that would provide an eight-year pathway to citizenship for 11 million people living in the country without legal status. “Even though I support full, comprehensive immigration reform, I’m ready to move on piecemeal, because I don’t want to end up with good intentions on my hands and not have anything,” said Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has said that any final Senate bill likely “will not reach the same levels” as Biden’s proposal. But multiple immigration organizations said administration officials had signaled in recent conversations that they were open to a multilevel approach in which lawmakers would press forward on the comprehensive bill while also pursuing individual pieces.

President Joe Biden signs an executive order on immigration, in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)SAN DIEGO – President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a second spate of orders to undo his predecessor’s immigration policies, demonstrating the powers of the White House and its limitations without support from Congress. His orders on family separation, border security and legal immigration bring to nine the number of executive actions on immigration during his first two weeks in office. AdMany changes will have to come from agencies like Homeland Security, not the White House, such as rescinding the public-charge rule, Chen said. The announcements come as Biden aides warn that Trump’s border policies that put asylum increasingly out of reach may take months to unwind — a position that has caused grumbling among some pro-immigration advocates.

During his first day in office President Joe Biden made some significant changes to orders issued by his predecessor, President Trump; a move that dismantled major parts of the Trump administration’s immigration legacy. On his last day in office, Trump authorized the Deferred Enforcement Departure program offering Venezuelan in exile protection from deportation. They could be in a different status; they could have no status at all, and they may be able to apply for the DED,” Milena Portillo, an immigration attorney in Orlando said about the DED program. And aside from having to execute the new DED program, President Biden signed an executive order to reverse policies for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, that Trump had imposed. Other executive orders signed on Biden’s first day include:-Revoked the travel bans, also referred to as the Muslim Ban and African Bans, previously ordered by the Trump administration and abolished the so-called “extreme vetting” practices that were hard on immigrants and led to rejected visa applications.

President-elect Joe Biden stands with his wife Jill Biden after speaking at the Major Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III National Guard/Reserve Center, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, in New Castle, Del. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON – Republican lawmakers and conservative groups opposed President-elect Joe Biden's forthcoming immigration plan Tuesday as massive amnesty for people in the U.S. illegally, underscoring that the measure faces an uphill fight in a Congress that Democrats control just narrowly. The measure was described by an official from Biden's transition team who described the plan on condition of anonymity. That view was shared by Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, which favors curbing immigration. Biden is also expected to take swift executive actions, which require no congressional action, to reverse other Trump immigration actions.

Many of the administration's immigration actions can be quickly undone by Joe Biden when he becomes president on Jan. 20. Trump's signature border wall went up in environmentally sensitive areas. The Trump administration imposed a freeze in June on new green cards for high-tech workers, seasonal workers and managers of multinational corporations. The administration's many changes to immigration policy make it hard for anyone to plan for the future. “For the most part, the legal immigration system, which is written by Congress, withstood the assaults by the Trump administration,” he said.

As of Dec. 1, the U.S. naturalization test got more challenging for legal residents looking to become citizens. Spanish is her native tongue and with the new citizenship test, she’ll need to study a little harder. The new naturalization test has 128 civics questions--compared to the prior version, the new test has fewer questions about geography and focuses more on questions about the constitution and rights U.S. citizens are entitled to. The only approved answer by USCIS is “citizens of their state”--rather than all the people which was an acceptable answer before. For a look at the new citizenship questions and answers provided by USCIS, go to https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship-resource-center/the-2020-version-of-the-civics-test/128-civics-questions-and-answers-2020-version