Let’s check in with State Representative Jim Mooney about immigration and ROGOs

Representative Jim Mooney for District 120 of the Florida House of Representatives joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on at the state level.

The state legislature is taking a deep look at the Trump Act, which is focused on illegal immigration.

Mooney explained, “We met yesterday. We finally got into the chambers around 4:30. The Senate, and the Senate President, I guess and the speaker were going back and forth and doing what they do best, collaborating. From there, we met and then hit the floor, running, ended up passing the bill last night somewhere around 9:30. All committees were canceled this week for the special session. What we did, basically the bill, I guess there’s some rhetoric about it being weak. It’s not a weak bill. All it does in a nutshell, it just reinforces that the federal government is in charge of immigration. President Trump is in charge of immigration and enforcement, but the state of Florida is now in a position to help the US government accomplish the goals of removing illegal immigrants from this country. The difference is that our bill does give some leeway for the farming industry. There’s programs where farmers are not going to lose their help. This is really about bad guys. It’s literally getting bad guys off the street. We all know what that looks like. We’ve seen it over and over and over throughout the last year or two years, so that’s what this bill basically does. It also it tasked the Commissioner of Agriculture as the point person for enforcement of all this and working and collaborating with the federal government. There was some of the rhetoric yesterday on the floor was why is it the Commissioner of Agriculture, as not opposed to FDLE or something. Well, the Commissioner of Agriculture has 200 agents on the ground already that are ready to go to work. They do work every day, by the way, in the agriculture industry, which is a whole other story, but he’s a liaison. There’s no real power there, strictly coordinating the efforts with ICE to make sure that we round up to bad guys. Most of the rhetoric, really, all of the rhetoric, technically, was geared around removing the reduced state tuition for college students, for people who are not legal residents in the state of Florida or the United States. We had three different committees set up, so everybody got to listen to the bill in committee. So we had one o’clock, three o’clock and the five o’clock committee on Monday, and then yesterday was again, we reviewed the bill, but there was some changes to the bill. It didn’t weaken the bill. The bill is very strong. President Trump is happy with the bill, and I think at the end of the day, again, he’s in charge of the immigration world, and he’s in charge of ICE, so I think that if he’s happy, we should all be happy, but all the rhetoric, really, most of the emotional side of it, was geared around these kids that are in college and not getting their state tuition reduced if they’re not a legal resident. No one said there wasn’t a problem. We never heard there wasn’t a problem with illegal immigration. I think a lot of people thought we might have a back and forth on that particular component, but that was not mentioned basically at all. Everybody recognizes that there’s an issue with illegal immigration, and for those who are legally trying to get in the system, we heard about stories of frustration, where they’ve been in the system for sometimes years and still haven’t garnered any kind of ability to move forward in their citizenship. But meantime those that came across illegally were handed out freebies and that’s sort of where that one went. So while there’s some emotional parts of it when it comes to, yeah, you’re losing your ability to get a reduced tuition rate, the reality of it is, they can still go to college. There’s still ways to pay for college, but they’re going to have to pay as if they’re an out of state resident.”

Recent reporting suggested Governor Ron DeSantis seemed to be upset that enforcement actions were being taken away from his branch of the government and being placed in the Department of Agriculture, but apparently the separation of the branches of government were made clear by the legislature.  

Mooney said, “That was that was made clear on Monday, when we actually vetoed $57 million or we overrode the veto, which is the first time since I believe 2010 that the legislature has overridden a veto from the governor. He dropped $57 million out of the funding for the House, which really, and I think the speaker said it best, that goes from iced tea to security, so we put that back in play. We’re also going to review all the other vetoes coming up throughout the year, throughout session, the power is there to do that. So yes, there’s definitely some dynamics with the branches. But at the end of the day, our government is built on three separate branches, and we are one of them. Yes, the governor is upset. There’s many, many components in the bill that came from the governor, but we didn’t need to be in charge of deportation. That’s the federal government’s job. We’re funding $500 million with $25 million going to local law enforcement stuff to help train and apprehend and deal with the immigration issue that we’re facing right now.”

It sounded like the act weakened the ability to enforce illegal immigration.

Mooney insisted, “That is not the case. We didn’t weaken anything. It’s quite strong. It allows law enforcement to do what they do. Remember that state of Florida is not in charge of immigration. The federal government is, and we made that abundantly clear, that we are here to help the federal government in any way we can. We’re going to give them the resources. We’re going to give all our law enforcement officers, I mean everybody from corrections officers all the way through the chain, the ability to do what they do best, and that’s enforced the laws of the state of Florida and to some degree, obviously, the United States of America.”

What about the ROGO issue? Monroe County proposed an increased evacuation time from 24 to 26 hours as well as requested 3,550 ROGO units. Will that move to the legislative session?

Mooney said, “Well, yes, but it doesn’t include the 26 hour model, nor does it include the 3,550. I just hadn’t told the county or everybody else what I was willing to do, which was 24 and a half hours and up to 500 permits, with 220 of them not affecting the 24 hour model at all. That should be sufficient to take care of the infamous takings cases that everybody has tied their coattail to. Now, certainly, there’s been some rhetoric that’s really not about takings cases, about building and I understand that. We live in America, but there’s also something called the environment, and there’s also something we live for a better part of 40 years, and that is the area of critical state concern. So while they want 3,500, they want $20 million for the environment, it’s a little bit of a stress stretch there to think that’s going to happen. But reality of it is, is we have a bill in place. It’s drafting now. It hasn’t come out yet, so it’ll be out by next week. But we’re still focused exactly what I said, in all the meetings I’m focused solely on the 500 and the 24 and a half hour evacuation model. Again, that’s 500 permits, and they should allocate those over roughly 10 to 12 years and while they’re doing that, they’re going to be buying up land and seeking funds to buy more land. So I’m comfortable with that bill. So we’ll see where that goes.”

Can this be reassessed down the road?

Mooney said, “There was an assumption that when the white paper came out a year and a half ago, that 3,500 was on the table. That is not the correct assumption. It was Department of Commerce I met with again, and that’s not what that white paper said. It said it could be, but it didn’t say it was guaranteed, nor did it say that’s what it was going to be. As of today, the governor’s office and Department of Commerce are still under the pretense that this county needs to use what they’re doing, but I did have a discussion with Commerce and they’re happy the county is continuing to allocate ROGO units. So they’re doing what they’re doing, cross their T’s, dot their I’s, explain what they’re looking for in the long run and if they do that, then for sure, we’ll end up with something, I would think, but it’s not going to be what everybody wants at this point. I’m happy with where we’re at and we are moving in a direction that will sort of remove that infamous takings case boogie man that seems to be hovering over some people’s thoughts. I understand that. I know Marathon’s in need of more, and I’ve been working with Commerce and trying to help them as much as I can in the short run. So at the end of the day, it’s not that we’re not on the same page, but we’re just slightly in a different paragraph on the page.”