Florida’s brutal new plan on immigration crackdown: Companies face up to $500k fines, permanent shutdown
Florida – A sweeping immigration bill that was proposed in the Florida Senate would substantially raise the penalty for companies that knowingly hire illegal workers. This would put employers at the center of a larger effort for enforcement before the 2026 legislative session.
Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin filed the 34-page bill on Wednesday. It aims at companies who knowingly ignore the immigrant status of their staff. If the proposal passes, employers who knowingly hire more than 50 undocumented immigrants might be charged with a crime, lose their company licenses for good, and have to pay significant fines. The legislation is the most comprehensive immigration package that has been filed for the next session.
According to Florida Phoenix, the bill is based on a number of immigration steps that Florida has taken in the past year. Those prior measures got rid of in-state college tuition for undocumented students, made it unlawful to enter the state, and made every county work with federal immigration authorities. Florida is the only state to run its own migrant detention center and the only state where all 67 counties work together with the federal government to enforce immigration laws.
A major portion of the legislation is about making it harder to use E-Verify, the federal system that checks if someone is allowed to work. If an employer doesn’t correctly examine a worker’s status before filing a workers’ compensation claim, they could be personally accountable for any costs linked to the claim. Businesses that purposely avoid verification would face harsher penalties, such as year-long license suspensions, fines that go from $10,000 to $250,000, and eventually permanent closure for recurrent infractions.
The bill also makes employers responsible for the safety of the public. If an employer hires an undocumented worker who harms someone, they could lose their license for five years and pay a $100,000 penalty. The idea says that if the worker kills someone, they will lose their license for good and have to pay up to $500,000 in fines. People who were hurt or the families of people who died would be able to sue the employer in civil court.
The package includes new standards for vehicle accidents, banking, and licensing, in addition to jobs. It would let authorities assume that undocumented out-of-state drivers were at fault in some accidents and stop insurance from paying claims with them. Police personnel who look into crashes would have to check the immigration status of the people involved.
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Additional rules would stop undocumented adults from making certain claims in the state, prohibit money transfers abroad, limit banking transactions, and make it such that all state licensing processes may only be done in English.
The legislative session is scheduled to begin on Jan. 13, when lawmakers will consider whether to advance the proposal.
