Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledges to support the state of Texas in their dispute with the federal government about the Southern Border, and lawmakers tour Marjory Stoneman Douglas school.
DeSantis to support Texas in border dispute
Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida will stand with Texas in the border dispute with the federal government.
Florida is one of about 15 red states vowing to support Texas Gov. Greg Abbot who says the federal government is failing to protect his state from an invasion.
On Monday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the federal government to remove razor wire installed by texas to help keep migrants out.
Today DeSantis said Florida will continue sending personnel and assets to the Texas border, which is an extension of an earlier program.
“You have Texas who is acting to enforce the laws on the books. To ensure they have a secure state and we have a secure country. So all of this is just nonsense what Biden is doing. Texas has every right to stand its ground. We even have been sending people from Florida to help for years now, because we understand it’s not just a Texas issue, it’s an American issue. And if we don’t have sovereignty in this country, then we are not going to be a county anymore. So they have every right to hold their ground, to stay the course, and Florida will continue to be there to help out every step of the way,” DeSantis said.
There is a bill in the Florida Legislature that would expand the use of the Florida State Guard. It does not specifically mention Texas, but would allow the state guard to operate outside of Florida’s borders.
Meanwhile, immigration is shaping up to be the defining issue of the 2024 election. Voters have consistently ranked it as a top issue in polling across the country.
The U.S. Senate has been trying to craft immigration reform.
Yesterday Sen. Rick Scott and conservative GOP colleagues made it clear they would not support the bill that the say would give a green light to letting in up to 5,000 migrants in per day.
“Everyone up here would like to have a secure border. Most of us have always been very supportive of legal immigration. But what we don’t want, we don’t want drugs, criminals, terrorists, human traffickers. When President Trump was president, the border was secure. It’s not about the laws. We are talking about a new border bill, but it’s not about the laws, we actually have a lawless administration. The Biden administration is absolutely lawless. Senator Cruz is going to talk about this in regards to Texas. The Biden administration went to the Supreme Court to say they want to make sure that Texas cannot keep their border secure. Our federal government said they don’t want a secure border. They don’t want Texas to do their job to make sure their citizens stay safe. We haven’t seen the text yet, but one thing we do know about this bill, there will be nothing in there that will directly impact anything, whether it is Ukraine aid or anything else, if the border is not secure,” Scott said.
A possible border deal that also would provide aid for Ukraine may be slipping away after months of intense negotiations.
“I’m working with partners who want to deal. There are a lot of republican senators who want a bipartisan agreement,” Rep. Chris Murphy said.
Former President Donald Trump, fresh off his victory in the New Hampshire primary, is amping up pressure on republicans to kill any agreement, demanding on his social media site that a border deal be “Perfect.”
Trump is seeking to make the surge of migrants entering the U.S. A pillar of his presidential campaign, that strategy would be undercut by a border agreement.
A deal also would give President Joe Biden a major legislative victory.
Trump’s senate allies are welcoming his pressure campaign.
“I hope that he’ll continue to be against it, be helpful on this, because I see absolutely no reason to give Joe Biden a pass,” Sen. Josh Hawley said.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly told Republican colleagues they are in a quandary, especially since unlocking assistance for Ukraine and Israel depends on lawmakers reaching a border agreement.
On Thursday he told reporters they’re still working toward a deal.
Some senate Republicans are hitting back at attempts to block a deal for the sake of the 2024 election.
“The fact that he would communicate to republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling,” Sen. Mitt Romney said.
Even if the Senate reaches an agreement and passes it, the bill is likely to face an uphill fight in the House where the speaker, a fierce trump ally, has been demanding that it contain provisions most Democrats have called unacceptable.
School safety and gun legislation
School safety and gun reform is being discussed at the federal and state level.
Today Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz and parkland victims’ families lead House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark on a guided visitation of Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, the site of the February 2018 shooting that killed 17 people and injured 17 others.
The building of the school where the massacre took place has been preserved just as it was immediately after the shooting. It is set to be demolished sometime this summer.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona joined family members who lost loved ones on a tour of Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Afterwards, Cardona led a discussion with the parkland families on how to make changes to prevent the next school shooting
“The visit this morning is the beginning of a relationship that I want to have with this community,” he said.
Moskowitz says he is hopeful that a national red flag law can be passed.
Red flag laws allow law enforcement to petition a judge to remove an individual’s firearms if it’s believed they pose a threat to someone or themselves.
Moskowitz said Florida’s red flag law is supported by sheriffs statewide. That red flag law was just one of the reforms that happened after the Parkland massacre.
Right after the shooting, the Florida Legislature implemented the first gun reform in the state in 2 decades.
They raised the age to buy long guns from 18 to 21.
Lawmakers may roll that back this session.
A redistricting fight awaits a federal judge's decision
With the 2024 election quickly approaching, a federal court case is ongoing over the redistricting of Congressional District 5
The North Florida district saw a major overhaul before the November 2022 election. In 2016, Democrat Al Lawson was elected in 2016.
But after the state legislature changed the map after the 2020 census, Republicans won all the North Florida congressional seats in 2022.
Voting rights groups are challenging the redistricting, saying it was unconstitutional.
District 5 used to stretch from Jacksonville West to Gadsden county.
After 2020, the borders were redrawn to cover the southern and eastern parts of Jacksonville and south down the St. Johns river through St. Augustine.
“We’re arguing that there is intentional discrimination on the basis of race when DeSantis and the Florida Legislature approved that and drew the map that is currently in place,” Common Cause Executive Director Amy Keith said.
The organization is a plaintiff along with the NAACP and others claiming the redistricting was unconstitutional and possibly involves racial discrimination. If they’re right, that could violate the 14th Amendment, which ensures equal protection of the Constitution.
“In redistricting terminology, we would call that cracking. So what they did is they took a black community, and they cut it up into multiple districts to weaken their voice,” Keith said.
The state argued the new map isn’t motivated by race
“The result was a race-neutral map that prioritized traditional redistricting criteria like compactness and adherence to geographic and political boundaries, and gone was the district in North Florida where over 80% of the population came from only two counties at the extreme eastern and western edges of the district, separated by hundreds of miles, and connected by a narrow land bridge,” the state said in its arguments.
Keith says the breakup of District 5 resulted in a change in representation
“That is a district where black voters have the opportunity to elect a representative of their choice. The new map which you can see splits that district into 4 different districts across North Florida and all of those districts now have a white representative,” she said.
The trial lasted 2 weeks late last year, and a decision has yet to be made by the federal judges.
A ruling is expected before March.
Meanwhile, a similar lawsuit in the state court system will now be taken up by the Florida Supreme Court.
The lawsuit was first filed in April 2022.
The Florida Supreme Court is giving plaintiffs until February 28 to file their initial brief. Subsequent filing deadlines could extend to the end of may before the case itself is heard before the court.