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Florida Republicans upend DeSantis' plans as state tries to align with Trump's immigration orders

State GOP legislative leaders abruptly ended a special session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis and are pursuing their own immigration proposal, sparking an intraparty battle.
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — President Donald Trump’s push to quickly overhaul the immigration system is at the center of a civil war between Republicans in Florida, with Gov. Ron DeSantis facing off against the GOP-dominated Legislature.

DeSantis called lawmakers back to Tallahassee this month for a special legislative session with the explicit purpose of aligning state law with an expected wave of immigration-focused executive orders from Trump.

But Republican leaders in both the state House and the Senate, who had panned DeSantis' plans as "premature," abruptly ended the special session Monday morning and quickly called their own. 

The move effectively killed all the legislation already filed by DeSantis’ allies and allowed Republican leaders to draw up their own immigration proposals, including language that would put the governor in a tricky political position. The legislative leaders’ plan would take sweeping immigration oversight authority away from DeSantis and move it to Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, a statewide elected official who is eyeing a run for governor in 2026 and has had an icy relationship with DeSantis.

State House Speaker Danny Perez said that under their plan, Simpson would be designated the state’s “chief immigration officer,” a position that does not currently exist. DeSantis also wants to create that position but would have kept it under his authority.

“We need a singular point of focus in the state government for coordinating immigration,” Perez said. “We need an agency with broader reach in the state and experience working with the federal government and law enforcement.”

The move backs DeSantis into a corner — and underscores he does not hold the political sway in the state that he did in the lead-up to his 2024 presidential campaign.

DeSantis said on X that he thought the Legislature's proposal was "substantially weaker" on immigration than his own. He also took a direct shot at the idea of moving the state’s immigration powers to the agriculture commissioner, since the office oversees an industry that often relies most on immigrant labor.

"By giving enforcement power to the agricultural arm of state government, it ensures that enforcement never actually occurs," he wrote. "In short, it puts the fox in charge of the hen house."

If the Republican leaders' bill passes, as expected, DeSantis will either have to sign a bill that effectively kneecaps his ability to coordinate immigration enforcement in the state or veto a proposal that includes hard-line immigration reforms, many of which he supports.

The Republican leadership has faced significant pushback on social media from prominent DeSantis supporters who have said their hesitancy to follow in his footsteps signals that they are not in line with Trump’s agenda, which both Perez and state Senate President Ben Albritton have pushed back against. Their proposals do include provisions aligned with Trump’s immigration executive orders.

They would require state and local law enforcement to work “hand-in-hand” with federal immigration authorities, require judges and state attorneys to know criminal defendants’ immigration statuses before any bail or pretrial release is considered, offer $500 million for local law enforcement to “fight illegal immigration” and expand penalties for some crimes committed by undocumented people. 

The proposal also would end in-state tuition rates currently extended to "Dreamers," or undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, which DeSantis has publicly pushed for. That proposal has been specifically contentious because it was signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Scott and passed by Republican lawmakers, including current Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez.

Trump had publicly backed DeSantis shortly after he called a special session.

“Thank you Ron, hopefully other governors will follow,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Perez told NBC News that the legislative leaders have spoken to the White House and agree with Trump’s immigration reform push but that they just did not think what DeSantis was trying to do was the best direction.

“The American people have resoundingly rejected the policy of open borders, and President Trump is moving decisively to address this crisis,” he said. “There are actions that Florida must undertake now in order to quickly align with President Trump’s directives.

“Unfortunately, the governor’s proclamation was just too narrow to accomplish all of the things that we must do to assist President Trump,” he added.

DeSantis was functionally pushing for changes that would allow state officials to carry out several actions reserved for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

He wants to vastly expand a program he created, the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program, which was used in 2023 to fly migrants to destinations in Democratically held states. The changes, according to draft legislation, would be “consistent with federal law.”

DeSantis’ reform proposals would also require state and county law enforcement agencies to train local officials to perform federal-like immigration duties, training that would be funded by $350 million in new funding DeSantis was asking lawmakers to approve. 

Perez said that approach is too “bureaucratic.”

“We did carefully consider Gov. DeSantis’ proposal, and he had some good ideas,” he said. “But many of his proposals are bureaucratic. We do not need to duplicate the functions of U.S. immigration and customs and create a mini-me version of ICE.”

He said the proposals would also “hijack” local law enforcement operations.