2023-05-12 16:49:55
The Guatemalan migrant community residing in Miami and other cities in the state of Florida is in suspense and is experiencing uncertainty following the approval, on May 10, of a law with tough measures once morest irregular migration.
The regulation, promoted by the Republican governor Ron DeSantis, whose candidacy for the White House in 2024 seems imminent, will enter into force on July 1.
“This law, because it raised a lot of concern, mainly among compatriots who are without documents, but also among us who have lived here for decades, we are very concerned regarding what might happen,” said Marlon González, a Guatemalan migrant who lives in Miami and directs the organization Mission Guatemala USA.
“People are in an uproar, because here more than anything it is through social networks that the news has impacted. The concern is noticeable. Many people are going to California and also to the states of Georgia, Mississippi or Louisiana. Everyone is on alert, waiting to see what happens, many are not even going to work,” said Sergio Morales, a Guatemalan migrant who has lived in Miami for more than 30 years.
Florida: Second largest community
González recalled that the Guatemalan migrant community in the state of Florida is the second largest only following California, hence the impact of the new law will have a series of repercussions. “People are very concerned, but very aware that they have to make a decision: either leave or risk it,” he emphasized.
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, published in 2017, 29% of Guatemalan migrants are located in California, 8% in Florida, and 7% in Texas.
For his part, Morales said that those most affected by the new provision are Guatemalans who work in the fields of Florida’s agricultural areas. “90% of the people who work in the fields do not have any document other than a passport or a consular card,” he recalled.
They will punish the transport of migrants
Among its most prominent measures, it will require companies with more than 25 employees to use E-Verify, a federal system to verify the immigration status of the people they want to hire.
In addition, it will force hospitals that accept public Medicaid insurance to collect data on the immigration status of their patients, which might lead undocumented migrants to avoid receiving treatment, according to opponents of the rule.
On the other hand, the transportation of undocumented persons from another state to Florida it will become a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
And authorities will stop recognizing out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to irregular migrants, as well as ban funding for local programs to provide identity documents to undocumented aliens.
The law also allocates 12 million dollars to transfer undocumented migrants to other states of the country, within the framework of a program that began last year with the sending of two groups of Venezuelans in private planes from Texas to the Northeast United States.
Leave or expose yourself: The two paths for migrants
“In fact, many times in public hospitals here, If you don’t have medical insurance, they put up with you (make you wait) and don’t give you any service. That already happens without the law being in force,” Morales said in relation to the measure that obliges hospitals that accept public Medicaid insurance to collect data on the immigration status of their patients.
González for his part, said that knows Guatemalans who have left Florida for other states for fear of being arrested and eventually deported. “They have left without saying where or leaving contact for fear of being located,” he said.
According to González, in Florida there are three sectors in which Guatemalans and Latinos in general are most employed, whose industries will also be affected. Is regarding restaurants and various maintenance services, field work, and gardening, and construction.
Both González and Morales agree that, for now, migrants are on hold as local human rights and pro-migrant activist groups work to find a way to stop measures that toughen treatment of irregular migrants.
According to the migrant activist, the new legal provisions are not only inhuman laws but will also impact the economy of that country, considering that migrants provide labor that is paid below the average and that Americans.
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