Is Any E-Verify Bill Dead on Arrival in the Florida Senate?

In 2010 Republican Jeff Atwater was the President of the Florida Senate. When the committee assignments were made he appointed Senator Jeremy Ring, a progressive Democrat, to be Committee Chair of  The Government Oversight & Accounting Committee. Then as now Republicans had an overwhelming majority in both legislative houses.

George Fuller wrote in an email, “On the surface it would appear to the average citizen Atwater was extending his hand for a truly bi-partisan Florida Senate. However, Atwater may have had a more sinister reason for making the appointment. The reason was he wanted a Democrat to block any immigration bill filed so his hands would remain clean as it was blocked in committee.”

As the story unfolded in 2010 Senator Nancy Detert filed S1880 an immigration bill that would require all contractors with the state to be enrolled in the Federal E-Verify program so only legal workers would participate in taxpayer funded projects. What citizen would not want every dime of their tax money to go to legal contract workers instead of to illegal aliens who would head to Western Union every payday and ship the money out of the country especially during the high unemployment being experienced in the state in 2010?

Well, after Senator Detert filed the bill it was assigned to 5 committees to go through before it would reach the senate floor.

Fuller states, “I have researched hundreds of bills filed in the legislature and those with 5 committee assignments never get through all the committees in 8 weeks time which is how long the session is. Looking at the bill assignments those familiar with the process knew the chance of getting through all of the committees in the allotted time was slim.”

“But Senate President Atwater was not satisfied with 98% odds the bill would not get through all the committees and that is where Senate Chair Jeremy Ring of the Government Oversight and Accounting came into play. The first committee assignment for S1880 was Democrat Jeremy Ring’s committee. Needless to say the other four committees were not required to impede the bill’s progress through the system since Ring never called up the bill during the session,” notes Fuller

Now we fast forward to 2013 and the incoming Senate President is Republican Don Gaetz. Who did he name Chairman of the Government Oversight and Accounting Committee? Answer: Jeremy Ring.

But it gets worse says Fuller. Senate President Gaetz also appointed Democrat Senator Bill Montford to Chair the Agricultural Committee with Democrat Senator Dwight Bullard as Vice Chair and Democrat Senator Elanor Sobel as Chair of  the Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee. One wonders how Republicans feel about this form of bi-partisanship?

Today Jeff Atwater is Florida’s Chief Financial Officer. It makes one wonder what higher office is in store for Senator Gaetz.

EDITORS NOTE:

The table below shows that legal immigration is simply a conduit for importing poverty into Florida. The legislature will never solve or reduce the poverty level in Florida with the same immigration policy of “Family Reunification.”

Click on the chart for a larger view.