Intent on making the Sunshine State more hateful than ever before, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing for a new round of heartless immigration legislation.

DeSantis, infamous for his “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the resulting clash with Disney, has long been an antagonist toward immigrant families lacking permanent legal status in Florida. 

The National Immigration Forum has outlined several major concerns with DeSantis’ response to what he has deemed “Biden’s Border Crisis,” announced Feb. 23. 

First DeSantis’ legislation, if enacted, would make “transporting” or “harboring” any immigrant lacking permanent legal status a third-degree felony. 

Landlords and their tenants are among those the proposal would apply to, as well as transportation services, all the way down to the villainization of school bus drivers who may “harbor” children without permanent legal status by driving them to school.

The proposal seems to be an attempt to turn each Floridian into a living security-camera, undoubtedly encouraging acts of racism and oppression and significantly inhibiting – if not threatening entirely – the quality of life for countless individuals without permanent legal status in Florida.

Second, DeSantis’ legislation would require hospitals to confirm the citizenship of each of their patients, endangering lives by discouraging people from seeking the healthcare they need. 

Among several other equally despicable policies, DeSantis’ legislation would also make driver’s licenses obtained by immigrants lacking permanent legal status in other states void and increase fines for employers that hire them. 

Such an obvious lack of concern for human life should never be acceptable; however, DeSantis’ crowd of supporters in Florida means it is likely at least some of the proposed legislation will pass before May 5. 

Lorena Nava-Moyotl, a junior sociology major, is the co-president of Dream Action NIU, a student organization which advocates for students without permanent legal status on campus and individuals in the DeKalb community. 

Dream Action recently held their 10th annual Coming Out of the Shadows event in which the organization led a march to deliver its demands for supporting undocumented students to President Lisa Freeman’s office.

Among these demands was Dream Action’s campaign to drop the “i-word” (illegal) and recognize the humanity of every person. 

Noting the atmosphere of many Floridan attitudes towards immigration, Nava-Moyotl isn’t shocked by DeSantis’ legislation. However, she affirms it’s a proposal her organization could never tolerate nor excuse. 

“Using things like the ‘i-word’ and trying to dehumanize a human being is just not correct in any way. Something that we do emphasize for Dream Action too is that everyone is human, no matter what their status is, no matter who they are, gender and etc,” Nava-Moyotl said. “I want to say politically, or humanely, (being) uneducated is just not right.”

While NIU students may not be able to stop DeSantis’ legislation – with our unfortunate lack of governmental power and DeSantis’ unfortunate inability to listen to reason – Nava-Moyotl emphasized that there are still plenty of ways to be an ally to the immigrant community. 

“Just be educated on things like drop the ‘i-word’, we do have a campaign going right now, and just sign any kind of petition or anything, and just being there and being present. Obviously not trying to out anybody in public because that’s something we are against. If someone does disclose their status to you, then it’s not for you to disclose to the world. It’s for you to think, well, they had enough trust in me, I will not break that trust.” Nava-Moyotl said. “So yeah, just honestly showing up, signing petitions when needed and just being a friend.” 

DeSantis has proved his unwillingness to work with a friendship towards immigrants, but that doesn’t mean there’s no way to stand up to the bully.