Florida - Tuesday February 7, 2023: Among the bills up for consideration during this week’s Special Session is HB 5-B which creates an Unauthorized Alien Transport Program within the Division of Emergency Management. The proposal has come in for harsh criticism from Senator Jason Pizzo, a democrat from Miami-Dade County.
Last year Senator Pizzo filed a lawsuit over the Governor’s use of the previous migrant removal bill to ship 49 mostly Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio to the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard. The case was set for trial January 30. The Governor’s office filed a motion delaying the start of the trial for 40 days.
In Special Session this week, a new migrant removal measure, replacing the old one, has been introduced. Pizzo believes it’s an attempt to de-rail his lawsuit.
“Yea, of course, they’re trying to make it moot," he told reporters Monday. "And filing a motion for summary judgement to try and buy themselves an extra 40 days gets them a big enough window that they get to try to resolve this. I think that’s the attempt, however (we) could still have a finding of being unconstitutional.”
This latest measure is worse, says the Senator because it would grant blanket approval to pay for services that have not yet been rendered.
“The Governor is losing to me in court and is basically asking as a remedy to get anywhere from $1.5 to $4-million dollars forgotten, forgiven and approved," said Pizzo. "We don’t pre-pay for services before they’re rendered. We don’t do it, its codified statute we don’t do it. But payments have been made for services that have not been rendered, and this bill just has a couple of little bylines saying ‘That’s approved.' I mean, what are we doing here?”
Pizzo also points out that the new migrant removal bill lifts the previous requirement that the migrants be from Florida. “A 5th Grader will tell you that taking people from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, just touching down here for 5 minutes to let Larry Keith off the plane, does not constituent being from Florida. Now all of a sudden this bill seeks to further expand the authority to go anywhere.”
And he says HB 5 does nothing to address the real migrant issue facing Florida. “Your all aware of the disaster that has to be mitigated from thousands of people coming ashore on the Florida Keys. This bill doesn’t say anything about people coming ashore on the Florida Keys.”