Florida Notifies Companies They’re Cracking Down on Employment of Illegal Aliens

On Friday, the Director of Communications and External Affairs for Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity, Rose Hebert, sent out a press release announcing that his office sent letters to six companies telling them that they would face legal consequences if they continued to employ illegal immigrants.

“Florida is cracking down on the unlawful employment of unauthorized aliens,” said Bryan Griffin, the press secretary for Governor Ron DeSantis. “Companies that have not affirmed that all employees have passed E-Verify and are authorized to work in the United States are given an opportunity to cure the issue and so affirm.”

Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) informed the companies that they have one final chance to send documentation to the state proving that they are in compliance with  Florida’s E-Verify laws, which is a web-based system “that allows enrolled employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States.”

“These letters follow each company’s repeated failure to respond to notices from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement requiring a signed affidavit that the company is following the law,” Hebert’s press release read. 

The letters to the companies instructed them to confirm via an affidavit that they had fired any “unauthorized aliens” they had employed, that each company would not “intentionally or knowingly employ an unauthorized alien,” and that the company would comply with section 448.095(3)(b), Florida Statutes, which are the state’s E-Verify laws.

In an email sent to media outlets, Griffin wrote, “Six companies have failed to do so after repeated notices and are subject to the suspension of their licenses to operate their business in the state. They have been issued final notices of non-compliance.”

DeSantis lead his Democrat gubernatorial challenger Charlie Crist in favorability among Hispanc voters according to a new Telemundo/LX News poll, citing pros for how the governor had been handling illegal immigration in his state.