Committees in the Florida House and Senate are set to take up controversial immigration bills this week. The tougher of the two, which is being carried through the House by Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, is now on Thursday’s Economic Affairs Committee agenda.
Snyder’s measure faces resistance and could be open to the same constitutional challenge surrounding Arizona’s controversial bill because it creates new state-level crimes for immigration.
Snyder has acknowledged that some portions of the bill may be preempted by federal law. Two weeks ago, he said he was still working through concerns various groups have raised about the measure before moving ahead with it.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s immigration bill has been routed around the Criminal Justice Committee and is now headed straight to the budget panel, which is set to discuss the measure this week.
The binding portions of the Senate’s bill focus on requiring employers to verify the eligibility of new hires to work in the country. A newly proposed amendment would ease those requirements, requiring employers to ask new hires for visas or other forms of identification.
Check back for updates…