Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has defended his state's use of immigrant workers while scrapping the H-1B program, citing its abuses.
The Republican focused his press conference primarily on President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to expedite the deportation process for illegal immigrants in the state.
“We will allocate resources and ensure that Florida state and local officials support these efforts. We have no time to waste. Florida must lead,” DeSantis said. said. first coast news.
“There are major problems with some parts of the legal immigration program.”
But when it comes to the growing number of foreign workers under the H-1B program, DeSantis said it's important not to confuse the two issues.
“We have legal immigrants in Florida, so you can't confuse illegal immigrants with people who are here legally,” he began.
“I also said that there are major problems with some of the legal immigration programs that we have in place,” the governor continued, before offering an example.
“We've looked at this H-1B program, how companies implement H-1B. [workers]Americans train H-1B [workers]and they fire Americans and hire H-1Bs. Is it even slightly acceptable? ”
DeSantis continued: press conference By criticizing chain migration,
“There is chain migration, and it is not merit-based, it is not what you want, it is bringing in more distant relatives. So there are a lot of problems there that need major reform. ”
At the same time, the governor said he has heard criticism of immigrant farm workers and defended them because they are legal.
“From an immigration enforcement perspective, if someone is here on an H-2A visa or something like that, they are working legally in the state of Florida. When people say, “Hey, there's a bus full of farm workers, I saw that on I-4. ” and people think they are illegal. ”
Mr. DeSantis' comments primarily defended the Trump administration's efforts regarding illegal immigration and Mr. Trump's future deportation plans. The governor even threatened to suspend Florida's elected officials if they were found to be “neglecting their duties” and creating obstacles to new immigration regulations.
He added, “New legislation would be needed in Florida to clarify the obligations of both state and local employees and require them to assist the federal government in this regard.” said.
DeSantis addedaccording to the Post Millennial, “I have the authority to suspend certain officials if they fail to perform their duties.''
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