PHOENIX (CN) — “Todos somos Florida!” echoed across the grounds outside the Arizona Capitol building Monday, with a caravan of 10 Latino immigrants, joined by a few Arizona legislators and about a dozen local activists, saying they won’t stop until Florida overturns a sweeping new immigration law that will impose harsh penalties against businesses that employ undocumented immigrants.
The bill contains a slew of other provisions that activists say will violate the human rights of nearly 1 million undocumented Floridians.
The caravan, which started its journey to the Sunshine State in San Diego on Friday, stopped in Los Angeles for three days before coming to Phoenix. After heading south to Tucson, it will move through New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana, hoping to gain more support in demanding Florida repeal SB1718. It will stop in the cities of Las Cruces, New Mexico, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans before arriving in Tallahassee, Florida.
“We’re calling on Floridians to join us in the economic boycott of the state,” said Juan Jose Guttierrez, one of the 10 members of the caravan.”
The four-day boycott will last from July 1 through July 4.
“The reason why we chose the Fourth of July is that we want to remind the American people what led to the American Revolution,” Guttierrez said. “It seems like the American people have forgotten that the American Revolution was carried out by many immigrants.
“The United States is a country of immigrants. So we don’t understand why this latest wave of immigrants are being rejected and being used as a pawn to do political campaigns and win votes.”
The strict Florida legislation, which takes effect July 1, will limit social services for undocumented people, invalidate driver’s licenses issued to undocumented people by other states, and require hospitals that receive Medicaid funding to ask for patients’ immigration statuses.
Most worrisome to activists though is the provision requiring businesses with more than 25 employees to verify employees’ immigration status and imposing heavy new penalties on businesses that hire undocumented workers.
“[This] is nothing more than another failed solution to the border crisis,” state Senator Catherine Miranda, a Democrat from Phoenix, said at the press conference. “[Florida Governor] Ron Desantis and Florida Republicans need to find true solutions, not copycat legislation such as Arizona’s infamous SB1070."
That bill, signed into law in 2010 by then-Governor Jan Brewer, allowed Arizona police to demand papers from and even arrest someone without a warrant if they believe that person may be undocumented. It also criminalized undocumented people seeking or accepting work, and made it illegal for documented immigrants to not always carry federal registration papers. After nationwide protest, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down three of four provisions, keeping only the provision that allows police to demand papers from people who may be undocumented.
Miranda used SB1070 as a cautionary tale, urging Florida to abandon the extreme measures in the law.
“There needs to be a humane approach with an effective process for families,” she said. “In the meantime, people will suffer in Florida. They will live in fear and be unjustly profiled.
“We in Arizona join Florida,” she said to applause. “Today, and until this hateful legislation is overturned, we are all Florida.”
The crowd chanted “todos somos Florida” in response to Miranda’s speech. The chant rose and fell a few more times and more speakers took the podium.
Lydia Guzman, director of advocacy and civic engagement for the League of United Latin American Citizens, the country’s largest and oldest Hispanic membership organization, called on Arizona lawmakers to issue a travel ban to Florida until the legislation is overturned.
Latino Americans aren’t safe in Florida because of the new law, she told the group in Spanish, and they should avoid the state for now. She said the league is considering suing Florida just like it sued Arizona over SB1070.
“No terrible bills came through after our suit,” she said, hoping that a suit against Florida would produce the same effect.
Until action against SB1718 is taken, the members of the caravan say they will continue to fight for what they say are basic human rights.
“How can we go in front of the whole world and say we’re fighting for freedom, democracy and human rights in Ukraine, and we forget about the people that have been here waiting for immigration reform for almost 40 years and we haven’t gotten anything?” Guttierrez asked after the press conference. “We want to let it be known that we’re not gonna stand for this kind of stuff.
Members of the caravan intend to arrive in Florida on July 1, hoping as many people as possible will join them in the economic boycott.
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