During the 2023 legislative session, DeSantis and Florida Republicans said the immigration crackdown would send a message to President Joe Biden, who they blamed for the surge in migrants crossing the southern border. The law they
passed allows authorities to charge someone with human trafficking if they knowingly transport a migrant across state lines, outlaws undocumented immigrants from driving in Florida even if they have a valid driver’s license from another state and punishes companies for employing illegal immigrants.

The legislation faced immediate backlash after DeSantis signed it into law on May 10, just three weeks before his doomed jump into the 2024 presidential race. Immigration advocates feared it would lead authorities to arrest people simply for crossing state lines with an undocumented family member or friend. Others worried many of Florida’s 770,000-plus
undocumented immigrants would flee and leave the state’s multi-billion dollar agriculture industry and booming construction market without enough workers.

Several immigration groups, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU Foundation of Florida, sued DeSantis seeking to overturn the law.

But there’s been less focus on the fears among health workers and hospitals that serve migrants. Jean Paul Roggiero, director of community outreach for the Immokalee-based Healthcare Network, said that immigrant’s initial confusion over the law was quickly replaced by a steadfast reluctance among patients to seek medical care because they didn’t want to talk openly about their immigration status just to see a doctor.

“There was a lot of anxiety,” Roggiero said during a phone interview. Immokalee is a rural agricultural area with a large population of migrant workers.

In central Florida, state Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, said local nonprofits have seen a drop in the number of pregnant women showing up for medical appointments since the law took effect. She said dozens of immigrant rights groups have tried to inform undocumented immigrants about the law but she urged hospitals to also help tell patients they’re not required to answer questions about their immigration status — though hospitals that receive Medicaid are mandated to ask it. Florida is one of about 10 states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

“We’re a state that prides itself on being pro-family,” Eskamani said. “It just seems antithesis to that when you create these barriers for someone getting the care they need.”

The
immigration law was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a top DeSantis ally who frequently pushes the governor’s priorities through the Legislature. Ingoglia said during a phone interview that the decrease in undocumented immigrants accessing the state’s health programs could be a sign that the law is achieving what he set out to do. The law, he said, is meant to keep illegal immigrants from coming to Florida, and less migrants going to clinics could mean less immigrants are in Florida.

“I would say that it’s working as intended,” Ingoglia said. “It’s taking away the incentives and magnets that were drawing people to Florida.”