A bait & switch has taken place in Florida where the "Don't Say Gay" bill was passed into law and book banning has become a reality, the real plan was to distract you with passing one of the biggest immigration bills in the country that are quickly resulting into one of the biggest labor shortages in the country.
On May 10, 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new immigration bill into law that will go into effect July 1, 2023. Called SB-1718, the new law will make major changes in how private employers will handle employing undocumented immigrants. As of July 1, 2023, employers with more than 25 employees must use the E-Verify system which is a background-checking system. If the employee can't be verified, they can't work for the said employer. This hurts the workforce because there are many undocumented workers who can't be verified because they're waiting for the right paperwork to become documented.
This new law prohibits funding to any Florida county or municipality that provides documents or paperwork to those who cannot provide proof of a lawful presence in the United States. Driver's licenses from undocumented workers in other states will not be recognized, especially if they did not prove lawful presence in the United States when the license was issued.
This will result in fines for employers and imprisonment for the workers. This has caused a mass exodus of undocumented immigrants resulting in a huge worker shortage. This shortage especially affected the construction, hospitality, and fruit-picking industries. While many of us were distracted by the banning of books, drag queens corrupting our youth, and the government "saving" us from Disney's "woke" policy, the state's economy in which the majority relies on tourism is failing.
This is the result of not only voting against your interests, but it's also allowing hate to spew into your politics. How does your love or hatred for drag or gay issues affect your ability to pay your bills? It's not in the same way your hatred for undocumented workers is going to affect it. For one thing, we as black folks shouldn't be in this fight because as soon as the racists get done with them, we're the target again. Not to mention, we're already the target on the educational level. More on that later.
All we hear from the racists are, "They're trying to take our jobs?" What jobs are they taking? I'll wait. Last time I checked, they take the jobs that we don't even want or call ourselves too proud to take. During the midterms, De, Santis won 58 percent of the Latino vote not knowing this would be the result. Unfortunately, 13 percent of the Black population voted for him as well, not knowing his idea of stopping woke politics is banning the story of Rosa Parks from black history.
In addition to a work stoppage on construction sites and dying fruit crops, a lot of truck drivers of Hispanic origin are boycotting Florida as well. Many are refusing to deliver goods to Florida and some are out of fear of getting harassed by racist officials. The few workers (Americans) employers could find aren't enough to keep up with demand nor are they willing to work the long hours demanded of them. Yes, we talk a good game about folks taking our jobs but when it comes to actually putting our words into action, it's all talk.
A good friend of mine asked me a good question the other day. She asked me how is Ron DeSantis going to run for president and still be governor. In the real world, it's hard to do both and at some point, he'd have to stop being governor. Well, it shows what I know. The Florida state House and Senate passed a bill enabling Ron DeSantis to remain as governor while running for president in 2024. This is one of the few things he's done. With each new surprise, he's still telling you, "Wait, there's more..."
As I write this blog, DeSantis said he transferred over $1 Billion Dollars in state fund investments out of "woke" "safe funds". What he really did was move them to high-risk investments controlled by his political donors who have already contributed to his campaign.
I could go on about how they have hijacked the word "woke" and used "tactics" to keep the state down, I'm just going to say this. It's time to shut down DeSantis as both Governor and president. In just the last couple of years, Florida has turned the clock back fifty years or more. The scary part is what's going on in Florida and Texas (no I haven't forgotten about Greg Abbott and his cartoonish antics) is the catalyst for every red state. So yes, let them keep distracting you with drag queens. We need to concentrate on paying our bills and working towards a better way of life for ourselves and our families.
If the last few election cycles have taught you anything, it's that you must pay attention to not only the national race. We also must pay closer attention to our local and state races. It's those races that have bigger impacts than even the national races. That's how you truly stay woke.