Quote:Florida Legislature is considering a sweeping package of immigration measures that would represent the toughest crackdown on undocumented immigration by any state in more than a decade.

Expected to pass within weeks because Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers.

The bills would expose people to felony charges for sheltering, hiring and transporting undocumented immigrants; require hospitals to ask patients their immigration status and report to the state; invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants; and direct the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to provide assistance to federal authorities in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.

Backers of the new bills say they are not opposed to immigration but are trying to make sure that newcomers follow the law.

“There’s a right way and a wrong way to come here,” Debbie Mayfield, a Republican state senator, said during a hearing on one of the bills. “We have a process in this country. We’re not trying to hurt or harm people who are here legally.”

In Texas, Republican state lawmakers have proposed a significant expansion in the immigration control program pushed by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Draft legislation presented in March calls for the state to take on some of the authority now exercised by the federal government, creating a border police force and making it a state felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, to illegally cross the border into Texas.

Texas has already deployed National Guard troops on the border and, along with Arizona, has bused newly arriving migrants to cities around the country.

After a record 2.5 million migrant interceptions at the border last year, both Republican governors have accused the Biden* administration of losing control of the situation.