BY DARA KAM

©2025 The News Service of Florida.

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday pledged to veto an immigration bill passed during a special legislative session Tuesday, triggering a potential showdown with Republican House and Senate leaders in a tug-of-war over efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda.

DeSantis lambasted the measure during appearances Wednesday in Titusville and Fort Myers. The bill, backed by House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, includes making Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson the state’s immigration czar, putting Simpson’s department in charge of immigration enforcement, and steering nearly $500 million to state and local law-enforcement agencies to crack down on illegal immigration. The measure (SB 2-B) focuses, in part, on undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.

The governor’s latest criticism ramped up what has become a brutal — and public — feud between the Republican legislative leaders and DeSantis, who repeatedly called the bill “weak” and “pathetic” and lobbed personal attacks at his foes.

“What you’ve seen, there’s a difference between having a Republican majority and a conservative majority. We had a conservative majority the previous two years, and I think what you’re seeing, it’s driven by leadership. They’re moving the Republicans in the Legislature left,” DeSantis said during the appearance in Fort Myers.

But Senate bill sponsor Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican who is a close Trump ally, said he spoke directly with the president and worked with the Trump administration to craft legislation that would help carry out the president’s immigration crackdown.

“This is the strongest bill that’s ever been passed anywhere in the country. This gives the president all the tools he needs in support of his executive orders and what he’s trying to do,” Gruters told The News Service of Florida on Wednesday. “I’ve worked with the administration on technical guidance on making sure that we have everything in there that they need for them to accomplish their job.”

DeSantis’ criticism Wednesday continued days of intraparty sniping over how best to address the illegal immigration issue.

“This bill will work. This bill will be the game-changer. Of course, you are going to have your handful of politicians, a small group of activists and a lot of paid bots on social media trying to gaslight you,” Perez said in a shot at DeSantis before the House passed the bill in an 82-30 vote Tuesday night. The Senate earlier voted 21-16 to approve the bill.

The plan includes boosting criminal penalties for undocumented immigrants, ending in-state tuition rates for undocumented-immigrant students and creating a state “chief immigration officer” within the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The bill also would lead to spending about $500 million, with much of the money going to local law-enforcement agencies and would require the death penalty for undocumented immigrants who commit crimes such as first-degree murder.

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