Florida Republicans Propose Spending More On Illegal Immigrants

Earlier today, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum proposed a series of tough new measures to combat illegal immigration.  According to McCollum, his legislation "will provide new enforcement tools for protecting our citizens and will help our state fight the ongoing problem created by illegal immigration."  However, one key provision of the legislation will increase cost, undermining one of the critical arguments fueling the furor over illegal immigration.  According to the Associated Press, the proposal "provides for longer prison sentences for crimes committed by immigrants who are in the country illegally." 

If you sentence people for longer terms based solely on their immigration status, then you invariably increase the cost that the state incurs due to illegal immigration.  It doesn't really make sense.  According to the ferociously anti-immigrant group FAIR, illegal immigration costs the Sunshine State almost $3.8 billion annually.  If statistics like that fuel the right's discourse on immigration, how exactly is adding to that cost part of the right's solution?

Appearing on Fox News this afternoon, Florida State Representative William Snyder (R) defended his not-so-ingenious plan, telling Neil Cavuto, "I'm drafting a piece of legislation that I hope will work now, but more likely, will help in the future when another administration - maybe a little bit more proactive — and then will be able to use this statute."

Watch:

Snyder: Well, one of the things we'll do is we have enhanced sentencing.  We feel that in Florida, if you're here illegally and you commit a crime, that that would be worthy of enhanced sentencing guidelines.

Cavuto: What does that mean?

Snyder: Well, it's a multiplier.  I don't want to get in the weeds with you.  But what it means is if you commit a misdemeanor or a felony in Florida and you're illegal, your sentence would be 1.5 times higher than somebody else who is here legally.