Immigrants illegally in Florida receive longer prison sentence, death penalty

TALLAHASSE, Florida (AP) – For most people in Florida, the theft of the offense can lead up to one year in prison and a fine of $ 1,000. For an illegally illegal immigrant in Florida, the same crime has a crime of up to five years behind bars and a fine of $ 5,000.

The New laws in Florida Come on as President Donald Trump crack Illegal immigration. They impose harder punishments for crimes that have been illegally committed by people in the United States than for everyone else. The consequences are particularly stiff for first degree murder, which now has an automatic death sentence for anyone who is illegal in the USA.

While Florida is more aggressive than most, there are other states that take similar measures to improve criminal punishments based on immigration status.

A deterrent, but is it constitutional?

republican Governor Ron Desantis Says “Florida will be safer and securer” and a model for other countries due to its extensive immigration laws.

The stiff punishments are said to be a deterrent, said the Republican Rep. Rep. Lawrence McClure.

“Don't come to Florida illegally,” he said. “This is the premise.”

Some civil rights representatives and legal experts alarm.

The laws “lead to a frontal collision with the constitutional guarantee of the same protection for everyone who is in the United States,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a legal professor at Ohio State University, who specializes in immigration and criminal rights.

Are mandatory death sentences allowed?

On his first day in office, Ordered Trump Another emphasis on The death penalty. His arrangement of the executive emphasized two certain reasons for this: murdering a law enforcement officer or illegal to the obligation of capital crimes in the United States. However, jurors and federal judges would still decide whether they should impose the death sentence.

The Supreme Court in the United States in 1976 decided that North Carolina's mandatory death sentence was violating the ban on the ban on the constitution to cruel and unusual punishment. Since then, the states have been used in general court proceedings in which the jury first decide to blame, and then annoying and mitigating factors when deciding whether the accused should be sentenced to death.

“There has long been precedent that the mandatory death penalties for the death penalty are unconstitutional,” said Kara Gross, legislative director and Senior Policy Counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

But the new laws in Florida eliminate the discretion of the court in certain cases. They require the courts that they illegally impose a death sentence in the United States, which are found guilty due to the first degree or rape of the child.

The Republican Senator Randy Fine realized that the legislation, which he will probably put on a legal contestation, expects the Supreme Court to resolve its previous decision.

“It is almost 50 years later,” said Fine and added, “the Supreme Court changes his opinion.”

More time for the same crime

Last year, Desantis signed a law Improvement of punishments for people who commit government crimes after they have been deported beforehand and convicted of illegal re -entry according to the Federal Act. The measure increased the sentences by a classification, which means that someone was convicted of a third degree that is usually punished with up to five years in prison and a fine of $ 5,000 is instead convicted of a second degree, which is punished with a prison sentence of up to 15 years, and a fine of $ 10,000.

The latest laws in Florida offer illegally similar conviction improvements in people in the United States, regardless of convicts for re -entry, and apply the improved punishments to offense.

If the new laws are being contested, García Hernández said, a court would probably look at a judgment of the U.S. Court of Justice in 1982. The judges said that Texas had presented a major state interest in a law that cited state school financing for children who are not “legally approved” in the USA, the 14th amendment of the constitution, which states that a state does not “refuse to protect a person within its jurisdiction”.

In order to defend the law of Florida, the prosecutors would probably have to answer a similar question: “What is their mandatory justification for the treatment of people who are accused of a crime – the same crime – is based only on their citizenship status?” García Hernández said.

Other states can follow Florida's leadership

Laws that are pending in several states – including Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, South Carolina and Texas – would enable improved punishments for some state crimes in the United States, which were illegally committed in the USA. The Bill tracking software plural.

A legislative template by the Texas Senator Pete Flores in Texas would increase punishments that for most criminals committed to most criminals for most criminals.

Flores, Chairman of the Senate Criminal Sentence Committee and co-founder of the Hispanic Republican Caucus in Texas, described legislation as “a judicial reaction of crime in order to enforce the rule of law and to better protect Texans”.

The legislation, which is adopted the Senate in Utah and is now pending in the house, pursues a narrower approach that focuses on theft and drug trafficking. It would impose mandatory prison terms without the potential for an early release for repeat offenders

The Republican Senator Cal Musselman said his legislation aimed at “a small group of people”. Criminal prosecution officers have informed him that they see “a clear connection between deported deported, entering and entering and crimes within the state”.

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.

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Payne is a member of the Corps for the “Associated Press/Report” initiative for America Statehouse News. Report for America is a non -profit National Service program that journalists report in local news editorial offices about the undercovered topics.