Dubious Honor

Florida Tops Arizona on Immigration

Proposes even harsher measures for illegal aliens.

Florida’s attorney general is hoping to one up Arizona in anti-immigration legislation, proposing a bill that will go even further than the western state’s controversial new law that many say calls for racial profiling. The plan would make Florida the No. 1 harshest state on illegal aliens, a potentially explosive move given Florida’s high numbers of legal Latino voters. Attorney General Bill McCollum proposed a bill that would require police to check the immigration papers of anyone they stop who they think might be an illegal immigrant. Those who couldn’t show their papers would spend 20 days in jail before being turned over for deportation. Further, courts would be required to hand down longer sentences and set stronger conditions on bail of anyone charged with a crime who lacked immigration documents. McCollum is in a close race for the Republican nomination for Florida governor.