Truck drivers and the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country are among the latest groups calling for a boycott of Florida.
Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed new legislation which imposes new criminal penalties against anyone who transports an undocumented person across state lines, requires employers with 25 or more employees verify the immigration status of their workers, and demands hospitals who accept Medicaid ask immigration status to patients and report the data.
Since then, dozens of Hispanic and Latino truck drivers have taken to social media urging others to avoid the Sunshine State.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to Florida,” one trucker said in a video posted to TikTok.
The threats of boycotts come the same week the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) issued a travel advisory to Florida.
“Laws like this, that do nothing more than harass immigrants, are bad for a state’s economy,” said Lydia Guzman with LULAC, the nation’s oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization.
The travel advisory is only the second time in history LULAC has urged visitors away from a state.
Before this, the most recent was in Arizona in 2010 when that state passed a strict immigration law.
The Center for American Progress estimated at the time that protests in Arizona cost that state more than $140 million.
“People that look like me will be harassed. We will have to prove that, due to the color of my skin, we belong in this country. That is racial profiling,” said Guzman.
Fox 4 reached out to the Governor’s office but didn’t hear back.
On Monday, DeSantis defended the law saying, “You can’t build a strong economy based on illegality.”
This is the third advocacy organization to issue a travel advisory to Florida in recent months.
In April, Equality Florida, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, and the Florida Immigrant Coalition both issued travel advisories based on legislation in Florida. The Florida chapter of the NAACP asked the national board to also issue an advisory.
