FORT MYERS, Fla. — On the heels of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ anti-immigration law, hundreds of people are protesting and asking for change.
On Thursday in Downtown Fort Myers, the crowd chanted the phrase "Sí se puede", meaning 'Yes we can'. Many signs read ‘Our children deserve to live in peace’ and ‘Who will harvest your produce?’.
DeSantis signed a bill in May criminalizing people who transport any number of undocumented people across state borders.
It also requires employers with 25 or more employees to check their workers' immigration statuses and hospitals to disclose their patients’ citizenship statuses.
Protesters say immigrants help the economy and find DeSantis’ ideologies “hypocritical”.
"Here [in] this country everybody knows it has been made by immigrants, we are all immigrants," said Mario Juarez, the CEO of Guatemala US-FL Chamber of Commerce. "The only Native Americans here are the Indians, Natives still living in their tribes, but other than that, everybody else is an immigrant, including Governor DeSantis' family background... they're made up of immigrants."
Many of the attendees at the protest say they want to showcase their unity. They flew flags from many different countries in solidarity with one another.
