Offering no explanation, Grall put forward an amendment removing all of the provisions in one of her bills, SB 1626, dealing with abused and abandoned migrant children vying for immigration relief.
Immigration attorneys representing children fleeing abuse previously condemned the bill, calling it unethical because it would have prevented kids without legal permanent status from gaining residency in Florida if the abuse happened outside of the country.
Miami Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia said she had been in talks with Grall to walk back provisions that would have restricted a path to residency for immigrant children entering the country without their parents or a guardian.
“So we want to make sure, at least I’m going to make sure, that children are always safe,” Garcia told reporters after the committee meeting.
The amended child welfare bill advanced in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services on Wednesday. Wihout the immigration provisions, the bill would allow the Florida Department of Children and Families to issue provisional certifications for new domestic violence shelters, have more power over exemptions to background checks for child care employees, and extend licenses for family foster homes.
Grall had originally pitched the excised language as necessary to close what she claimed was a loophole allowing criminals and gang members to gain legal status, a claim President Donald Trump touted in his first term.
“It’s also clear that there is some abuse of the special immigrant juvenile visa by those who have other criminal history, gang activity, that type of thing,” Grall said during the first hearing of the bill on March 14. “That’s what this is really responsive to and to make sure that we are really looking out for the interest of the children that are within the state of Florida.”
Although advocates with the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) thanked the lawmakers for the change, they said they were still concerned about a provision giving sheriffs authority over cases of missing children who are supposed to be in custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Tiffany Hankins, FLIC’s director of politics and policy, said she worried missing kids without legal status would wind up in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, given the enforcement agreements the state’s sheriffs have signed with the federal government.
The House companion, HB 1301, still maintains the changes that immigration attorneys said would shut them out from representing migrant children in court. However, the bill has not been heard in the lower chamber.
At the federal level, the Trump administration moved on Friday to end a contract providing legal help to unaccompanied migrant children.
Grall’s office did not respond to Florida Phoenix’s request for comment.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
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This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2025.