Rep. Lindsay Cross, Colleagues, Call on Governor to End Fake “State of Emergency”

ST. PETERSBURG — State Rep. Lindsay Cross of St. Petersburg has joined 21 of her colleagues in urging Governor Ron DeSantis to immediately rescind Executive Order 23-03, calling it an outdated and politically-motivated misuse of state resources.

The order, originally issued on January 6, 2023, declared a state of emergency over federal immigration policy. In a letter sent on Tuesday, 22 Florida Democrats point out that DeSantis justified the state of emergency with repeated references to the Biden administration. Donald Trump has now been president for six months.

That means the state of Florida is now in its third year of an official State of Emergency based on long-gone federal policy. And this supposed emergency doesn’t bear any of the hallmarks of the true emergencies Florida faces periodically, like hurricane impacts.

“All of this would be troubling at any time, but it’s especially reckless now,” wrote Cross and colleagues. “Florida is in the midst of hurricane season and families are struggling economically to get by. Our Division of Emergency Management should be laser-focused on storm preparation, coastal resilience, disaster recovery, and public safety, not tied up in enforcing a two-year-old immigration order built on politics, not policy.”

A two-plus-year perpetual emergency strains credulity during a time when the governor repeatedly brags about Florida as a destination for people seeking freedom. But the executive order has other legal problems, too.

“States cannot enforce immigration law on their own terms,” wrote the legislators, “nor should they create emergency orders to do so.”

The lawmakers did not speculate on the true purpose of the emergency declaration, but they did point out that no-bid contracts and invoices under this executive order are currently being shielded from the public.