Florida-based J’can businessman says state’s immigration law is ‘shortsighted’

Jamaica-born US-based businessman Ricky Wade is decrying a Florida immigration bill which is slated to become law on July 1, which he believes has the potential for serious repercussions for employers and potential employees.

Wade, who owns and operates some 28 McDonald’s franchise stores in three counties in the state of Florida, said the bill imposes some of the strictest conditions on undocumented immigrants in the country.

“I do not support the bill. I think it is short-sighted,” Wade told The Gleaner.

Under the new bill, Florida local governments would be barred from spending taxpayer dollars on identification cards for persons who cannot provide proof of citizenship and invalidate a driver’s licence issued by another state to someone who cannot prove citizenship.

The bill, SB1718, also prohibits counties and municipalities, respectively, from providing funds to any person, entity, or organisation to issue identification documents to an individual who does not provide proof of lawful presence in the United States; specifying that certain driver licences and permits issued by other states exclusively to unauthorised immigrants would not be valid in Florida; requires certain hospitals to collect patient immigration status data information on admission or registration forms; increases the maximum fine that may be imposed for a first violation of specified provisions relating to employing, hiring, recruiting, or referring aliens for private or public employment; creates a certain rebuttable presumption that the public employer, contractor, or subcontractor has not violated specified provisions with respect to the hiring of an of an unauthorised alien.

Wade admits that he does screen job applicants for his operations, including his company B’ing The Best, Inc. which employs a number of Jamaican and Haitian nationals to ensure that he is not in violation of the law.

“I have to be compliant so as not to lose my business licence,” he told The Gleaner.

He has, however discontinued a programme he formerly operated which brought Jamaicans to Florida on a work visa programme for summer jobs.“I do not agree with the stance some politicians have taken. People must be given the chance to achieve legal status. The system should give them a fair shake,” he said.

A number of Republican state lawmakers, who voted for the law, also recently highlighted the downstream impact on the state economy, with one such lawmaker asking that immigrants now flee the state.

Republican state representative Rick Roth in a Twitter post said that the law “is 100 per cent supposed to scare you”.

“I am a farmer and the farmers are mad as hell. We are losing employees. They are already starting to move to Georgia and other states. It is urgent that you talk to all people and convince them that state representatives can explain the bill,” he said.

Latino truck drivers have also begun a boycott of making deliveries to the state and reports are that a number of construction sites are without workers as farmers are unable to attract workers to harvest crops.