Governor Ron DeSantis made cracking down on illegal immigration his signature issue.
But one group of Floridians just got caught in the crossfire.
And Ron DeSantis handed Florida small businesses one surprise that will leave jaws on the floor.
Florida Legislature moves to expand E-Verify to every private employer
Florida Republicans just took another major step toward making the Sunshine State ground zero for President Trump's immigration enforcement agenda.
State Representative Berny Jacques pushed through legislation Wednesday that would force every private employer in Florida to use the federal E-Verify system — closing what he calls a "loophole" that currently exempts businesses with fewer than 25 employees.¹
Jacques' bill, HB 197, cleared its first committee hurdle along strict party lines in the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee.
"It simply enforces the law," Jacques told committee members. "It's already illegal to hire these unauthorized workers, and we have a system that will verify whether or not you are in compliance with the law."²
The legislation marks Jacques' second attempt to pass the expansion after a similar measure sailed through the Florida House last year with bipartisan support but died in the Senate without ever getting scheduled for a committee vote.
This time around, Jacques says he's getting support from the Governor's office and has been talking with senators who appear more receptive to sponsoring a companion bill.
The numbers behind Florida's small business crackdown
More than 475,000 Florida businesses have fewer than 20 employees, according to a 2025 Small Business Administration report.³
That's the vast majority of the state's roughly 518,000 small businesses that actually have employees on payroll.
Jacques' bill would add every single one of these mom-and-pop operations to Florida's E-Verify mandate — a massive expansion of government oversight that Republicans implemented just two years ago.
Governor DeSantis signed the original E-Verify law in May 2023 as part of a sweeping immigration package that required private employers with at least 25 employees to use the federal database.⁴
The system, run by the Department of Homeland Security, cross-references new hire information against federal databases to verify work authorization.
But here's what DeSantis and legislative Republicans didn't tell Florida voters back in 2023: the 25-employee threshold was never their actual goal.
DeSantis initially pushed for E-Verify requirements on all businesses regardless of size.
The Legislature backed down after getting hammered by small business groups across Florida who warned the mandate would crush operations.
"The governor initially sought a sweeping requirement that all employers, regardless of employee count, would be subjected to the E-Verify stipulation, though state lawmakers placed limitations after receiving pushback from small businesses statewide," one 2023 report noted.⁵
DeSantis' own Chief of Staff James Uthmeier admitted at the time that lawmakers "reached that number in large part trying to accommodate some of these smaller mom-and-pop shops that would have some challenges coming up to speed on enforcement."⁶
Now Jacques and his Republican colleagues are finishing what they started.
Democrats warn expansion could cripple small businesses already struggling
Not everyone thinks forcing 475,000 additional businesses to comply with federal verification procedures is a winning strategy.
Jacksonville Democrat Representative Angie Nixon worried Wednesday that demanding small business owners implement E-Verify procedures could prove "cumbersome," especially for Floridians who started their businesses "out of desperation."
"I just feel like we don't need it," Nixon said. "It takes away from actually running the business."⁷
Nixon and the committee's three other Democrats voted against the measure, but Jacques had the Republican votes to move HB 197 forward to the House Commerce Committee.
The timing couldn't be more awkward for Florida Republicans.
DeSantis spent the first weeks of 2025 locked in a brutal fight with his own party's legislative leaders over immigration enforcement.
The Governor called a special session in January demanding sweeping new powers to assist Trump's mass deportation agenda — including the authority to suspend any elected officials who refused to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.⁸
Republican House Speaker Danny Perez and Senate leaders responded by gaveling out DeSantis' special session and immediately convening their own.
They passed a compromise package in February that DeSantis grudgingly signed, but the battle left "hurt feelings on all sides," according to Republican Senator Joe Gruters.⁹
The really embarrassing part for DeSantis? Florida Republicans didn't get around to criticizing his administration for failing to enforce the existing E-Verify law until months after it took effect.
Between July 2023 when the law went into effect and January 2025, DeSantis' Department of Commerce issued exactly eight enforcement letters to companies potentially violating E-Verify requirements.
That's eight letters over 18 months for a state with tens of thousands of businesses subject to the mandate.
Gruters and other Republican lawmakers publicly blasted DeSantis in January for the pathetic enforcement record.
The Governor fired back by sending warning letters to 40 companies — including Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital, Circle K, 7-Eleven, and marijuana company Trulieve.¹⁰
The letters blamed the Legislature for "refusing to fund" the E-Verify program, even though the annual state budget includes funding for the Department of Commerce to carry out all its statutory duties.
"The Legislature created but twice refused to fund this program," the warning letters claimed.¹¹
Senate spokesperson Katie Betta wasn't having it: "The budget includes enough funding for the Department to carry out its statutorily assigned duties, E-Verify being one of them."¹²
Why expanding E-Verify now makes zero political sense
Jacques' timing on this expansion couldn't be worse for Florida Republicans trying to navigate Trump's immigration agenda while keeping business groups happy.
DeSantis just signed legislation in February allocating $298 million for immigration enforcement — including grants to local law enforcement, training programs, and detention facility reimbursements.¹³
That package already has immigrant communities on edge and businesses worried about labor shortages.
Now Republicans want to add compliance headaches for nearly half a million additional small businesses?
The enforcement mechanism makes the stakes even higher.
Under current law, if the Department of Economic Opportunity catches a business ignoring E-Verify requirements three times within two years, they face a $1,000 per day fine until they prove compliance.¹⁴
Businesses also face license suspensions or revocations.
And here's the kicker: DeSantis already proved his administration can't effectively enforce E-Verify for the 42,000 larger businesses currently subject to the mandate.
Now Jacques wants to add oversight responsibilities for 475,000 additional small operations?
Other Republican-led states tried this approach and ran into the same enforcement nightmare.
States like Alabama and Mississippi that mandated E-Verify for all employers found the programs largely unenforced because state agencies lack the resources to audit hundreds of thousands of businesses.
"In the states in which this requirement is already universal, it's not widely enforced," political science professor Julia Maskivker explained. "The government is not necessarily on their backs, making sure that everyone is using it because this is a massive enterprise and the government may not have necessarily the time or the power to do this."¹⁵
But the threat alone creates what Maskivker calls a "chilling effect" — businesses terrified of $1,000 daily fines even if enforcement remains spotty.
https://twitter.com/SenEricSchmitt/status/1986201515145535703
The bigger problem for Republicans? Expanding E-Verify to all businesses directly contradicts their "Florida is open for business" messaging.
DeSantis spent his entire tenure as Governor bragging about Florida being "No. 1 in these United States in net in-migration" and "No. 1 in new business formation."¹⁶
Now he's supporting legislation that adds massive compliance burdens to nearly half a million small businesses?
That's not exactly the "promised land" for entrepreneurs that DeSantis advertised in his second inaugural address.
Florida's 2026 legislative session begins January 13, meaning small business owners have about two months to figure out whether Jacques' expansion will become reality.
Given that DeSantis' office is reportedly backing the measure and Jacques claims he's finding receptive senators, Florida's mom-and-pop shops might want to start familiarizing themselves with E-Verify procedures sooner rather than later.
¹ Liv Caputo, "Florida's E-Verify expansion clears first legislative hurdle," Florida Phoenix, November 5, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ U.S. Small Business Administration, "2025 Small Business Profile: Florida," 2025.
⁴ Carlton Fields LLP, "New Florida Immigration Law and E-Verify Requirements for Employers," May 2023.
⁵ The Capitolist, "Senate passes bill requiring Florida employers with 25 or more employees to use E-Verify," May 4, 2023.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Caputo, Florida Phoenix, November 5, 2025.
⁸ NPR, "DeSantis faces pushback by fellow Republicans on his call for an immigration session," January 26, 2025.
⁹ NPR, "On a second try, Florida Republicans agree on a law to assist Trump's deportations," February 14, 2025.
¹⁰ Tampa Bay Times, "After criticism from Republicans, DeSantis revives E-Verify immigration enforcement," January 31, 2025.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ NPR, "On a second try, Florida Republicans agree on a law to assist Trump's deportations," February 14, 2025.
¹⁴ Fisher Phillips LLP, "Florida Poised to Require Employers to Use E-Verify with New Hires," May 2023.
¹⁵ WUSF, "Florida professor says expanding E-Verify could have a chilling effect," May 7, 2023.
¹⁶ Reason, "DeSantis revokes licenses from businesses that fail to use complex, flawed E-Verify system," February 2, 2023.
