PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Palm Beach County on Thursday morning where he scolded lawmakers on legislation passed this week on illegal immigration.
The governor spoke for about an hour at the sheriff's office training facility on Cherry Road.
WATCH BELOW: 'Let's just get the job done': Gov. DeSantis blasts lawmakers on immigration bill
The bill — known as the "Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy (TRUMP) Act" — was passed this week by lawmakers and cedes DeSantis' oversight authority on immigration procedures and grants it to the state's Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
DeSantis has lambasted that move as putting the "fox in charge of the hen house."
"The structure of the bill is patently ridiculous," DeSantis said Thursday. "It will lead to the removal of fewer illegal aliens."
The bill, which was shepherded by House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton, allocates half a billion dollars to beefing up state and local coordination with federal law enforcement. It also would mean enhanced criminal penalties for immigrants without legal permission who commit crimes in the U.S.
DeSantis said he will veto what he called a "very grotesque, weak ... destructive" piece of legislation, which he contends "knee-caps some of the things we're already doing."
"Nobody elected the commissioner of agriculture to do the immigration stuff," DeSantis said. "I got elected by a massive margin. One of the main issues I ran on was curtailing illegal immigration, so to strip it from the governor (and give that authority to the) commissioner of agriculture is ridiculous."
The governor on Thursday also pushed back on the notion that his calls for a special session to address illegal immigration was a "stunt."
"It's not a stunt when you're upholding the law," DeSantis said. "It's not a stunt when you're removing these criminal aliens. It is not a stunt when you have processes in place that can prevent some of the tragedies that we've seen throughout our state and throughout our country."
WATCH BELOW: DeSantis blasts lawmakers during stop in Palm Beach County
He was joined by Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and state Rep. Mike Caruso.
"I ain't asking permission to go get these bad guys from anywhere," Bradshaw said. "We're going to keep on doing what we’re doing to enforce those laws and keep the people safe in this county."
Caruso spoke to WPTV reporter Joel Lopez about the contentious legislation.
"What's next is reconciliation between the governor and the speaker of the house and the senate," Caruso said.
"Do you think this reconciliation is going to be easy?" Lopez asked.
"No, no, it's going to be a dog fight," Caruso said. "This bill puts handcuffs on those men and their operations and the forces they control to prevent them from carrying out cooperation with ICE, and we should be putting the handcuffs on those criminal illegal aliens that are walking the streets today causing more crime."
WHY THE AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT?
WPTV political analyst Brian Crowley shared his thoughts on this battle.
"(Florida lawmakers) haven't sent the bill to the governor yet, so even though he's threatened to veto it, he's not able to veto it cause he doesn't have it."
Crowley said that could cause a stalemate as the legislature could hold the bill until the start of the regular session in March.
"There's a lot of complicated egos involved in this on both sides," Crowley said.
"Why transfer immigration to the agriculture secretary?" asked Lopez.
"I think there's a legitimate reason for doing it from the viewpoint of the state legislature that a lot of the issue dealing with the immigrants they believe are farmworkers and things like that, so I think putting it under the ag commissioner for some of them seems like a logical place for it," Crowley said.
However, that move may come with a conflict of interest.
"Agriculture has a big interest in having immigrants working in the field," Crowley said. "There is a federal program that allows for that, but there's also a belief that a significant number of the workers in the field and in the warehouses for the farms and elsewhere for agriculture are not part of these federal programs."
DeSantis also held two roundtable discussions with law enforcement officials on the same topic Wednesday in Titusville and Fort Myers.
Earlier this month, DeSantis called a special session of the Florida legislature to not only address illegal immigration but also more hurricane aid for victims, a crackdown on ballot initiative signature fraud and condo relief. However, on Monday lawmakers decided to call their own special session.
