Welcome to

Legislation allowing local law enforcement officers to check immigration status is drawing hundreds of opponents to the state capitol. As Whitney Ray tells us, many minorities fear the changes would encourage racial profiling.

A hundred people of different faiths and ancestry lifted their voices and their prayers in a church just blocks from the state capitol Thursday morning.

22 year old Evelyn Rivera came to Florida from Columbia when she was a child. Four years ago her mother was deported. She’s praying that lawmakers don’t pass a bill that would allow local law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law.

“I just pray that all the Congressmen and legislators really, really listen to what we have to say,” said Rivera.

From prayers to protests, the number of activists quickly grew as busloads of angry protestors arrived at the state capitol to bash the bill.

Even within the legislature, there’s debate over how severe new legislation should be. The Senate scaled back its version. The House is speeding ahead.

For more than an hour the protests chanted and waved signs. A dozen students delivered a petition to house sponsor Bill Snyder. One student told Snyder he had no choice when his parent moved from South American to Florida when he was five. Snyder stuck to his guns.

“We are not creating new law. If someone is hear illegally, they have no documentation, they are already breaking the law,” said Snyder.

Florida’s plan doesn’t go as far as Arizona’s… it would only allow police officers to check the legal status of people under criminal investigations… but to the crowd gathered it signifies the beginning of racial profiling and harassment.

Most Republicans support the bill, although right now there’s an in party fight over a provision that would require businesses to use the federal e-verify system to check the legal status of their employees.