Rep. Berny Jacques is seeking to revive his legislation to expand E-Verify to all businesses after his similar bill last Session died in the Senate.

Jacques’ new measure (HB 197) took a step forward as the House Commerce Committee advanced it with a 16-5 vote. That was the final committee stop in the House, but no Senate companion bill has been filed so far.

Under a 2023 law, large businesses with at least 25 employees or more are already required to use E-Verify to confirm their employees’ immigration statuses. But efforts to expand the law to cover smaller businesses haven’t gotten the political will to clear the full Legislature.

Last Session, the House passed Jacques’ bill in April before it stalled in the upper chamber.

Jacques, a Seminole Republican, argued Thursday that the extra step wouldn’t be time-consuming for small business owners to type information in the federal system administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“There is not going to be a heavy burden,” Jacques said. “It’s a free system, and so as far as financial costs, there wouldn’t be any.”

Jacques was joined by his co-sponsor, Rep. Kiyan Michael, whose son was killed in a car crash in 2007 by someone who had illegally entered the country.

“I absolutely will always show up with anything to do with combating illegal immigration,” Michael told lawmakers as she urged them to vote in favor.

But Florida AFL-CIO lobbyist Rich Templin dismissed Jacques’ bill as nothing more than a “headline pursuing approach” for what’s a more complicated immigration problem.

“Our position is that we have got to stop taking these little Band-Aid approaches state by state,” Templin said during Thursday’s hearing. “Presidents, legislators, Legislatures, states cannot fix the immigration system in this country with these haphazard headline chasing approaches like requiring E-Verify. It has to be done at the federal level.”

Templin added the AFL-CIO supports E-Verify “as a potential tool” but only as part of more comprehensive immigration.

“Because every time a state does something like this, we get that much further away from all of our goal, which is to fix immigration in this country,” Templin said.

As voters this week begin to receive mail-in ballots for Primary races in the House District 87 Special Election, Democratic small-business owner Emily Gregory’s campaign is touting new endorsements and a fundraising milestone.

Gregory’s campaign said she’s now crossed the $80,000 mark — about $24,000 more than she reported gaining by late November.

She also welcomed endorsements from U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman, and Reps. Mitch Rosenwald and Kelly Skidmore, Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon and Delray Beach Commissioner Rob Long, who won the vacant House District 90 seat Tuesday.

In a statement, Frankel called Gregory “smart, compassionate and relentlessly focused on helping Florida families.”

“As a mom, she understands that families are being crushed by rising costs,” Frankel said. “She’s committed to lowering costs for families, fixing Florida’s property insurance disaster, and investing in strong public schools. Emily is a fighter who shows up, listens, and leads with community at the center.”

The new nods join others from Ruth’s List Florida, Florida NOW, Vote Mama and Moms Fed Up.

Gregory, a first-time candidate, said in a statement that she is “honored” by the added support from “Democratic leaders who have been fighting for our communities for years.”

“This campaign is about ensuring Florida families have the freedom to build a secure future, affordable homes, great public schools, and access to quality health care,” she said. “With VBM ballots going out this week, these endorsements and the more than $80,000 we’ve raised reflect the strength of our campaign. Together, we’re going to flip this seat and deliver real solutions for the people of District 87.”

Gregory is competing in a Democratic Primary against comedian Laura Levites. The winner will face one of two Republicans running: Lake Clarke Shores Council member John Maples, who has garnered support from several Republican House members and local leaders, and real estate agent Gretchen Miller Feng.

The winner will take the seat Republican Mike Caruso vacated when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to serve as Palm Beach County Clerk in August. DeSantis called a Special Election two months later, after Gregory sued to compel him to call it.

The deadline to request mail-in ballots for the HD 87 Primary is Jan. 1. Early voting runs Jan. 3-10. Election Day is Jan. 13.

The General Election is on March 24, well into the 2026 Legislative Session. Click here for information on important dates.

HD 87 covers a coastal portion of Palm Beach County. It includes portions of Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter, as well as coastal communities from Juno Beach to Hypoluxo.

Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed a lawsuit against online gaming platform Roblox for “knowingly” facilitating conditions for sexual predators.

The 76-page lawsuit was filed Thursday in the 8th Judicial Circuit Court in Baker County. There’s no one particular victim listed in the lawsuit, but the filing states, “These predators use the Roblox (application) to find, groom, and abuse children. Florida children have been coerced into taking and sending sexual images of themselves. Others have been physically abducted and raped.”

The lawsuit follows several legal maneuvers by Uthmeier this year challenging Roblox’s operations. There was already one civil action, and Uthmeier launched a criminal investigation of the online platform in October.

In a video statement published Thursday, Uthmeier said that the criminal investigation, which included subpoenas, continues to probe Roblox. But he decided to file the civil action regardless.

“We reviewed the information demanded in our subpoena, and what we found is unacceptable,” Uthmeier said. “Roblox aggressively markets to young children. But fails to protect them from sexual predators.”

The lawsuit alleges Roblox violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practice Act on five counts. The legal action seeks a court injunction to block Roblox from engaging in the acts alleged and civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation and additional penalties up to $150,000.

A key element of the lawsuit is Uthmeier’s office’s claim that Roblox “attracts vulnerable child users by design.” The court action details investigations by Uthmeier’s office that he claims uncovered intentional efforts to lure children into sexually charged circumstances.

The lawsuit alleges that Uthmeier’s investigators created fraudulent Roblox accounts and used them to assess whether the platform was accessible to minors, including by testing age verification and facial age estimation. The investigators posed as a 7-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy, a 10-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl and a 47-year-old male. The lawsuit includes screenshots of the Roblox entry page and instructions for creating a Roblox account. The lawsuit alleged that Roblox lacked safeguards to verify that parental consent was obtained.

“Roblox does nothing to confirm or document that parental permission has been given, no matter how young a child is. Nor does Roblox require a parent to confirm the age that the child provides when creating a Roblox account,” the lawsuit said, adding, “Roblox could do more; it chooses not to.”

Uthemeier stated that, given the lack of oversight of who was creating accounts on the platform, he decided to proceed with legal action.

“Roblox broke the trust of parents, and my office will make sure they answer for it,” Uthmeier said.