Last Call for 2.13.25 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida

Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

The Senate has passed a deal on immigration enforcement, ending a stalemate within the GOP and rejecting complaints from Democrats.

Senate Republicans were unmoved by Democrats’ pleas to protect Dreamers, who would lose their in-state tuition starting next school year under the bill.

SB 2C, co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Joe Gruters and Randy Fine, primarily concerns law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the state’s efforts to collaborate with the federal government to crack down on illegal immigration. 

Under the bill, DeSantis, Simpson, the Chief Financial Officer, the Attorney General and law enforcement officials would serve on an eight-member Immigration Enforcement Council to coordinate with the federal government on immigration. Deciding who would oversee immigration enforcement had been a source of contention between DeSantis and Simpson.

The bill would also award $250 million in grants to local enforcement agencies to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The funds would cover agencies’ expenses and give up to $1,000 bonuses for law enforcement officials who now have more duties handling immigration as they work with the federal government.

The bill also strengthens criminal penalties for undocumented immigrants convicted of committing crimes and requires them to be sentenced to the maximum penalty for felonies.

But for Democrats, what Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo called “the poison pill” in the larger bill is a provision to eliminate in-state tuition waivers for roughly 6,500 undocumented students enrolled in Florida’s public universities and colleges.

A Pizzo-backed amendment to protect the in-state rates for current students was voted down Thursday, 22-14. Ultimately, the Senate passed the bill 27-10.

Read more on Florida Politics.

Evening Reads

—”Inflation helped Donald Trump get elected. Now it’s his problem.” via Greg Ip of The Wall Street Journal

—”Trump trashes totally normal spending … that his administration authorized” via Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone

—”Trumpflation” via Annie Lowrey of The Atlantic

—“RFK Jr. confirmed, elevating anti-vaccine activist to nation’s top health post” via Lauren Weber and Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post

—”Behind Kennedy’s vow to ‘follow the science’ on vaccines” via Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Christina Jewett of The New York Times

—”15 *very* weird facts about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” via Chris Cillizza of So What

—”Trump’s new passport rules are trapping transgender Americans in bureaucratic limbo” via Rachel Cohen and Kelsey Piper of Vox

—”Twitter or Bluesky? How about neither.” via Nate Silver of the Silver Bulletin

—”Climate-fueled hurricanes make Florida’s rampant growth slow down” via Craig Pittman of the Florida Phoenix

—”Federal aid still flows to small businesses amid Trump overhaul, but Florida firms are wary of cloudy future” via David Lyons of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Quote of the Day

“It is indeed remarkable that the Secretary must be instructed on this elementary legal principle.”

— Justice Charles Canady, in his concurrence reversing Rep. Debbie Mayfield’s disqualification from the SD 19 ballot.

Put it on the Tab

Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio could use a Дочь шахтёра … er, Coal Miner’s Daughter … as he tries to convince Ukraine to fork over mineral rights to defray U.S. war funding costs.

Order a Snow on the Beach for the Yankees, keeping Florida at the top of the winter destination list.

Sorry, Dreamers, in-state tuition wasn’t spared in the new immigration bill. Accept this Keeping Dreaming as your consolation prize.

Breakthrough Insights

Tune In

Daytona 500 on Sunday

The green flag drops on the first NASCAR Cup race of the season and the biggest race of the year on Sunday with the running of the Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX).

“The Great American Race” will see Chase Briscoe starting from the pole position with 2022 winner Austin Cindric on the outside of the first row.

Last season, William Byron edged his teammate Alex Bowman to win the race. Byron finished third in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, which Joey Logano won. 

Briscoe won only one race last season and finished in the top five three times. 

“A great way to start our season,” Briscoe said after winning the pole. “Unbelievable way to start off the year. Unbelievable way to start off with Toyota. To be able to be the guy to deliver them the first anything when they’ve already accomplished so much is pretty cool.”

Two more drivers to watch are Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. They posted the two fastest qualifying times among nine drivers of unchartered cars. Johnson won the Daytona 500 in 2006 and 2013.

Truex, a former NASCAR Cup Series champion, has never won the Daytona 500. He finished second in 2016, his only top-five finish at the race.

The purse for the Daytona 500 last year was more than $28 million, the largest in history. Officials expect this year’s purse to break the record. Individual payouts are no longer made public, but typically, the winning team receives eight to 10% of the total purse. 

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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.

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