Florida GOP Official Slams ‘Devastating’ Alabama And Arizona Immigration Laws

MIAMI, Florida — Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam (R), who previously served in Congress, condemned the harsh anti-immigration laws passed over the past two years in Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, and elsewhere, calling them “devastating” and “wrong” Friday. At a panel discussion of the Hispanic Leadership Network conference here, Putnam said the laws have “been very harmful to their economy” of the states that passed them, and said it was fortunate Florida didn’t follow in their wake.

Responding to a question about whether states should be able to enforce those laws, Putnam replied:

PUTNAM: Florida flirted with it last year, but thank goodness didn’t do it, because it would have been devastating to our state, to our reputation, to our economy. The issue is that under the Constitution, there’s a really narrow bandwidth of options for states to deal with immigration. … [T]hey’re focusing on the enforcement piece, and have had really devastating effects on their economy. Georgia’s got a labor report out, Alabama’s got a labor report out, that has been very harmful to their economy. Because in swinging wildly out of frustration that Washington hasn’t done something, they’ve passed bills that are causing their businesses and their economies great harm. They’ve seen an evacuation of workers. … It has give us a real world, real time example of what happens when you get these state-based polices wrong.

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