How Florida Avoids Illegal Immigration Chaos

Florida's Lt. Governor Jay Collins joined Preston for ten good minutes to discuss why Florida is avoiding the danger being experienced in Oregon, California, and Illinois (to name just a few).The discussion also covered the federal government shutdown. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Thirty five past the hour. It is Monday morning, Ruminators.
Thanks for joining us wherever however, we appreciate you sharing time.
Try to make it worth your while with some great guests.
We'll switch from talking to little FSU football to now
talking with the Lieutenant governor or the Sunshine State, the LGJ.
Collins Lieutenant Governor. How are you today?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm doing well this morning. How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm doing pretty good. Licking our wounds as a seminole fan,
but that's okay. Comes with the territory of following sports. Hey,
tell me something as you're watching what's going on in Portland, Oregon,
in Chicago, in California? What has been happening all across
the country with efforts to try to deal with the illegal immigration.
What are your reflections on it all and how it

(00:51):
might inform us here in Florida.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, I'm gonna take one step back. How was at
the game Saturday? Man? That was a heartbreaker coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Quicker and you had to bring it up, didn't you.
You just had to bring it up.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Brother. Hey, I'm sharing the pain, sharing the pain on
this form. But yeah, let's talk about this man. We
are so blessed to be a law and order state. Right,
it comes from the top. Governor de Santas hasn't played
around one bit on this. We know that we back
our minimum mid law enforcement across the spectrum. That's ICE
all the way down to local state whatever. Right, it

(01:27):
comes from the leadership at the top, and they set
the tone. You know, it breaks my heart that you
saw the police chief or the dispatch or whatever that
person was right putting out something saying that local police
couldn't respond to support ICE. How far has our nation
fallen some of these Northwestern states or the northeastern states.
Do we find ourselves in a place where law enforcement
won't support other law enforcement assets? That's wrong for America.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I'm curious, you know, with your background in the military,
and obviously you're in state governance now is lieutenant governor.
Prior to that is state senator. But that intersection where
you've got a federal agency working within a state jurisdiction,
but the state isn't doing its job and in fact
is hindering federal law enforcement from taking place. So what

(02:16):
options do states have the citizens in those states?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, I'll tell you what. First and foremost, they got
to remember the elections have consequences. You got to elect
people who actually care about your community. I think second,
you're going to ask yourself, why are they so worried
about illegal immigrants and stepping up for them and not
protecting the citizens of our community. That is really incredibly important.
What are the options they have? Well, they have a voice.

(02:44):
There are more of them than they are the bureaucrats
that are putting themselves in harms. Way, get up, use
your voice, Go out there and protest, go out there
and say things, but do it respectfully. You know, Charlie
kirk is to go out there, God rest his soul
and talk about God and love and debate people openly. Yes,
bad things happened, but you know what, look at the
movement he started. Look at the movement across our country

(03:05):
right now, And that started because of somebody doing what's hard,
doing what's right. You got to use their voice, they
got to use the system, and they got to remember
to vote the right way because the lawlessness there is
destroying lives.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, and it's a direct reflection of the local elections
in Portland or in Chicago or in these communities. The
government shut down, what if any impact is it having
here in the Sunshine State.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, you know, you're going to see a little bit
of stuff, But in the end, a lot of the
the government shut downs performative. It's not essential things in
the government. You know, I think I heard Governor de
sand has put it pretty succinctly. If they're you know,
not necessary, they're extra pieces of the government. Are we
paying for them? One? Two? You know, I think the

(03:54):
next couple of days that we should watch for. October tenth,
I believe, was the next day the civilian employees of
the federal government get paid, and the October fifteenth is
the next time our military gets paid. Now we'll see
what happens. That's when this starts to get real. But
right now you'll see a little bit of degradation in
federal parks things like that. But it starts to get

(04:15):
really real October tenth, October fifteenth. But again, this is
performative action. It's nonsense that we're doing this one more time.
How about we stop doing crs and just pass a
real budget for once. That'd be fantastic.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Back with Jay Collins, Lieutenant Governor for the Sunshine State,
I think a lot of people listening to us right now,
Lieutenant Governor would agree with the statement that you made
on behalf of the governor and I'm sure yourself as
it relates to this government shutdown kind of exposing the
areas of large esse in our federal bureaucracy. I'm curious though,

(04:53):
should Florida play any role in helping the men and
women serving in our military, serving ice making sure their
paychecks are good until this gets settled.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Well, you know, we played many roles in supporting and
standing by them. You know that we take it incredibly
serious in how we support them, what we do. We
have a lot of programs here. But can we have
a role in that? Yeah, we can use our voice,
we can talk to people, we can help push the
bubble on this. But in the end, it's a federal budget, right,

(05:26):
The federal government pays those folks. That's where this comes
into play. But you know, I do want to take
one step back and I want to address one thing
that I think is important. Look at what the left
is talking about and what they want to get from
a government shut down. We know it's not serious. We
know they're talking about what it's free healthcare for legal immigrants.

(05:50):
They want people on medicaid to not have verification of income,
so medicaid for all they know that's not going to
float again, performative action. They're doing this just to play politics,
not being serious about policy. But I think it's important
to say that and then look at Florida, guys, we're
doing just the opposite. So much of what goes right

(06:13):
in our state and in our country happens at the
state level. These local, county and state elections have so
many consequences. We are so blessed to have our state
move in the right direction and focused on actually making
the difference in people's lives. There's still work to do,
but again, leadership comes from the top.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
I was just curious, it's just kind of spitballing in
my own brain here of whether the men and women
serving on military bases inside our state, serving inside Florida,
if there was a way that we could help them
out until the Fed's got this straightened out, just to
I guess, send the message. This is what happens when
you keep your financial house in order. This is what
happens when you got the back of your military and

(06:53):
your people putting their lives on the line.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, Preston, I'm not sure it's not been brought up.
Is something to look into, but ultimately we'll sniff around
that a little bit. But largely I would be shocked
if this thing continues on past October fifteenth, that next
pay period. But who knows. I mean, it's such a
mess up there, it really is.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
You were last in the State Senate. Of course, from
your chair. What's unfinished business that you think the Senate
and the House need to address first and foremost in
the next legislative session.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, I think there's always more we can do to
go back and reduce regulation. I think there's always more
we can do to codify laws that maybe you need
refreshing to be a little bit more straightforward, and help
aid women in law enforcement to do their job more efficiently.
But property tax is the biggest thing, man. That is

(07:50):
the number one thing. When I'm in the grocery store
at a gas station and people want to talk, that's
what they want to talk about right here, right now.
That is number one. We've got to get this straight.
We've got to put it on there. And outside of that, man,
you never go wrong with things that support our minimum
in law enforcement. To your point earlier, and you know,
continuing to push to make sure that our school choice

(08:11):
works as well as humanly possible, and then we provide
the most opportunity and the best education to our kids,
I mean economy, education, safety, and security in the community. Man,
that is the sweet spot for most things.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
What do you think is the single most important issue
for the GOP to keep the momentum inside the state.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Here inside the state right now? It would be a
tie probably between immigration and property tax. You know, the
only level we can pull to put money right back
in the pockets of our citizens is that property tax level,
a lever. Everything else has so much federal implication, whether
it's insurance, you know, your taxes. Obviously we can't help

(08:51):
with the federal government. We're doing all we can here
and every other facet, even our utilities and our energy policy,
a lot of that's driven largely by the federal government.
So you know, property taxes it. Man, We're still paying
the price for inflation year over year over year. And
things are going well under President Trump. We're head of
the right direction so many ways. But man, people are

(09:13):
hurting right now. They need more money in their pocketbooks.
And that's one level we can pull you know, I
remind people I grew up on food stamps, I grew
up without a whole lot, so I know what it's
like to make choices. I know what it's like to
give up something. So I'm very attuned to find their
ways to help those men and women who have had
very little find ways to have just a little bit
more and provide more opportunity for them in their families.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
D LG. Lieutenant Governor J. Collins. Jay, thanks for the
time this morning. I appreciate We'll talk again soon.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
I appreciate you, preciate the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Thank you, Sir, Jay Collins with us this morning here
on The Morning Show with Preston Scott