Tea Parties (FL) Split Over E-Verify, Diluting Prospects for Passage

[pampango]

Dozens of tea parties, including the state's largest, say they will support an E-Verify immigration bill at the 2012 Legislature. But with some libertarian-leaning conservatives balking at the issue, the path to passage looks more precarious than ever.

"Most in the tea party are concerned about anything that is illegal and does not uphold the rule of law. E-Verify is one way to uphold our legal immigration laws and we support it," said Billie Tucker, who chairs the First Coast Tea Party in Jacksonville.

Paul Henry, who sits on the steering committee of the 80-member network, said, "I'm against E-Verify because it is yet another federal database. E-Verify, along with so many more laws here in Florida, involves being guilty until you prove yourself innocent."

Other tea partiers say Henry, a retired law-enforcement officer, is outside the mainstream of the tea movement. "I am confident that Mr. Henry does not speak for the majority of the group," said Jack Oliver, legislative director for Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, a TTPN member.

Judith Hood, a member of Tea Party Manatee, said her Bradenton-based group remains solidly behind E-Verify legislation, as it was at the 2011 session.

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/tea-parties-split-over-e-verify-diluting-prospects-passage

From the article it sounds like almost all Florida teabaggers are frustrated with republicans who control the legislature and won't even take up E-Verify, much less enact it. The republican establishment there probably sees what teabaggers-supported state immigration did to agriculture and other businesses in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina and want no part of it in Florida.

I love these teabagger vs. republican establishment battles (though the outcome can be hard on real people.)