This is a production of WEDY PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

Coming up, a Tampa mother is separated from her one year old daughter and deported to Cuba by Ice agents.

Her family wants her back.

Lawmakers want to reform property taxes in the state of Florida, and you may get to vote on it.

And former U.S. Representative David Jolly leaves.

The GOP becomes a registered Democrat.

And now he's thinking about the governor's mansion.

These stories and more are next on Florida this week.

Welcome back everybody.

I'm Lissette Campos joining the panel this week.

We have Aakash Patel.

He's the founder and CEO of Elevate Inc. and a Republican.

William March is a veteran political reporter and an analyst.

Shelly Reback is a retired attorney.

She's the host of radio's Midpoint Wednesday show.

She is also a Democrat.

Mike Van Sickle is the managing editor for news and engagement for the Tampa Bay times.

Thank you all for joining us.

We begin this show with a man in Tampa who is trying to get his wife to return to the United States after she and dozens of other Cubans were deported.

Cuban mother Heidi Sanchez Tejeda of Tampa, was in the process of getting a green card.

She was separated from her one year old daughter last week in court during a check in with ice, leaving behind her husband and several children.

All are U.S. citizens living in Florida from Havana.

She described the chaotic scene in Tampa courtroom.

She said officials told her the daughter, still nursing, had to stay.

They told her to call her husband, Carlos Valle, a naturalized U.S. citizen, to let him know what was happening.

Then I started crying.

I begged, I pleaded, my daughter got nervous and agitated and began to ask for milk.

And I told them, look, she's asking me to breastfeed her.

She still breastfeeds, but it didn't matter to them.

Supporters marched in downtown Tampa asking for her return.

Targeted large scale operations have been touted by ICE.

Posting nearly 800 arrests in the last week.

When you enter the country illegally and you know you're here illegally and you choose to have your child that's on you, that's not on this administration.

The operation is a multi-county collaboration on immigration enforcement between the Trump administration and public safety agencies in Florida, a state where one fifth of the population is foreign born.

I'd like to start with you.

This story really puts a face on the different kinds of people who are being deported.

Your reaction to this story?

Well, what we see is the cruelty is the point.

This is essentially an advertising campaign to immigrants to get them to self-deport.

They want to scare people into leaving the country.

But I think what's most important to recognize is that just today, or perhaps yesterday afternoon, the U.S. Congress House Judiciary Committee voted down an amendment proposed by Democrats to prevent the government from using United States funds to deport United States citizens to foreign prisons, gulags, concentration camps.

That was voted down by the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.

So now we are in uncharted waters as far as what this government, this administration, wants to do.

These are people who, if they were convicted of crimes, they were convicted of crimes against the United States, and they should be punished according to United States values, and instead they are going to be renditioned off to foreign gulags and potentially concentration camps and prisons where we have no control over what happens to them.

I think that's a travesty, and it is putting us further and further down the road toward fascism.

In the in the case of this, of this woman, she was deported back to Cuba.

She is in a home with with family and friends.

She is not in a detention center.

Aakash.

It does bring up the point of for those who are looking at these deportations, even if you are for legal immigration and the deportation of illegal aliens involved in criminal activity in this country, this is a story that could be potentially damaging to the Republican Party.

Wouldn't you agree?

Yeah, it's a tough situation.

But I mean, this, this, this unfortunately, this lady was undocumented and Ice was following the law.

And Florida's job is to work with Ice and cooperate.

And that's what we did here.

And and I definitely feel for her.

But you know that, you know, she wasn't documented.

Mike, how can this backfire?

How can this, um, develop further and really polarize folks even more?

That's a great question.

Um, I am looking for signs that it's going to put a dent in Trump's poll ratings.

Um, you know, the tariff, the economy, he's taking hits there, the border, that's where he's rated the highest.

So, um, you have 230 law enforcement agencies cooperating in the state of Florida with Ice.

That's the most out of any state.

There's just across the board enthusiasm for the the supporters of Trump behind this policy.

I don't, despite stories like this that are heartbreaking.

I don't see a lot of steam being lost as far as the push for for ICE enforcement.

William, as as a longtime political reporter, how do you see this playing out?

Well, the interesting thing to me about this is that for many years, um, Hispanics have have tended to lean Democratic, not always in Florida, because of the influence of conservative Cubans in South Florida.

But Donald Trump has reversed that.

And now I'm wondering if stories like this one are going to reverse it again.

Um, as Mike said, and I think there have already been some indications in polling of Trump losing a little ground among Hispanics.

That's a question to watch that hasn't hasn't really been settled.

But but I have a lot of other questions about this.

First, we've received very little information about who these people were that were that were arrested, taken in.

What did they do.

The 800.

How many.

Last week?

How many more stories like Heidi Tejeda are there?

Um, we've heard a few of these.

The famous one, Kilmer Abrego Garcia from Maryland, who was deported by mistake and is now in a hellhole prison in El Salvador.

How many more of these stories are there?

The other question I'd have, frankly, is could somebody please tell me what harm this woman was doing?

Right?

She was caring for the elderly.

She has a one year old daughter.

I mean, she's a poster child.

For what not to do as far as this policy goes.

And we obviously we obviously spent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on this operation.

What good did the citizens of Florida get for that money?

There's also other other things to be concerned about with this kind of a policy like public safety.

In Orlando, for example, they passed in 2018 the Trust Act, which basically told first responders not to ask a person's citizenship status when they were called to either the scene of a crime or an accident or some some something that required some first responder to show up because they were afraid that people would not report, report crimes, or call for emergency assistance.

Now the Florida attorney general has sent a letter threatening the mayor of Orlando that if he continued to follow that policy, that he would be subject to legal sanctions, potentially even removal like they did to Andrew Warren.

So far, it seems like Buddy Dyer, the mayor of Orlando, is standing pat on that because of the safety.

He's concerned about the safety of his community.

And the safety of the community.

The fact is, there are many people who do support the deportation of illegal aliens because they are pointing to different cases where there have been crimes committed by folks who are in this country illegally, and so they are asking for legal immigration.

Aakash.

You know, that's an important point that people are are discussing.

Yeah.

And to Mike's point about the polling.

President Trump campaigned on this issue and and the voters elected him.

And Republicans wanted this security.

Border security tightened and gave ample time to folks that were undocumented to figure things out.

So I don't think it's going to hurt U.S. polls for this specific issue.

I do feel for this lady.

I think everyone does.

But at the same time, the law is law.

I think we need to be careful about calling people illegal aliens.

I don't know what crime she committed.

What was illegal about?

She was undocumented.

She was undocumented.

Correct?

But she wasn't illegal.

She came to the country with that.

She was in the country without a legal status, a legal immigration status.

I believe that under former policy of the government, she was welcomed here.

She was admitted and she was going through the process.

So she was waiting to hear back as to what her.

So she wasn't illegal.

She was just undocumented.

Right.

She was allowed.

Right.

Allowed.

Allowed until.

Until they could figure out what she was.

Until she wasn't allowed.

She didn't commit a crime, is my point.

So we need to be, you know, careful when we call people illegal aliens.

There's nothing illegal in the process that she was going through.

Okay, we're going to move on to the next story.

House Speaker Daniel Perez has created a special committee to look into placing property tax reforms on the 2026 ballot.

House Republicans took property insurance into their own hands as they remained divided on tax relief.

This process is not about ego or pride of authorship or credit.

This is about bringing the very best proposals before the people of Florida, so that they have an opportunity to decide their own fate.

The committee will study the possibility of ending property tax.

They will consider new tax breaks, including a $500,000 exemption against non-school property tax and a $1 million break for Floridians 65 and older.

Property taxes vary by county.

There's some real consequences of eliminating property taxes in the context of everyday essential services like public education, police and fire.

Governor Ron DeSantis announced several months ago the idea of abolishing property taxes in Florida.

He wants to give all homeowners a $1,000 property tax rebate.

Now, abolishing the property tax will require a constitutional amendment, which will have to be approved by voters on the 2026 ballot.

Aakash, you were at the legislative session earlier in the process.

What was the consensus then on property taxes being abolished?

What was the what were the conversations?

Well, I think as we saw this year with the with the devastation of hurricanes and just in general with people feeling the pain of property taxes going up, they want to fix it.

And the governor announced, as you heard in your story that he wanted to abolish it.

Speaker Perez is taking leadership.

He's like, let's call committee.

Let's see if we can actually let the voters decide where to put the money.

$1 million tax break for the seniors is great.

They're hard working.

They work.

You know, they've worked their whole lives and they're getting back in their pockets.

That'll be amazing.

So I think this is an exploratory committee.

But you're seeing a Republican speaker actually listen to the governor and take some action, which I appreciate.

Others would say that they were sparring, that he's not listening to the governor, that they are sparring back and forth.

Well, checks and balances.

I mean, just because the governor says something normally past administrations have just kind of gotten rubber stamped it.

Now he's kind of checking him and saying, well, let's think where where it works the best.

And that's what the committee is going to do.

And the and the other important question is where will the money come from to fund our infrastructure if this property tax is removed?

The homestead.

Are you saying he's saying it will come from increased sales taxes and tourist taxes, tourist fees.

And I think that that's crazy, especially given the fact that the Trump administration has alienated all of our foreign tourists.

Canadian airlines have reduced their seats to Florida by almost 30% so far just now.

And this is you know, this is just in the first 100 days.

Also, I want to point out that this I see this as a is a preemption issue.

This is another way to lose more and more home rule.

What will happen is local governments who prioritize things like arts and culture, for example, like the city of Tampa or even the Hillsborough County Health Program for the poor, which is award winning.

Those are not things that the state legislature is going to want to fund.

Those are things that they're going to want to use as a cudgel on blue, uh, Democratic cities, for example, and, and places where they see priorities that the local citizenry champions, that they don't want to fund.

It's a home rule problem.

Our local governments for though, I mean but local.

Won't be able to fund it if if the state controls the money.

I think I think they'll find a way.

Mike, what's the conversation like in the newsroom?

Covering all the different aspects of this story?

It's kind of a wait and see.

It sounds almost like, are they really going to do that?

And you see signs in the Florida Senate, at least that Albritton the president is kind of saying, whoa, you know, there was a Senate study that showed, you know, these property taxes, 30 billion every year for non-school property taxes and 20 billion for school taxes.

You know, how are you going to replace that?

I think realists have to step in at some point and say, if we get rid of this, how are we going to fund the police and fire?

Right.

Right.

William, are you expecting more, more in-depth coverage as you're looking at these items moving forward and talking more about how the schools are funded, how the roads are funded, how police departments are funded.

It's definitely going to be a major story.

The in the the clash between Perez and DeSantis, this seems to me has the air of of Perez basically throwing DeSantis a bone.

DeSantis wants to cut or eliminate property taxes.

Perez would prefer to cut sales taxes.

Um, there's a pretty clear ideological division there.

Property taxes.

Essentially, people who own property are more likely to have money than people who don't, whereas everybody, including poor people, pay sales taxes.

And for poor people, buying essentials at retail is a far larger share of their income.

So essentially the property, the property tax approach benefits the affluent, whereas cutting sales taxes benefits others.

Well, not everyone who owns a home is affluent.

Of course not.

Not everyone who owns a home is affluent, but they are significantly more likely to be affluent than those who don't.

And for decades in this country, local governments everywhere have depended on property tax.

And when you ask the local government officials why, they'll say that's where the money is.

Okay.

Um, the.

So it's a it's a differing approach helping helping working people, the lower economic classes versus the ones who are, as you say, not guaranteed to be rich, but more likely to have economic assets.

More than folks who are just renting.

Exactly.

We're going to move on to our next story.

Former Republican U.S. Representative David Jolly has changed his registration to Democrat, and says that he is considering a possible run for Florida governor.

This week, I launched Florida 2026, a political committee to engage with Florida's voters to promote voter registration and to talk about issues like our state's affordability crisis, our insurance crisis, to talk about reinvesting in public education, and about fixing our broken voucher system.

We'll tackle ending gun violence and so many other priorities for Florida voters.

Jolly served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 13th district, Pinellas County, from 2014 to 2017.

He said he is close to announcing a gubernatorial run, but to do that needs to, quote, Unify and inspire a coalition of Democrats, independents and common sense Republicans, end quote.

Other Democrats considering a gubernatorial run next year are former Governor Charlie Crist, former Agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried, former Congresswoman Val Demings, and state Representative Anna Eskamani.

On the Republican side, U.S. Representative Byron Donalds announced in February that he is running for Florida governor and President Trump has endorsed him.

There has also been speculation that First Lady Casey DeSantis may be interested in running.

Her husband cannot run again due to term limits.

Mike, your reaction on this announcement by jolly announcement, not an announcement.

I mean, it certainly sounds like he's decided to run.

Yeah, it definitely does.

Um, so after spending seven years as an independent, he's now going to the Democratic Party.

Um, if he does get popularity, it's just another sign that I think the Democrats are struggling to figure out their identity.

I'm old enough.

Everybody, I think, remembers when he ran, as you know, in Congress.

He was he was to the right of center.

Um, and to see him now recognize as a possible Democrat is just an evolution of just, you know, how far we've gone in this country to the right.

Do you feel that he does have the cred to bring people together to be a convener, or will be viewed as someone who is a chameleon, who changes his political party to his benefit?

The last time this happened was former governor, Republican Charlie Crist was an independent and then, of course, became a Democrat, ran for governor and was won the nomination.

So it can be done.

I think what you're going to see a bunch of Democrats, as you see, just jump in because I don't you know, people still will never forgive Governor Crist for being a Republican.

Right.

So and that's what happened when he ran for governor back then.

And and so I think I.

Don't necessarily turn out the vote for the Democrats.

Correct.

So that's something that the Democrats have to worry about.

And for Republicans, I mean, Yes.

Casey DeSantis may jump in the race and she's got some name ID, but Byron Donalds is on fire.

He's leading the charge.

He's got the Trump endorsement, which is of course needed right now.

But several other congresswomen and congressmen like Congresswoman Laura Lee and and and the speaker, they're all endorsed Byron Donalds.

He's raising he's out there.

He's he's leading by doing.

So I think this was a great headline for David Jolly.

He's smart.

He's getting the grabbing the headlines.

But, you know, candidates need to be out there.

And if they're going to announce announce soon.

And so many voters are looking for an alternative.

And David Jolly may be exactly what they're looking for.

They don't want a Republican.

They don't want a Democrat.

They don't want an independent.

And he seems to be kind of a combination of of all of these things.

I'm the Democrat here, but I can only speak for myself, not for all Democrats.

But I don't think that the Democrats have a prayer in the next statewide election.

To be honest with you, we don't have any viable or willing, truly Democratic candidates who are going to take on that that race.

A number of the people that you showed have already said that they're not running.

Nikki Fried has said she's not running.

Anna Eskamani wants to be the mayor of Orlando.

Fentress Driskell is going to run for state Senate.

Um, you know, we have a very small, uh, bench of people who are have a statewide profile, and we don't have a good candidate to run for governor.

Governor.

Um, we have no no message, no brand, no money and no bench.

So my advice, I'm sad to say it, but I think it's realistic.

And I think that, you know, my my point to Democrats out there, my fellow Democrats, is stay local.

Let's rebuild this party from the ground up.

You know, work these local races, help local candidates because the statewide party is a mess.

And we don't have an operation that can get out the vote.

So work local and let's rebuild the party from the ground up.

Aakash, would you agree?

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Yeah I agree.

William.

The stories you know, when you cover the political stories for so many years.

Is this any different than what we've seen in the past in terms of the candidates coming in to the governor's race?

Well, to me, the story is just filled with irony.

Um, and that irony relates to the longtime history of Pinellas County, which was the origin, the home of of Republicanism in Florida.

It was the first significant county Republican Party, but it's always been known as the seat of moderate Republicans.

Moderate Republicans.

David Jolly was a moderate Republican.

Charlie Crist was a moderate Republican.

They both grew up there.

Now they find themselves futilely trying to escape the Partizan extremism.

But Florida's political system is engineered to produce extremism and to punish moderation.

And both of them, both of them have suffered for it.

Charlie Crist became a Democrat because of that.

Ironically, he then defeated the moderate Democrat.

David Jolly, took his House seat, and then Crist himself lost that same House seat because of an extremist Partizan gerrymandering.

And there are so many different levels to this and so many different stories that we could cover.

So there really are.

Before we run out of time, I definitely want to give each of you a chance to give us what you think are the other big news stories that we should be watching this week.

Shelley, I'd like to start with you.

Well, I'll be brief.

I don't want to lose track of Hope, Florida.

I think that Hope Florida may still be alive, if only because Trump may still get Pam Bondi to go after DeSantis to help Trump's chosen candidate, Byron Donaldson, get another leg up in the gubernatorial race.

So I don't think it's dead.

It's certainly dead in terms of state prosecution or state investigation, but I think the feds are still out there.

And if Trump wants to help Byron Donaldson, the best way to do it is to drag DeSantis into this investigation and Casey with him.

With them.

Okay.

Aakash.

Uh, other stories this week there was a judge in Hillsborough County, Nancy Jacobs, that was found by a panel to be removed from her judgeship.

So the governor will get another chance to appoint a judge in Hillsborough County before he leaves.

It's it's it's great for Hillsborough County.

And Sam Ward seat 2222 circuit judge seats.

And Mike.

Well, it's a new month is upon us, so we're a month away, if you can believe it, from, uh, hurricane season.

Oh, no.

So I don't want to remind everybody of that, but we're still digging out of the last hurricane season, so we're still busy covering recovery efforts.

The struggle that a lot of people are finding, a lot of damage assessment letters went out in Pinellas County.

A lot of them were flawed.

A lot of confusion remains.

We were nearing the end of the Florida session and the legislative session, and heading into it, it looked like we were really going to tackle insurance.

But hope Florida really took a lot of attention and sucked the oxygen out of the room.

And here we are.

And there's no major legislation coming out to address the insurance issues.

Let's not forget, with regard to hurricane season, the Trump administration just canceled $300 million worth of federal grants that were earmarked to help with flooding problems and hurricane related disaster recovery.

That's gone now.

There are so many families out there and people who are just in need, and we're just busy trying to write about the situation.

It's it's pretty intense.

Two dozen states sued the Trump administration over the cancellation of those disaster recovery grants, and Florida was not among them.

I wonder why.

Yeah.

William, I want to make sure that you get your time in.

What would you say is another big story that.

You're sort of fascinated that Mayor Jane Castor of Tampa, a Democrat who happens to be in a same sex domestic relationship, got an appointment by President Donald Trump to a FEMA review board.

Of course, she does have a nonpartisan office.

So she's she's a Democrat, but it's not a Democratic office.

And you pretty much have to have a high level municipal official from Florida on any such board.

And all the high level big city municipal officials in Florida are Democrats.

So I wasn't surprised because she's been a strong leader and advocate with the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

She's also term limited, so I don't think there's a chance that she'll she won't be mayor again for like the next term.

So how about governor?

You know, that's what you know her her name in the story.

But I mean, I don't think she has aspirations.

I mean, she's been a very vocal person.

She was a chief of police for she was five years in the police department for 31 years here.

So I think she's much a local person.

She went to University of Tampa, so she'll stay here.

She's probably the most qualified person on that.

Let's all cancel FEMA committee.

Um, but it's.

Good to have diversity.

On those on on any problem solving committee that.

Diversity is a dirty word.

We are no longer.

Allowed to say it.

Well, diversity.

Can mean a whole lot of different things for different people.

And so it's a conversation.

We'll continue.

Thank you so much for joining me.

That's it for our panel.

That's all the time that we have.

Again thank you to our panel members this week, Aakash Patel, William March, Shelly Rybak and Mike Van Sickler.

Send your comments about this program to ftw@wedu.org.

Thanks for watching.