The Florida Legislature is considering a law (Senate Bill 1086) that would allow illegal immigrants serving prison sentences to be deported under certain circumstances.
According to the proposed Florida law, prison inmates in Florida who have been convicted of a crime, have served at least half of their prison sentence and agree to be deported to their country of origin would be eligible for deportation. This proposed law would not result in any forced deportations of illegal immigrants. According to a recent article, there are approximately 5,000 illegal immigrants in Florida prisons.
The purpose of the Florida law is more for saving money and reducing overcrowding in prisons as opposed to addressing issues directly related to illegal immigrants. A similar law saved approximately $13 million in Arizona in 2007.