Jamaican dancehall artiste Squash has reportedly been arrested in Florida on immigration-related charges.
Reports are that the entertainer whose real name is Andre Whittaker, has been arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
He is being held at the Krome North Service Processing Center.
According to reports, Squash was taken into custody for overstaying on his work visa.
Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed Senate Bill 1718 to tackle the dangerous effects of illegal immigration.
The new law cracks down on the smuggling of immigrants, stops municipalities from issuing ID cards to people in the state illegally, and ensures that employers are hiring American citizens or people in the country legally.
The law also requires that hospitals that receive Medicaid question patients about whether they are U.S. citizens and are legally present in the country. Hospitals are also expected to report the responses to the state.
The new measure:
- Requires private employers to use the E-Verify system to verify the eligibility of newly hired employees, fines employers $1,000 per day if they fail to use E-Verify, and suspends the licenses of those employers until they come back into compliance.
- Suspends licenses of employers who knowingly employ illegal aliens, and makes using a fake ID to gain employment a felony.
- Enhance penalties for human smuggling, including making knowingly transporting five or more immigrants without legal status or a single minor a second-degree felony subject to a $10,000 fine and up to 15 years in prison.
- Provide $12 million to continue the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program to relocate immigrants to sanctuary jurisdictions if they lack legal status.
- Ban local governments and non-governmental organizations from issuing identification documents to people without legal status and invalidates all out-of-state driver’s licenses issued exclusively to people in the U.S. illegally.
