Florida holds off updating population projections because of uncertainties over immigration policies
People stick out their hands for a chance to grab some beads during the Gasparilla Parade of Pirates along Brorein Street, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida officials are holding off updating the state’s population projections because of uncertainties about how the immigration policies of President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis are going to impact growth.
Members of Florida’s Demographic Estimating Conference met earlier this month to adopt a new population forecast. But they decided not to make any updates to their model because of “emerging and evolving changes” to federal and state immigration policies.
Conference members expect that both federal and state immigration policies will “exert downward pressure” on the population projections for Florida, the third most-populous state in the United States, the conference said in an executive summary.
Florida has a current population of more than 23 million residents. More than a fifth of Florida residents were born outside the United States.
Last week, DeSantis signed a sweeping package of immigration laws aimed at carrying out Trump’s mass deportation agenda. The new legislation signed by the Republican governor mandates the death penalty for immigrants in the U.S. without legal authorization who commit capital offenses and sets aside nearly $300 million for immigration enforcement.
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