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Hundreds march outside Homestead City Hall to denounce new immigration law
Immigrant workers, religious leaders, and concerned families united in Homestead on Saturday May 27, to push back against Florida’s new anti-immigration law
In a “March for Unity” hundreds gathered in front of Homestead City Hall to protest Senate Bill 1718 Gov DeSantis signed into law last month that some consider the “strongest anti-illegal immigration legislation in the country ”
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The new law requires any hospital that accepts Medicaid to ask patients whether they are United States citizens
People could be charged with felonies if caught transporting five or more undocumented immigrants or a minor
Employers will be required to use E-Verify to check employment eligibility If not, businesses will be fined
No smoking: Miami bans tobacco, weed, e-cigs at parks and beaches
Miami has banned smoking at all city parks and beaches
The ordinance — introduced by Commissioner Manolo Reyes — was approved Thursday and prohibits the consumption of tobacco, cannabis and the use of electric cigarettes It will take effect in 10 days
“City beaches and parks are public spaces where residents enjoy time outdoors Mainly, they are places where parents take their children to enjoy sports activities,” Reyes said “It would be contradictory to think that we are taking our children and the elderly to places where they will be affected by secondhand smoke that causes such a negative effect on health ”
The city will post notifications around buildings, parks and beaches to inform the population
Those who do not comply with the new ordinance could face fines
The city of Miami Beach adopted a similar ordinance back in January, but vaping and unfiltered cigarettes and cigars are still permitted in city parks and beaches
Protests Spark
And students with dreams of practicing law will also be impacted Starting in 2028, Florida will not allow undocumented immigrants to receive a law license
According to the Florida Immigrant Coalition the law has caused tremendous fear, anxiety, and misinformation among the immigrant communities of Florida Families have left the state, and many more are making plans to leave in the coming months
In response to these concerns, WeCount! and a coalition of faith leaders, communitybased organizations, and immigrant families gathered to denounce SB1718 and to say, “We’re here, and we ’ re not going anywhere There is no Florida without us ” fromA1

According to a joint study performed by the Boston University, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Chicago Booth School, and Aria Foods, titled “Labor Supply of Politicians,” they found no positive empirical correlations between performance and increased politician salaries in Europe
Various organizations join the criticism
Mark Golding, leader of the opposition party People’s National Party (PNP) lent his voice to the chorus of criticisms, “It’s unjustifiable for Jamaica to be paying the political class at levels which are way out of whack of our regional peers,” he expressed in an address on Saturday, the 27th of May
The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) has joined other organizations including the Jamaica Civil Service Association, the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Associations, the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica, the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, and the Jamaica Council of Churches in lambasting the increase

“Much greater transparency around matters such as this is almost as important as the solution itself, as we have seen time and time again Especially after the announcement of the increases to parliamentarians, questions abound about the reasonableness of those increases relative to our socioeconomic position versus other countries of comparable size and economic challenges. This is exacerbated by the longstanding unkept promises of accountability,” the group expressed in a statement
The proposed increases would take the annual salaries of each Cabinet Minister and the speaker of the house to approximately 23 million JMD in 2024 or the equivalent in USD of 149,000 per annum
At this rate, that annual salary would be competitive with Governor salaries in the United States despite the Jamaican GDP per capita (a measure of economic prosperity) as recorded as less than 8% of the GDP per capita of the United States