In August 2014, DeSantis voted in favor of H.R. 5272, which would have prohibited a federal agency from using federal funding to consider an application for DACA.

In December 2014, DeSantis voted in favor of H.R. 5759, the “Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2014,” which would have prohibited the president from exempting or deferring undocumented immigrants from removal.

DeSantis cosponsored H.R. 5053, the “Expedited Family Reunification Act of 2014,” which was designed to authorize immigration officials to quickly remove unaccompanied minors.

DeSantis supported President Trump’s family separation policy.

In December 2021, at DeSantis’ direction, Florida childcare regulators adopted an emergency rule to stop issuing licenses to facilities that housed unaccompanied immigrant children on behalf of the federal government. In February 2022, DeSantis’ administration proposed making the rule permanent, trying to make it substantially more difficult for Florida shelters to assist vulnerable children. The Biden administration, business groups, and prominent Democrats opposed the rule, calling it “immoral” and “needlessly cruel.”

In January 2022, under DeSantis, Florida joined other states in the Biden administration to block a program that reunited children from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras with their parents who were lawfully present in the United States.

DeSantis said he would have opposed a 2013 Florida bill to grant driver’s licenses to DACA recipients.

DeSantis promoted E-Verify, a program used to track immigration status of workers. Critics raised concerns about how expanding E-Verify would harm Florida’s agricultural, tourism and construction industries.

In June 2020, DeSantis signed a bill that required all public employers and private employers with public contracts or incentives to use E-Verify. In February 2023, he declared that the bill had not “been effective enough,” and he stressed the need to expand the law to include all private employers in Florida.

In February 2023, DeSantis proposed and implemented sweeping legislation targeting immigrant workers and students.

• The bill proposed stripping tuition waivers from undocumented students, expanding E-Verify requirements to all employers in Florida, and making it a felony to use false identification to obtain work eligibility.

• It also proposed prohibiting local governments from issuing ID cards to undocumented immigrants and invalidating out-of-state licenses granted to undocumented immigrants.

DeSantis cosponsored the “Resettlement Accountability National Security Act of 2015,” which would have prohibited the admission of refugees into the United States until approved by Congress.

Following Hurricane Dorian in September 2019, DeSantis refused to join Senators Rubio and Scott in requesting that displaced Bahamians be allowed to seek temporary refuge in Florida.