HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STAFF ANALYSIS
BILL #: CS/HB 1449 Reclassification of Criminal Penalties
SPONSOR(S): Judiciary Committee, Michael
TIED BILLS: IDEN./SIM. BILLS: SB 1036
REFERENCE ACTION ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR or
BUDGET/POLICY CHIEF
1) Criminal Justice Subcommittee 13 Y, 3 N Leshko Hall
2) Justice Appropriations Subcommittee 8 Y, 4 N Smith Keith
3) Judiciary Committee 11 Y, 3 N, As CS Leshko Kramer
SUMMARY ANALYSIS
The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the federal law enforcement agency responsible
for securing the nation’s borders and facilitating international travel and trade. The CBP’s top priority is to keep
terrorists and their weapons from entering the United States. In Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2023, the total
enforcement actions of the Office of Field Operations and the U.S. Border Patrol were 1,137,452, and are
354,753 to date in FFY 2024, including apprehensions, inadmissibles, and expulsions. Criminal noncitizens
encountered at the United States borders are a subset of the total inadmissibles encountered and United
States Border Patrol arrests of criminal noncitizens are a subset of total apprehensions. Encounters with
criminal noncitizens in FFY 2023 was 20,166 and has been 4,805 in FFY 2024 to date.
“Organized crime has been defined as ‘illegal activities, conducted by groups or networks acting in concert by
engaging in violence, corruption or related activities in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or
material benefit.’ Transnational organized crime occurs when these activities, or these groups or networks,
operate in two or more countries.” Transnational criminal organizations engage in a broad range of criminal
activities, including, but not limited to, drug and weapons trafficking, human smuggling, human trafficking,
cybercrime, and money laundering, generating an estimated revenue of between $1.6 trillion and $2.2 trillion
annually.
CS/HB 1449 creates s. 775.0848, F.S., to require reclassification of any new felony committed by a person
who unlawfully reenters the United States after having been deported or otherwise removed from the United
States under federal immigration proceedings for committing a felony; or departing the United States while
such an order of deportation or removal was outstanding.
The bill also creates s. 908.12, F.S., to authorize reclassification of any misdemeanor or felony if a person
committed the offense for the purpose of benefiting, promoting, or furthering the interests of a transnational
crime organization. The bill defines “transnational crime organization” to mean an organization that routinely
facilitates the international trafficking of drugs, humans, or weapons or the international smuggling of humans.
Under the bill, qualifying offenses under ss. 775.0848 and 908.12, F.S., are reclassified as follows:
A misdemeanor of the second-degree is reclassified to a misdemeanor of the first-degree.
A misdemeanor of the first-degree is reclassified to a felony of the third-degree.
A felony of the third-degree is reclassified to a felony of the second-degree.
A felony of the second-degree is reclassified to a felony of the first-degree.
A felony of the first-degree is reclassified to a life felony.
The Criminal Justice Impact Conference met on February 12, 2024 and determined that the bill would have a
positive insignificant impact on jail and prison beds. See Fiscal Comments.
The bill provides an effective date of October 1, 2024.
This docum ent does not reflect the intent or official position of the bill sponsor or House of Representatives .
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FULL ANALYSIS
I. SUBSTANTIVE ANALYSIS
A. EFFECT OF PROPOSED CHANGES:
Background
Immigration
The Federal Government establishes and enforces immigration laws. The federal Immigration and
Nationality Act (INA) contains many of the most important provisions of immigration law. 1
The Department of Homeland Security, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
Enforcement and Removal Operations, is responsible for enforcing the immigration laws and
identifying, apprehending, and removing aliens who are a risk to national security or public safety, who
are in the country illegally, or who undermine the integrity of the country’s immigration laws or border
control efforts.2
The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the federal law enforcement agency
responsible for securing the nation’s borders and facilitating international travel and trade. The CBP’s
top priority is to keep terrorists and their weapons from entering the United States.
In Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2023,3 the total enforcement actions of the Office of Field Operations
(OFO) and the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP)4 were 1,137,452, and are 354,753 to date in FFY 2024,
including apprehensions, inadmissibles, and expulsions,5, 6
Criminal noncitizens 7 encountered at the United States borders are a subset of the total inadmissibles
encountered and United States Border Patrol arrests of criminal noncitizens are a subset of total
apprehensions. Encounters with criminal noncitizens for the past five years at all land borders were: 8
FFY 2020 FFY 2021 FFY 2022 FFY 2023 FFY 2024 (to date)
7,009 6,567 16,993 20,166 4,805
Transnational Crime Organizations
“Organized crime has been defined as ‘illegal activities, conducted by groups or networks acting in
concert by engaging in violence, corruption or related activities in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a
financial or material benefit.’ Transnational organized crime occurs when these activities, or these
1 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101-1778.
2
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations, Mission, https://www.ice.gov/ero (last visited
Jan. 27, 2024).
3 The federal fiscal year runs October 1 – September 30.
4 Both are federal law enforcement agencies under CBP.
5 CBP, CBP Enforcement Statistics Fiscal Year 2023, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics (last visited Feb.
15, 2024).
6 These figures include both Title 8 enforcement actions and Title 42 expulsions. Title 8 enforcement actions include apprehensions or
inadmissibles. Inadmissibles refers to individuals encountered at ports of entry who are seeking lawful admission into the U.S. but are
determined to be inadmissible, individuals presenting themselves to seek humanitarian protection under our laws, and individuals who
withdraw an application for admission and return to their countries of origin within a short timeframe. Apprehensions refers to the
physical control or temporary detainment of a person who is not lawfully in the U.S. which may or may not result in an arrest. Title 42
expulsions refers to individuals encountered by USBP or OFO and expelled to the country of last transit or home country in th e interest
of public health. CBP, Nationwide Enforcement Encounters: Title 8 Enforcement Actions and Title 42 Expulsions Fiscal Year 2023,
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics/title-8-and-title-42-statistics (last visited Feb. 15, 2024).
7 “Criminal noncitizens” refers to noncitizens who have been convicted of a crime, whether in the U.S. or abroad, so long as the
conviction is for conduct which is deemed criminal in the United States. CBP, CBP Enforcement Statistics Fiscal Year 2023,
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics (last visited Feb. 15, 2024).
8 CBP, supra at note 5.
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groups or networks, operate in two or more countries.” 9 Transnational crime organizations (TCOs)
engage in a broad range of criminal activities, including, but not limited to, drug and weapons
trafficking, human smuggling, human trafficking, cybercrime, and money laundering, generating an
estimated revenue of between $1.6 trillion and $2.2 trillion annually. 10
Drug Trafficking
Drug trafficking is TCOs’ second-highest most profitable illicit activity.11 TCOs’ expansion of drug
trafficking is often accompanied by dramatic increases in local crime and corruption. 12
Florida law prohibits a person from drug trafficking by knowingly selling, purchasing, manufacturing,
delivering, or bringing into the state, or being in actual or constructive possession of, a specified
quantity of a controlled substance.13 Section 893.135, F.S., outlines threshold amounts of the
applicable controlled substance for each trafficking offense.
Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is modern day slavery which involves the transporting, soliciting, recruiting,
harboring, providing, enticing, maintaining, purchasing, patronizing, procuring, or obtaining of another
person for the purpose of exploiting that person.14 A person may not knowingly, or in reckless disregard
of the facts, engage in human trafficking, attempt to engage in human trafficking, or benefit financially
by receiving anything of value from participating in a venture that has subjected a person to human
trafficking for commercial sexual activity, labor, or services:
By using coercion;15
With or of a child or person believed to be a child younger than 18;16 or
If for commercial sexual activity, with a mentally defective17 or mentally incapacitated18 person.19
Human Smuggling
Section 787.07, F.S., prohibits a person from transporting an individual into this state who the person
knows, or should know, is illegally entering the United States from another country. A person commits a
separate offense for each individual he or she transports into this state.
Enhanced Penalties for Gang-Related Offenses
9 Dr. Marina Caparini, Transnational organized crime A threat to glob al public goods, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(Sept. 2, 2022), https://www.sipri.org/commentary/topical-backgrounder/2022/transnational-organized-crime-threat-global-public-goods
(last visited Feb. 15, 2024).
10 Executive Order 14060, Establishing the United States Council on Transnational Organized Crime, 86 Fed. Reg. 71793 (Dec. 15,
2021).; See The White House, FACT SHEET: The Biden Administration Launches New Efforts to Counter Transnational Criminal
Organizations and Illicit Drugs, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/15/fact-sheet-the-biden-
administration-launches-new-efforts-to-counter-transnational-criminal-organizations-and-illicit-drugs/ (last visited Feb. 15, 2024) and
Channing Mavrellis, Transnational Crime and the Developing World, Global Financial Integrity (Mar. 27, 2017),
https://gfintegrity.org/report/transnational-crime-and-the-developing-world/ (last visited Feb. 15, 2024).
11 Channing Mavrellis, supra at note 11.
12 National Security Council, Transnational Organized Crime: A Growing Threat to National a nd International Security,
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/eop/nsc/transnational -crime/threat (last visited Feb. 15, 2024).
13
Florida law criminalizes trafficking in cannabis; cocaine; illegal drugs, which include morphine, opium, hydromorphone, or an y salt
derivative, isomer, or salt of an isomer thereof, including heroin; hydrocodone, oxycodone; fentanyl; phencyclidine; methaq ualone;
amphetamine; flunitrazepam; gamma-hydroxybutyric (GHB); gamma-butyrolactone (GBL); 1,4-Butanediol; phenethylamines; lysergic
acid diethylamide (LSD); synthetic cannabinoids; and n-benzyl phenethylamines. S. 893.135, F.S.
14 S. 787.06(2)(d), F.S.
15 Ss. 787.06(3)(a)2., (b), (c)2., (d), (e)2., and (f)2., F.S.
16 Ss. 787.06(3)(a)1., (c)1., (e)1., (f)1., and (g), F.S.
17 Mentally defective means a mental disease or defect which renders a person temporarily or permanently incapable of appraising the
nature of his or her conduct. S. 794.011(1)(c), F.S.
18 Mentally incapacitated means temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling a person's own conduct due to the influence o f a
narcotic, anesthetic, or intoxicating substance administered without his or her consent or due to any other act committed upon that
person without his or her consent. S. 794.011(1)(d), F.S.
19 S. 787.06(3)(g), F.S.
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Section 874.04, F.S., enhances the penalty for any felony or misdemeanor, or any delinquent act or
violation of law which would be a felony or misdemeanor if committed by an adult, if the commission of
the offense is found to be for the purpose of benefiting, promoting, or furthering the interests of a
criminal gang20 as follows:
A misdemeanor of the second-degree may be punished as if it were a misdemeanor of the first-
degree.
A misdemeanor of the first-degree may be punished as if it were a felony of the third-degree.21
A felony of the third-degree may be punished as if it were a felony of the second-degree.
A felony of the second-degree may be punished as if it were a felony of the first-degree.
A felony of the first-degree may be punished as if it were a life felony.22
Effect of Proposed Changes
CS/HB 1449 creates s. 775.0848, F.S., to require reclassification of any new felony committed by a
person who unlawfully reenters the United States after:
Having been deported or otherwise removed from the United States under federal immigration
proceedings for committing a felony; or
Departing the United States while such an order of deportation or removal was outstanding.
The bill defines “removal” to include any agreement in which a person stipulates to removal during a
criminal proceeding under federal or state law.
The bill also creates s. 908.12, F.S., to authorize reclassification of any misdemeanor or felony if a
person committed the offense for the purpose of benefiting, promoting, or furthering the interests of a
transnational crime organization.
The bill defines “transnational crime organization” to mean an organization that routinely facilitates the
international trafficking of drugs, humans, or weapons or the international smuggling of humans.
Under the bill, qualifying offenses under ss. 775.0848 and 908.12, F.S., are reclassified as follows:
A misdemeanor of the second-degree is reclassified to a misdemeanor of the first-degree.
A misdemeanor of the first-degree is reclassified to a felony of the third-degree.
A felony of the third-degree is reclassified to a felony of the second-degree.
A felony of the second-degree is reclassified to a felony of the first-degree.
A felony of the first-degree is reclassified to a life felony.
The bill provides an effective date of October 1, 2024.
B. SECTION DIRECTORY:
Section 1: Creates s. 775.0848, F.S., relating to commission of a felony after unlawful reentry into the
United States; reclassification.
Section 2: Creates s. 908.12, F.S., relating to transnational crime organizations; reclassification.
Section 3: Provides an effective date of October 1, 2024.
II. FISCAL ANALYSIS & ECONOMIC IMPACT STATEMENT
A. FISCAL IMPACT ON STATE GOVERNMENT:
1. Revenues:
20 Section 874.03(1), F.S., defines “criminal gang” to mean a formal or informal ongoing organization, association, or group that has as
one of its primary activities the commission of criminal or delinquent acts, and that consists of three or more persons who h ave a
common name or common identifying signs, colors, or symbols, including, but not limited to, terrorist organ izations and hate groups.
21 For purposes of sentencing such an offense is ranked as a level 1 offense on the Criminal Punishment Code offense severity ra nking
chart. S. 874.04(1)(b), F.S.
22 For purposes of sentencing any such felony offenses enhanced under s. 874.04, F.S., are to be ranked on the OSRC without rega rd
to the penalty enhancement.
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None.
2. Expenditures:
See Fiscal Comments.
B. FISCAL IMPACT ON LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
1. Revenues:
None.
2. Expenditures:
See Fiscal Comments.
C. DIRECT ECONOMIC IMPACT ON PRIVATE SECTOR:
None.
D. FISCAL COMMENTS:
The Criminal Justice Impact Conference met on February 12, 2024 and determined that the bill would have
a positive insignificant impact on jail and prison beds. 23 A positive insignificant impact would result in an
impact of ten or fewer prison beds.
Per the Department of Corrections (DOC), in fiscal year 2022-23, 1,131 offenders designated as aliens were
admitted to prison. Furthermore, 363 of these aliens were born in Cuba. Howev er, aliens in the DOC
database include suspected and confirmed aliens, and are also made up of inmates who were legal and
illegal immigrants at the time of their offenses. It is not known how many of these inmates would fit this bill’s
criteria. Furthermore,