Biden’s Florida legacy: An economic boom, a magnet for immigrants and a solidly conservative red state

They were among the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the state in recent years, as immigration has risen during the era of former President Joe Biden.

No mandate has been affected more than the increase in immigrants from Florida, according to the internal government data obtained by the Associated Press. Florida had 1,271 migrants who arrived from May 2023 to January 2025 per 100,000 residents, followed by New York, California, Tixas and Ilinoi.

Data from customs and American border protection, which must verify the addresses of all those who are allowed to enter the United States and stay to follow the issue of immigration, that Miami was the most affected urban area in the United States with 2,191 new immigrants per 100,000 population. Orlando ranked ten with 1,499 new immigrants per 100,000 people. Tampa ranked 17th, and Fort Maires was 30.

Freitis and her husband, who fled violence in Colombia with their three children, moved to Abu Kaaba, an agricultural city near Orlando, where migrants can find homes cheaper than Miami while they were spreading in a society that had already large groups of Mexicans and Puerto Rican. Her sister owned a mobile house they could rent.

“We advised us to come to Orlando because the Spaniards are talking here and the weather is good,” said Freitz, 37. “We felt satisfied and welcome.”

Immigration has changed after the Covid-19

CBP data on US destinations has acquired 2.5 million immigrants who crossed the border, including those who represented Freites who used the CBP One app that has now ended to make an appointment to enter. The data covered the period in which the Biden-19’s Restrictions ended asylum when President Donald Trump began his second term and declared a national emergency at the border.

CBP released millions of people in the United States on the border during the Biden presidency to follow up on cases in the US Migration Court, and raised the number of migrants to the highest level ever, as many people have made their way to the United States by walking through the Dari gap that was not hacking on the borders of Colombia and Panama. This year, the border patrol issued only seven migrants from February to July, when Trump suspended the asylum system and pushed the army to a central role in deterring the illegal border crossings.

Freitis said she was tortured and raped in Colombia and killed her father and her 8 -year -old child. The family requested asylum, and she and her husband obtained work permits.

It is now a home driver in a hotel in Orlando, a tourist destination with more than ten entertainment gardens, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and Seaword. Her husband works in the custody of the plant.

“We have come here looking for freedom and work. We don’t like to get anything free of charge,” said Freteis, who asked AP to recognize her middle name and her last name for fear of her mother’s safety in Colombia, which bore more than half a century of conflict. “We are good people.”

She, her husband and their three children-who are between the ages of 16, 13 and 7 live-live in a mobile house from two bedrooms. Children attend the school and attend a Catholic Church that offers a mass in the Spanish language, which is the only language you speak.

Orlando absorbed new immigrants who came

Historically, the number of immigrants in the center of Florida from Mexico and Central America was mainly, with a handful of Venezuelan professionals and business owners after the Hugo Chavez socialism became president in 1999. In 2022, more Venezuelan began arrival, and encouraged them by a program created by the Biden administration that presented them with a temporary legal path. This same program was extended after months of the Haitians and Cubans, and their presence became increasingly visible in the center of Florida. The state also has a large Colombian population.

Many immigrants came to Florida because they have friends and relatives there.

In Orlando, they settled throughout the region, not just certain neighborhoods. Companies that meet the needs of new arrivals have been opened in shopping areas with Mexican stores and Puerto Rico. The Venezuelan restaurants that sell Embanadas and ARPAS were opened in the same square as a Mexican supermarket that offers taco and Titlada sandwiches. The churches began to present more fans in Spanish and in the Kreul, which the Hition speaks.

As the population increased, the apartments, shopping centers, offices and warehouses replaced many orange or orcs that surrounded Orlando.

The economy grew with more people reaching

New immigrants found a work in the prosperous construction industry, as well as in agriculture, transportation, facilities and manufacturing. Many work in restaurants, hotels and taxi drivers. Some have started their own work.

“It is like a very vibrant society,” said Felipe Sousa Lazabalite, Executive Director at the Hop Community Center, a group that provides free services to the migrant community in central Florida. “It is like,” I will work hard and will fight for my American dream, that spirit. ”

The contributions of migrants in the GDP of Florida – all the goods and services produced in the state – increased from 24.3 % in 2019 to 25.5 % in 2023, according to the American Immigration Council analysis of the annual surveys of the Statistical Office. The number of migrants in the workforce increased from 2.8 million to 3.1 million, or 26.5 % to 27.4 % of the total population. The numbers include immigrants in the United States legally and illegally.

“Immigration has made this region better and more diverse,” said Lodi Campo, director of the Spanish Federation in Florida. “Migrants have brought surprising economic power and great workforce to the area.”

Immigrants search for advice

Groups that help migrants increase in size.

“We have received hundreds of calls per week,” said Giselle Martinez, the legal director of the Orlando Justice Center. “A lot of calls to the people who say” I have just arrived, I don’t know anyone, I don’t have money yet, I don’t have a job yet. Could you help me? ”

The center created a program to welcome them. Melissa Marantz, Executive Director, said that she had grown from the service of 40 people in 2022 to 269 in 2023 and 524 in 2024.

In 2023, the Federation of Spanish origin launched a program to teach doctors, nurses and engineers from South America and Haiti how to prepare and dress for work interviews and how to answer questions in English. They also expanded the free English program and offered another to help parents to navigate the school system. In 2021, about 500 migrants attended an exhibition and provided free dental, medical and legal services. By 2024, there were 2500 attendees.

Sousa Lazabalite, CEO of Hope, said his group moved from the service of 6000 people in 2019, to more than 20,000 in 2023 and 2024.

“People have been welcomed,” said Soussa Lazabalite, CEO of Hope. “It was an incredible moment, when people came, people were settling because they had work permits. They could work.”

Many people now fear their detention

After Trump took office, anxiety spread through many migrant societies. Florida, a state led by Republicans, has assisted the Trump administration in the Immigration Campaign and enact laws aimed at illegal immigration. This includes a procedure that prohibits people who live in the United States illegally from the entry of the state that some law enforcement officers who were applied after the judge arrested him.

Blanca, a 38 -year -old single mother from Mexico, who crossed the border with her three children in July 2024, said that she came to the center of Florida because four children were already living in the region that they told her that it was a peaceful place where Spanish people speak. Mathematics teacher, who requested asylum in the United States, insisted only on her first name because she is afraid of deportation.

In July 2025, immigration officials asked her to go to their office in Orlando before a hearing of the Immigration Court in October. There, they put an electronic bracelet on its ankle for its broth.

She said that her friend was deported after submitting a work permit request, she did not ask herself. Planca is salaries under the table by cleaning and cooking for neighbors. Her children ask her not to take them from or from school for fear that the police will see her electronic bracelet and stop and hold her on the street.

“It is frightening,” she said. “Of course it is.”