A long-standing Hispanic civil rights group in the United States has issued a “travel warning” for illegal aliens visiting the state of Florida in response to Governor Ron DeSantis’s recent attempts to crackdown on illegal immigraiton.

During a virtual press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Domingo Garcia, the national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), emphasized that the travel warning aims to alert immigrants and their families about the potential dangers of visiting the Sunshine State.

“If you bring your tía (aunt) to Disney World… to Miami or Universal Studios, they are going to charge you with a felony for bringing your undocumented friend or relative to Florida,” Garcia said. “Florida is a dangerous, hostile environment for law-abiding Americans and immigrants.”

Garcia also announced a campaign aiming to mobilize Florida residents to vote against politicians in 2024 who he accuses of using illegal immigrants as a “political piñata.”

“There will be consequences to your racism, to your xenophobia, to your scapegoating and your fearmongering,” he warned.

The organization also warned they would take  “unprecedented action” in Florida to combat DeSantis’ “deliberate targeting of immigrants” through the signing into law of Senate Bill 1718 and that it fights back against all “acts of fearmongering, scapegoating, and immoral policies hurting Latinos that divide Americans for political gain.”

DeSantis recently signed a bill that imposed restrictions on undocumented migrant labor, ending community-funded programs that provide identification cards to undocumented immigrants, and increasing penalties for individuals involved in transporting undocumented immigrants into the state.

Lydia Guzman, LULAC’s immigration committee chair, said the bill “opens the door for racial profiling” and would deprive immigrants of life-saving medical care. She also warned it could have knock-on effects for Florida’s economy, which continues to outperform other parts of the country.

“[This law] opens the door to anyone that looks like me to be stopped and questioned if (they) have the authorization to be in this country,” Guzman said. “We will have to prove that, because of the color of our skin, we belong to this country.”

“Laws like these that do nothing more than to harass immigrants are bad for a state’s economy,” she added. “Migrants will forgo medical attention,” Guzman said. “As that happens, people may die.”

DeSantis has pushed back against criticism of the bill, instead blaming Joe Biden for his refusal to address the problem at source as the southern border continues to play host to a humanitarian crisis.

“This is something that is the responsibility of Joe Biden. This is a responsibility that he has defaulted on really from day one of his presidency,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Jacksonville last week. “Obviously if we had a different administration it would be a lot easier to actually deal with the problem at its source.”

First established in 1929, LULAC played a significant role in various landmark lawsuits. One of their cases ultimately set a crucial precedent for the famous Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 which deemed all racial segregation in public schools as unconstitutional.

Despite the pushback from left-wing advocacy groups, DeSantis remains extremely popular with his state’s large Hispanic population and is expected to launch his own presidential campaign as soon as next week.