TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Employers who hire immigrants in the country illegally will face tough punishments and gun owners will have more freedoms when more than 200 new Florida laws take effect today, many of which Gov. Ron DeSantis will highlight as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination.

DeSantis has taken a hard line on illegal immigration as he campaigns, saying he’ll finish the Mexican border wall his one-time supporter, Donald Trump, promised to build. He’s also carried out political gimmicks like flying immigrants from Texas to blue states, supposedly before they can get to Florida.

The new employer penalties are a chance for DeSantis to show he doesn’t just talk tough on illegal immigration, but he’s put in place what some critics say are the harshest state law in the country. DeSantis has largely echoed the border policy of Trump, whose endorsement propelled DeSantis to the governor’s office in 2018. DeSantis is now the former president’s leading competitor for the White House.

The new law expands worker verification requirements, among other provisions. The governor’s office blames the Biden administration for what it says is a crisis at the southern border.

“Any business that exploits this crisis by employing illegal aliens instead of Floridians will be held accountable,” said DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern.

But in a state where the largest industries - tourism, agriculture and construction - rely heavily on immigrant labor, there are concerns that the economy could be disrupted when employers are already having a hard time filling open jobs. Florida’s unemployment rate is 2.6%.

Samuel Vilchez Santiago, the American Business Immigration Coalition’s Florida director, said there are 400,000 “undocumented immigrants” working in the state and far fewer applicants than jobs.

“We are in dire need of workers,” especially in construction, the service industry and agriculture, he said. “So there is a lot of fear from across the state ... that this new law will actually be devastating.”

The law forces any company with 25 or more employees to use E-Verify to document new hires’ eligibility to work or face a loss of business license or fines of $1,000 per day per employee.

The law also forces hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask patients if they are citizens or legally in the United States and voids driver’s licenses issued by other states to people in the country illegally.

Protesters have rallied around the state. Dozens of people on Friday waved signs and Mexican, Cuban and American flags in front of the historic Capitol. Rubith Sandoval, 15, helped organize the protest. Her family moved from Mexico and now owns a farm in Quincy.

“We work hard in the fields. We pick tomatoes, we pick strawberries, we pick watermelons, oranges, and who’s going to do that now?” Sandoval said. “My parents now have documents, but they still haven’t forgotten how it was not to have documents.”

Republicans have a supermajority in the House and Senate, and only one Republican opposed the legislation. Given DeSantis’ power and reputation for being vengeful, there has been little vocal opposition among GOP elected officials about the new immigration policy. But that doesn’t mean all Republicans are supporting it, either

Independently-elected Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, a Republican, said illegal immigration is a federal problem.

“Our state solutions are limited, not particularly effective, and have unintended consequences,” Simpson said in an email. “I think the Legislature’s work to tackle illegal immigration is necessary, whether or not it is effective is yet to be seen.”