By DAVID A. LIEB and KATE PAYNE, Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — For most people in Florida, misdemeanor theft can result in up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. For an immigrant illegally in Florida, that same crime now carries a felony punishment of up to five years behind bars and a $5,000 fine.

The new laws in Florida come as President Donald Trump cracks down on illegal immigration. They impose harsher penalties for offenses committed by people illegally in the U.S. than for everyone else. The consequences are particularly stiff for first-degree murder, which now carries an automatic death sentence for anyone who is in the U.S. illegally.

While Florida is more aggressive than most, there are other states considering similar measures to enhance criminal penalties based on immigration status.

A deterrence, but is it constitutional?

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis says “Florida will be safer and securer,” and a model for other states, because of its sweeping immigration laws.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference on immigration enforcement at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection hangar on Homestead Air Force Base, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, in Homestead, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The stiffer penalties are meant to be a deterrent, Republican state Rep. Lawrence McClure said.

“Don’t come to the state of Florida illegally,” he said. “That’s the premise.”

Some civil rights advocates and legal experts are raising alarm.

The laws are “leading into a head-on collision with the constitutional guarantee of equal protection to everyone who is in the United States,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University who specializes in immigration and criminal law.

Are mandatory death sentences allowed?

On his first day in office, Trump ordered a renewed emphasis on the death penalty. His executive order highlighted two particular grounds for it: murdering a law enforcement officer or committing any capital offense while in the U.S. illegally. But jurors and federal judges would still decide whether to impose the death sentence.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 ruled North Carolina’s mandatory death sentence for first-degree murder violated the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. States since then have generally used court proceedings in which jurors first decide guilt, then weigh aggravating and mitigating factors when deciding whether defendants should be sentenced to death.

“There is longstanding precedent making clear that mandatory death penalty laws are unconstitutional,” said Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

But Florida’s new laws eliminate judicial discretion in certain cases. They require courts to impose a death sentence on defendants in the U.S. illegally who are found guilty of capital offenses such as first-degree murder or child rape.

Republican state Sen. Randy Fine acknowledged the legislation he co-sponsored will likely face a legal challenge, but he expects the Supreme Court to overturn its prior ruling.

“It’s almost 50 years later,” Fine said, adding, “The Supreme Court changes its mind on things.”

More time for the same crime

Last year, DeSantis signed a law enhancing penalties for people who commit state felonies after being previously deported and convicted of illegal reentry under federal law. The measure increased sentences by one classification, meaning someone convicted of a third-degree felony typically punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine would instead be sentenced for a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The latest Florida laws apply similar sentencing enhancements to anyone in the U.S. illegally, regardless of any convictions for reentering, and apply the enhanced penalties to misdemeanors.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent walking past is reflected in the window of a helicopter at Homestead Air Force Base ahead of a press conference by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, in Homestead, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

If the new laws get challenged, García Hernández said, a court would likely look to a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The justices said Texas failed to show a substantial state interest for a law barring state school funding for children not “legally admitted” to the U.S. The high court cited the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which says a state shall not “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

To defend Florida’s law, state attorneys would probably have to answer a similar question: “What is your compelling justification for treating individuals who are accused of a crime — the same crime — differently based solely on their citizenship status?” García Hernández said.

Other states may follow Florida’s lead

Legislation pending in several states — including Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, South Carolina and Texas — would allow enhanced penalties for some state crimes committed by immigrants illegally in the U.S., according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural.

A bill by Texas state Sen. Pete Flores would raise penalties one notch for most felonies committed by people in the U.S. illegally.

Flores, who is chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and co-founder of the Texas Hispanic Republican Caucus, described the legislation as “a common-sense, tough-on-crime response to enforce the rule of law and better protect Texans.”

Legislation that passed the Utah Senate and is now pending in the House takes a more narrow approach focused on theft and drug dealing. It would impose mandatory jail sentences, without the potential for early release, for repeat offenders who are lawful U.S. residents or for any offenders who were previously deported and then convicted in federal court of illegally reentering the U.S.

Republican state Sen. Cal Musselman said his legislation targets “a small group of individuals.” Law enforcement officers have told him they see “a clear connection between being deported multiple times, coming in, and committing crimes within the state.”

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.

Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

The start of Morris Duggan’s soccer career was inauspicious.

Growing up as a teenager near Munich, Duggan didn’t play in any youth academy system. He’s a fan of German super-club Bayern, but he only took the field for his village club, Kirchheimer SC, which is six tiers below the top-level Bundesliga.

“I was just playing for fun,” Duggan told the Pioneer Press this week. “Because in Germany, it’s kind of like, if you don’t grow up playing academy, there’s no real future. That’s the stereotype.”

Duggan weaved around those European conventions via a series of backdoors in the U.S. and the 24-year-old made his first MLS start in Minnesota United’s season opener against Los Angeles FC last Saturday.

While Jefferson Diaz’s red-card suspension led to his first start, the second-year center back is in line to keep his place for the Loons’ home opener against CF Montreal at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Allianz Field.

“I thought he had a really good 90 minutes,” head coach Eric Ramsay said of Duggan’s performance in the 1-0 loss. “I would say overall very composed, very strong in his one-v-one duels. He stepped in with the ball well. He made things happen.”

Loons captain center back Michael Boxall saw Duggan earn a spot during preseason friendlies and training sessions. “He’s got the athleticism, obviously the size (6-foot-4),” Boxall said. “Then on a big stage (in LA), big moments, you saw him with composure. He didn’t look out of place the full 90 minutes. So, I think he’s only going to continue to grow.”

Morris Duggan #23 of Minnesota United heads the ball against Aaron Long #33 of Los Angeles FC during the MLS match between Los Angeles Football Club and Minnesota United FC at BMO Stadium on Feb. 22, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Overcoming dead ends

Mark Duggan saw his teenage son have success at Kirchheimer, playing all over the field, including as an attacking midfielder, and encouraged Morris to see where he could go in the sport.

“I’m so thankful for him … seeing that in me, because I didn’t see that in myself at that point,” Duggan said.

A spell with an Under-19 team didn’t go far, and he was back at Kirchheimer through high school in 2020. Then an agency reached out via Instagram to see if he was interested in studying and playing in the U.S.

“I wasn’t really doing anything at that point in my life,” Duggan said. “It just sounded exciting. So, it literally gave me this goal, this drive where it really changed my life around.”

His first stop was Florence, S.C. and Division II program Francis Marion, but he was deemed ineligible to play almost as soon as he arrived.

The next stop was Iowa Lakes Community College in Spencer. Lakers coach Ben MacRae said they didn’t have a center back show up a week before the season started, so they took a flier on Duggan with only had a short highlight video for reference.

Duggan had a strong first season, playing in 23 games, including a surge in the NJCAA national tournament. It led to a scholarship offer from Marshall University in West Virginia, one of the premier Division I men’s soccer programs in the country.

For the Thundering Herd, Duggan totaled 2,927 minutes across 37 matches on back-to-back NCAA tournament teams in 2022-23.

“My first year at Marshall, (I thought) I can actually go professional,” Duggan said. “When I was in junior college, I didn’t think I was gonna make it. But then I just got better and better.”

The Loons selected Duggan with the 67th pick in the third round in 2024 draft, but his rookie season included more detours.

A roundabout

Visa issues kept Duggan from arriving at the start of the 2024 preseason, which isn’t a good sign for a third-round pick needing to scrounge up everything in order to make the squad. But he showed MNUFC enough for the club to sign him to a one-year contract.

Duggan primarily played for MNUFC2, the club’s development team, including in the U.S. Open Cup. When the Loons were down a ton of players in June, he played 49 MLS minutes across two matches, then got some minutes for the first team during Leagues Cup in July.

Duggan then went on loan at Rhode Island FC in August; he didn’t see it as a step back. His history in the game gave him patience to see it out in the U.S. second division, and he helped the first-year team reach the USL Championship final.

The on-ramp

The Loons made two preseason trips to California, and in between Duggan drove 3½ hours to Spencer, a small town in Iowa’s northwest corner. Duggan’s wife, Halley, heard stories about Iowa Lakes and he wanted to show her around.

“She was really surprised to the environment that was there,” he said. “I showed her the stadium (which has a small set of bleachers) and everything. It’s in the middle of nowhere.”

MacRae, who is in his 12th year as coach, tries to stays in touch with former Lakers players. He has had a handful of alums reach the USL levels, but Duggan is the first to climb to MLS. The majority of the Lakers’ roster is internationals, making Duggan a great role model.

“He’s a very humble young man, and was very gracious to come down and speak to our boys,” MacRae said. “He did an unbelievable job. It helps our players understand that there is a pathway to the pros, and it might not be at the top end, but it might be a second, third, fourth league. It does help them understand when they’ve got someone that (they) can look up to.”

MacRae wasn’t surprised to see Duggan reach the pros.

“Relentless,” MacRae said. “He was in the gym every day. He’s working at our indoor center, trying to make sure he’s getting better, improving himself every single day. So, those are the players that you know are going to be successful.”

Duggan didn’t have prepared remarks for the Lakers and mostly answered their questions.

“Wherever you go, you can’t be intimidated by the players who are there,” Duggan told them. “Coming from where I come, every step I took there was (good) players. At Marshall, there was academy players from Germany — like, big academies. … You just have to believe in yourself. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you came from; it just matters how you do now.”

When Duggan made his first MLS start, he faced MLS Best XI striker Denis Bouanga. The match and Duggan’s performance created a buzz in Spencer. Current Lakers players brought it up in their locker room, and MacRae is encouraged about where Duggan can keep going.

“I feel like I’m finally where I want to be,” Duggan said.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting toward the close of its worst month since April, and U.S. stock indexes are mixed following an economic report highlighting both encouraging and discouraging trends.

The S&P 500 was down 0.1% in early trading. It’s fallen in five of the last six days, which erased its gain for the year so far, after weaker-than-expected reports on the economy and worries about President Donald Trump’s tariffs knocked the index of its all-time high set last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 51 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower.

Much of the damage has focused on what had been the market’s biggest winners in recent years, whose momentum seemed nearly impossible to stop at times. Stocks that flew in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology have slumped sharply, for example, and Nvidia fell another 1.1% following its 8.5% tumble on Thursday. Bitcoin, meanwhile, has dropped more than 20% from its record.

The latest report on the U.S. economy released Friday included some encouraging news for the market: Inflation across the country decelerated a bit and behaved pretty much exactly as economists expected, according to the measure that the Federal Reserve prefers to use.

But it also said that U.S. households pulled back on their spending during January. That’s dangerous for an economy that’s depended in large part on strong spending by them to keep it out of a recession.

U.S. consumers had already given big hints that they’re under pressure and worried. Inflation is still high, even if it’s not as bad as its peak from 2022, and a widespread worry is that tariffs announced by Trump could push prices for the cost of living even higher.

Wall Street hopes that all the talk about tariffs has been merely a tool Trump is using to negotiate with other countries and that he’ll ultimately pull back on them, which would mean less pain for the global economy than initially feared.

But even if that proves to be the case, recent reports have shown that all the talk has already pushed U.S. consumers to brace for much higher inflation in the future. At some point, such worries could drive their behavior, which could hurt the economy even without tariffs.

All the uncertainty around not only tariffs but also deregulation and other potential policies could mean that “if the market doesn’t see Trump moving towards more market-friendly policies, the level of trust could continue eroding,” Bank of America economists wrote in a BofA Global Research report.

The S&P 500 has already lost most of the bounce it received after Trump’s election in November.

Of course, much of January’s drop in spending by U.S. households, which was the worst in four years, could have been because of painfully cold weather around the country and other anomalies. But it also followed several signals of potentially weakening growth for the U.S. economy, which closed 2024 running at a solid pace.

“Consumer spending’s unexpectedly sharp decline at the start of the year, likely overstated by its strong finish to 2024, nonetheless is consistent with other data signaling a shift to more sustainable growth by the economy,” said Gary Schlossberg, market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

In the bond market, Treasury yields edged back. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.24% from 4.26% late Thursday. It’s down sharply from last month, when it was approaching 4.80%, as worries have grown about where the U.S. economy is heading.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell sharply in Asia as worries about tariffs continued.

China’s Commerce Ministry issued a statement Friday protesting Trump’s decision to double tariffs on Chinese products to 20%, saying it violated international trade rules and would add to the “burden on American companies and consumers and undermine the stability of the global industrial chain.”

Indexes tumbled 3.3% in Hong Kong, 2% in Shanghai, 3.4% in Seoul and 2.9% in Tokyo.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis reached the two-week mark in his recovery from pneumonia Friday as doctors suggested he had overcome the most critical phase of the infection but held out on declaring him out of danger entirely.

The Vatican, though, made alternative plans for Ash Wednesday next week, making clear Francis still had a long road ahead. Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, a Vatican official and former vicar of Rome, will preside over the March 5 ceremony and procession that inaugurates the church’s solemn Lenten season leading up to Easter in April.

People attend as The Pope’s vicar for the dioceses of Rome Cardinal Baldassarre Reina holds a rosary prayer for the health of Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The Vatican’s early Friday update suggested a level of normalcy and routine as the 88-year-old pope continues recovering at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. “As in past days, the night was tranquil and the pope now is resting,” it said.

Francis had breakfast, read the day’s newspapers and was receiving respiratory physiotherapy, the Vatican said.

In their Thursday evening bulletin, doctors said Francis’ clinical condition had confirmed that he was improving. He was alternating the high-flow supplemental oxygen he had been receiving by a nasal tube with a mask in a sign of improved respiratory function. Additionally, he left his hospital room to go to his nearby private chapel to pray, while continuing with respiratory physiotherapy and work, the Vatican said.

For the second day in a row, doctors avoided saying Francis was in critical condition, suggesting he had overcome the most acute phase of the infection. But given the complexity of his lung infection, they said “further days of clinical stability are needed” before they revise their prognosis officially and say he is out of danger.

Francis has been at Gemelli Hospital since Feb. 14 after his bronchitis worsened.

He has shown steady, albeit slight, improvements since a respiratory crisis and kidney trouble over the weekend sparked fears for his life. The improvements beat back speculation of an imminent death or resignation and signaled that he was still very much in charge.

Prayers continued to pour in

In Mexico City, a few dozen people gathered Thursday night at the cathedral to pray for Francis’ recovery.

Parishioners light candles while praying for the health of Pope Francis at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

“He is like part of the family,” said Araceli Gutiérrez, who treasures the time she saw the pope during his trip to the country of nearly 100 million Catholics in 2016. “That’s why we feel so concerned for him.”

María Teresa Sánchez, who was visiting from Colombia with her sister, said that she has always felt close to Francis — the first Latin American pope.

“That’s like having a relative within the higher-ups, with God,” she said. “He has done so much for religion; he’s such a humble person.”

Upcoming calendar in question

Despite his improvements, Francis’ near-term upcoming calendar of events was being changed: The Vatican canceled a Holy Year audience scheduled for Saturday, and it remained to be seen if Francis would skip his Sunday noon blessing for the third week in a row. With Ash Wednesday now delegated to a cardinal, the next major events come during Holy Week and Easter, which this year falls on April 20.

In past years, when Francis has battled bronchitis and influenza in winter, he curbed his participation in Ash Wednesday and Holy Week events, which call for the pope to be outdoors in the cold leading services, participating in processions and presiding over prayers in the solemn period in which the faithful commemorate Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Beyond that, Francis has a few major events coming up that he presumably would hope to keep if well enough. On April 27, he is due to canonize Carlo Acutis, considered to be the first millennial and digital-era saint. The Vatican considers the Italian teenager, who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, an inspiration for young Catholics.

Another important appointment is the May 24 commemoration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council. The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew I, has invited Francis to join him in Iznik, Turkey, to commemorate the anniversary, which he has called an important sign of reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Before he got sick, Francis said he hoped to go, though the Vatican hasn’t confirmed the trip.

Maria Hernandez contributed from Mexico City.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.