MODERATOR: Good evening and welcome to this debate with-- the Florida Senatorial Debate brought to you by Telemundo Network. The first and only Spanish debate moderated by Marilys Llanos, Telemundo 51 senior political reporter and Jackie Nespral, NBC 6 news anchor, coming to you from our studios in Miramar. We also want to welcome our viewers from the Florida Keys to West Palm Beach and our viewers from our Telemundo stations in Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers, and Naples. We also want to welcome those who are following us through Telemundo51.com and NBC6.com, as well as the Telemundo Orlando and Telemundo Tampa websites. You can tweet us by using #debateFlorida. We also want to welcome our studio audience. Here with us is Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, who is running for re-election for the fourth time and Governor Rick Scott, who was elected for the first term in 2010, and is the Republican candidate in the senatorial federal race. Welcome both of you. MODERATOR: We ask the studio audience to refrain from applauding for either candidate once the debate has started. The debate rules are as follows. The candidates have not been provided any of the questions. Both are going to be asked the same question, each one will have a minute and a half to answer each of the questions, and whoever answers first will have an extra 30 seconds for rebuttal. At the end of the debate, each candidate will have 90 seconds for their final argument. Before the debate, we had a coin toss to determine who would be asked first. So the first question goes to Senator Bill Nelson. Senator Nelson, in our own pool, which took place in July-- it was done by Mason-Dixon. When we asked what are the most important problems facing our country, immigration was the first issue. How did you see the future of more than 11 million undocumented immigrants, specifically the almost 900,000 that live in Florida, establishing roots in the community, have had children here, and have contributed to society and the economy in our state? BILL NELSON: Almost 12 million in the country undocumented immigrants. And that's why we need a comprehensive immigration law, one such as that I voted on about six years ago. It was passed, overwhelmingly, in the Senate bipartisan. It was a vote that was up in the 60s, so it was almost 2:1 and yet the House would never take it up. And now, you see without a comprehensive immigration law, you see what's happening. You see children being taken away from their families at the border, which by the way, when that was happening, my opponent was silent. You see a situation where people are here constantly living in the shadows. And what we should do is we should have a comprehensive immigration law. MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Senator Nelson. Now, Governor Scott. RICK SCOTT: Sure. RICK SCOTT: Immigration-- Look. We're the best melting pot. Florida's the best melting pot, I think, probably in the world. You can get a job here. You can get a great education here. My opponent has had 40 years to do something on immigration and he's actually done nothing. We have to secure our borders. My opponent has co-sponsored a bill that would have open borders. I completely oppose that. We've got to have secure borders. Our cities have to obey the law. My opponent has opposed requiring our cities to obey the law. We all have to obey the law and we've got to take care of the kids. RICK SCOTT: That didn't come here on their own. Their parents bought them. We got to take care of the DACA kids. I think that it's remarkable that the senator will come up here and talk about doing something. He's been there when his party controlled both chambers in the White House, and he did nothing. And with regard to the DACA-- the kids that were separated from their parents, I completely disagreed with the President. And my opponent should have gone back to DC and gotten something done. MODERATOR: Senator Nelson, you have time for rebuttal. BILL NELSON: Well, the fact is that we would have done something as we did six years ago if the majority in the House had passed the legislation, and then we wouldn't have the situation, where I went to homestead, to the detention center, they wouldn't even let me in. Several days later, they decided to let me in, and then they wouldn't let me see the children that had been separated from their parents. And as of today, still a couple of hundred children have been separated. MARILYS LLANOS: Thank you, Senator Nelson. Next question, we're going to talk about immigration again, Governor Scott. The Trump administration is proposing to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain a green card. If they ever receive any government benefits, such as Medicaid, food stamps, or public housing, do you agree or disagree with this measure? RICK SCOTT: I think the way you have to do this is you have to do it in pieces. Let me just go back to the detention center. My opponent, Senator Nelson, could have gone back to DC and gotten something done. He didn't. And I want to remind him that he voted for the legislation that set up that detention center in the first place. Now, with regard to our immigration policy, I think the way we have to do it is we have to say step one, secure the border. Step two, take care of these kids who didn't come here on their own. Their parents brought them. Take care of the DACA kids. Come up with a work visa program that works for people who can come here. They can be vetted, and they go back home, so we can continue to grow our economy. With regard to benefits, I think as long as they're American citizens, we ought to all get the exact same benefits. But all of these problems are caused because Congress has failed to act, failed to act, failed to act. Just remember, my opponent's been up there for over 42 years. He had times to do this, and he never got anything done. So I think the steps are secure the border, make our cities obey the law. You shouldn't be able to decide what laws you want to obey. Take care of the kids who didn't come here on their own. Do the work visa program. Then you start working through all the other problems. MODERATOR: Governor, thank you so much. Senator Nelson. BILL NELSON: Well, you are starting to hear from my opponent that whatever he says is simply not true. As a matter of fact, he has nine attack TV advertisements on the air. A fact checking, independent organization has checked them, and they're all false or either pants on fire false. The technique that my opponent uses is he tries to distract. My opponent, let me tell you what his position on immigration was as he was running for governor. He said he wanted to bring the Arizona law to Florida. The Arizona law said that law enforcement could stop and frisk on the basis of a person's color or their ethnicity. That law was ultimately declared unconstitutional. My opponent wanted to bring that to Florida. So I think you see what his real feeling is about immigration. MODERATOR: We have a couple of seconds. Do you agree or disagree with the measure of making it harder for illegal immigrants to obtain the green card? BILL NELSON: Well, I agree that they should get the green card. That was the whole purpose of the immigration law, to put people on a path. MARILYS LLANOS: Senator, your time is up. I'm sorry. Governor Scott, you have 30 seconds for rebuttal. RICK SCOTT: Well, it's nice that the senator believes in things. What we all know is nothing will get done. He can come here every six years in a campaign. He can say he wants to do things. But he's been there for 42 years. Nothing's happened. If this was something he wanted to do, my opponent could have done it. With regard to Politifact, that is an arm of the Tampa Bay Times. They're not exactly perceived to be a nonpartisan group. They've always endorsed my opponent. And I would look at it as part of the Democratic party. MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Governor. Senator Nelson, do you think that the current firearm possession laws in our state are sufficient, where you may still purchase an assault weapon as an AR15, like the one used at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School massacre? BILL NELSON: We ought to get the assault rifles off the street. We ought to pass a comprehensive background check, a universal and comprehensive background check like the one that I have voted on. And until we do that, we are going to continue to have the problems that we're having. Now this is particularly sensitive to us because of the Parkland shooting. It's also the Pulse Nightclub. In the front row is Fred Guttenberg. His daughter Jaime was gunned down. Fred wakes up every day and goes to the cemetery the first thing. He'll never have another birthday for Jaime.