Florida has received the support of attorneys generals from 17 other states in its legal effort to keep a state law banning sanctuary cities on the books so that local officials will be required to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement agencies.
Republican attorneys generals from states such as Arizona, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas and West Virginia signed an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th District supporting Florida’s Senate Bill 168. The brief, which was filed late last month, argues that U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom’s decision to enjoin the law from taking effect was a partisan enterprise and an attempt to legislate from the bench.
“A legislative judgment that the country’s existing laws should be enforced is not an extreme or suspect position,” the amicus brief states. “Yet the district court held the law facially invalid, because it was supposedly enacted with discriminatory intent, even though the law specifically prohibits racial discrimination.”
Supporters of the Florida law barring sanctuary cities say it simply bolsters federal immigration enforcement in the state and that state lawmakers were not “racially motivated when they passed the measure."
“This court should emphatically reject the district court’s attempt to tar legitimate political positions as inherently suspect,” the amicus brief states. “There is nothing discriminatory about opposing illegal immigration, let alone supporting enforcement of the federal government’s current immigration laws.”
The Florida Attorney General’s Office welcomed the support of other states in the current litigation.
“We appreciate the other states supporting our litigation to defend Florida’s sanctuary cities law,” Kylie Mason, spokeswoman for Attorney General Ashley Moody, told the Florida Record in an email. “Our office will continue to pursue legal action to mitigate harm to Floridians caused by the chaos at the border.”
The city of South Miami and groups such as the Florida Immigrant Coalition opposed the 2019 law, calling it anti-immigrant and unconstitutional.
“SB 168 impermissibly authorizes and requires state and local law enforcement to perform the functions of federal immigration agents,” the original lawsuit states. “...SB 168 targets immigrants and people of color throughout the state of Florida who will be subject to arrest for deportation by state and local police, under circumstances not permitted by the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
In addition, trust between immigrants and local police agencies will inevitably erode if the law is left in place, and racial profiling and harassment of immigrants will increase, according to the law’s opponents.