The Southern Poverty Law Center and immigration rights groups are suing the DeSantis administration, alleging that its program to transport “unauthorized aliens” out of state amounts to state-sponsored harassment of the undocumented.
The federal legal complaint was filed Dec. 1 in the Southern District of Florida against Gov. Ron DeSantis and the secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation, Jared Perdue. The lawsuit challenges Florida’s decision in September to fly about 50 Venezuelan and Peruvian migrants from Texas to Massachusetts without giving notice to local officials.
“This case is about (a) section of the Florida appropriations act, which violates the Supremacy Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) by usurping the federal government’s sole role in regulating and enforcing immigration law, muddying an already complex area of law, leading to chaos and confusion; and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause, through its state-sponsored harassment of immigrants based on race, color and national origin,” the lawsuit states.
Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director, said the administration was fully prepared to defend against such lawsuits, which she described as politically motivated and unsound.
“The relocation program was funded by interest from federal COVID dollars and lawfully executed under an appropriation of the Florida state Legislature (that, incidentally, had bipartisan support),” Fenske said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “This program does not violate federal law.”
The lawsuit specifically challenges the constitutionality of a section of Florida’s 2022 General Appropriations Act, or House Bill 5001. Under this provision, $12 million was set aside for relocating undocumented aliens out of Florida. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop the defendants from further utilizing that section of HB 5001.
The Constitution gives sole powers over immigration policy to the federal government and not individual states, according to Paul Chavez, senior supervising attorney with the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project.
“The scheme by Gov. DeSantis and the state of Florida to use taxpayer funds for the ‘relocation’ of ‘unauthorized aliens’ is a blatant and unlawful attempt to harass immigrants at the state level,” Chavez said in a prepared statement. “Florida’s relocation program constitutes a discriminatory attack on immigrant communities, and Gov. DeSantis’ unconstitutional actions must be stopped.”