The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found that several immigrant rights organizations lack standing to sue Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody over local law enforcement cooperating with federal immigration officials.
The underlying lawsuit, filed by the City of South Miami, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida, the Family Action Network Movement, Qlatinx, and WeCount, challenged the 2019 approval of Senate Bill 168 by state lawmakers, which prohibits sanctuary policies and requires police to help federal authorities enforce federal immigration law.
“The organizations have not established a cognizable injury and cannot spend their way into standing without an impending threat that the provisions will cause actual harm,” the April 13 opinion states.
The plaintiffs had alleged that SB 168 was unconstitutional because it violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution but the decision by the Eleventh Circuit panel reinstates the law.
The judiciary panel ruled that the record contained no evidence that Gov. DeSantis would use his suspension authority to encourage racial profiling.
“There was no evidence that, for instance, the governor made any statement or in any way suggested that a state or local official ought to use racial profiling in connection with enforcing S.B. 168—a statute that requires race neutrality—or cooperating with federal immigration priorities," the ruling further states. "Indeed, the organizations offered no evidence that Governor DeSantis said anything about how or under what circumstances he would enforce S.B. 168. If anything, Governor DeSantis would presumably follow the law and seek to curtail the discrimination that S.B. 168 expressly prohibits."
The Florida Legislature has since approved a law that repealed the section in question of the state law that established the allegedly predatory and racist 'Migrant Relocation Program.’
As a result, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice.
"We will be closely monitoring any future attempts by Florida to implement similar programs and will take action, as appropriate,” said Paul R. Chávez, senior supervising attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project.
The federal appellate judges also questioned the group’s decision to sue Florida’s governor and attorney general when local and federal officials are the ones charged with enforcement.
“The organizations’ alleged injury is neither traceable to the governor or attorney general nor redressable by a judgment against them because they do not enforce the challenged provisions," the judges wrote. "Instead, local officials, based on the state law, must comply with federal immigration law.”
Chief Judge William Pryor, Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, and District Judge Kathryn Mizelle are the three judges who decided the case.