A federal court judge has blocked Florida officials from enforcing a section of a law passed last year that subjects anyone who transports people known to have unlawfully entered the United States to felony charges.
Judge Roy Altman of the Southern District of Florida issued the order on May 22 to block enforcement of Section 10 of the new statute, Senate Bill 1718, which was spearheaded by state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill). In making the ruling, Altman indicated that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has held that efforts to address the unlawful transport of undocumented aliens rest with the federal government and not states.
Florida officials did not respond to requests for comment about Altman’s decision.
“Without express guidance from the (U.S.) Supreme Court … we remain bound by the pronouncements of our Circuit, which has held that the ‘unlawful transport and movement of aliens’ is a fully preempted field” – that is, not the domain of the states, the Southern District Court’s decision states. “... Bound by 11th Circuit precedent, we hold that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail on their claim that Section 10 of SB 1718 is preempted by federal law – and that they have satisfied each of the other elements of their preliminary-injunction request.”
The decision prevents the defendants, including state Attorney General Ashley Moody and Gov. Ron DeSantis, as well as their officers, agents and attorneys, from taking any action to enforce that provision of the 2023 law
Representing the Farmworker Association of Florida and other plaintiffs were the ACLU of Florida, Americans for Immigrant Justice, American Immigration Council and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Section 10 is vague and unconstitutional, the groups argued.
“Section 10 has put thousands of Floridians and residents of other states – both citizens and noncitizens alike – at risk of being arrested, charged and prosecuted with a felony for transporting a vaguely defined category of immigrants into Florida, even for simple acts such as driving a family member to a doctor’s appointment or going on a family vacation,” an ACLU of Florida news release states.
An ACLU of Florida spokeswoman said the litigation has gone through a few stops and starts.
“The court stayed and administratively closed the case pending its resolution of plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction,” Keisha Mulfort told the Florida Record in an email. “Our motion was granted on May 22, but the court ordered additional briefings on the scope of its preliminary injunction. Our briefs are due next week. We anticipate that the case will be reopened once this and any other remaining issues related to the motion have been resolved.”
The plaintiffs’ lawsuit asks the court to conclude that Section 10 illegally inserts the state into the federal purview of immigration enforcement, and it argued that the court should prevent “families, organizations and communities” from sustaining irreparable injuries.
In his ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, however, he acknowledged that the Supreme Court has never said directly that the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) preempts states from regulating the transport of undocumented aliens.
The ACLU of Florida has suggested that under Section 10, Florida residents could have been subjected to incarceration simply by going about their business.
“The court was right to block this callous and patently unconstitutional law, which had threatened Floridians with jail time for doing the most ordinary things, like going to work, visiting family and driving kids to soccer games,” Spencer Amdur, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a prepared statement: “This ruling is an important victory for Florida communities.”