The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans for Immigrant Justice (AIJ) and the American Immigration Council (AIC) filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the recently enacted Florida immigration law SB 1718, one of the strictest immigration laws in the US.
The suit focuses mainly on Section 10, the portion of the law that criminalizes bringing people suspected to have entered the US unlawfully into the state of Florida. The lawsuit contends that Section 10 violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution as it seeks to override existing federal immigration law. It also alleges that Section 10 is “impermissibly vague and incoherent,” violating the Constitution’s Due Process Clause. The filing concludes, “The federal government has exclusive power over immigration law and policy. Congress has created a comprehensive system of federal laws regulating the transport and harboring of immigrants in the United States.”
An individual plaintiff, who chose to remain anonymous, voiced their concerns with the law, saying:
I’m suing because this law harms our family and many others. We aren’t doing anything to hurt anyone. On the contrary, we’re here working, paying taxes and trying to provide a safe life for our families. Now we’re scared to even travel together as a family. I would never want my son to face a felony for traveling with his mother and his sister. It makes no sense. We’re family — how can this be?
Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has yet to respond to the lawsuit. However, DeSantis did defend SB 1718, saying, “In Florida, we will not stand idly by while the federal government abandons its lawful duties to protect our country.”
Beyond Section 10, SB 1718 also prohibits undocumented immigrants from driving in Florida, even with a license from another state or territory; requires hospitals receiving Medicaid funds to inquire as to immigrants’ legal status; requires all employers, public and private, to verify the immigration status of employees within three days of beginning work; and allocates $12 million to the state budget to “facilitate the transfer of unauthorized aliens out of the state,” something the DeSantis administration has already begun doing.
In June, thousands of protesters gathered across the state to condemn SB 1718, with dozens of businesses closing to support the protests. Alexis Tsoukalas and Esteban Leonardo Santis with the Florida Policy Institute have estimated SB 1718 could potentially cost the state billions due to its effects on key business sectors in the state as well as the overall costs of the potential increase in incarceration.
The NAACP, Equality Florida and the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FIC) have issued travel advisories for Florida due to the recent proliferation of conservative legislation under DeSantis, who is currently running for US President in the Republican primary.
