A judge in Florida has denied a civil rights groups’ request to stop state officials from enforcing a portion of the new state immigration law that makes it a crime to transport someone illegally into the U.S.
The groups argue that Section 10 of the law makes it unsafe for people to travel to work, visit with family, and go to medical appointments.
“For many individual Plaintiffs, Section 10 interferes with their ability to go about their daily lives,” read the motion filed last month.
U.S. District Judge Roy Altman denied the request for a temporary injunction on a technicality almost immediately after it was filed, claiming that Republican State Gov. Ron DeSantis and other defendants, who include prosecutors from all throughout Florida, hadn’t been properly notified about the motion. The judge said that the civil rights groups could challenge the law again.
Other provisions of the new immigration law supported by DeSantis strengthen his migrant relocation initiative and cut back on social services for people without permanent legal status. E-Verify, a federal system that determines whether employees can legally work in the U.S., is expanding its requirements for businesses with more than 25 employees. Hospitals that accept Medicaid are also required to ask patients about their citizenship on intake forms.
The civil rights organizations used a woman who risked arrest by driving her grandson as an example. The woman in question has a pending petition for immigration relief and a Catholic deacon who takes individuals in his car to immigration appointments.
“This law’s only purpose is cruelty. It threatens Floridians with jail time for doing the most ordinary things, like visiting family, going to work and driving kids to soccer games,” said Spencer Amdur, an attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, in their motion last Tuesday.
This comes after the Biden administration lifted “Title 42” last May, increasing the number of illegal border crossers to an all-time high. According to the Department of Homeland Security, nearly 2.4 million migrants were detained at the border for the fiscal year ending in September, surpassing the already-historic number of 1.7 million migrant detainees in 2021.
