MIAMI, Fla. (WFLA) – Migrant workers and legal advocate groups are filing a lawsuit challenging Florida’s newest immigration law, Senate Bill 1718, which some consider to be the state’s toughest immigration crackdown to date.
Due to SB 1718 taking effect, some out-of-state driver’s licenses are no longer valid in Florida. The groups suing allege that the law is “unconstitutional.”
According to a press release, the complaint states that Section 10 of the bill is “unconstitutional for a state to unilaterally regulate federal immigration and subject people to criminal punishment without fair notice,” adding that the state’s use of the term “inspection” is “incoherent and unconstitutionally vague.”
The federal lawsuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, Americans for Immigrant Justice and American Immigration Council.
“As news of the predictable damage inflicted on Florida by SB 1718 comes in, we are filing this lawsuit to stop its unconstitutional criminalization of the immigrant community in a state where one-fifth of the population was born abroad. This legislation is not the solution to any problem. It is an attempt to scapegoat and terrorize vulnerable families and workers already burdened by the difficulty of the federal immigration process, and to pick a fight with the federal government in order to serve the ambitions of a few politicians. Our challenge aims to uphold the Constitution and protect our communities from the rising threat of discrimination posed by this new Florida law,” Amien Kacou, staff attorney for the ACLU of Florida said in a statement.
The case was filed against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, Florida Statewide Prosecutor Nicholas B. Cox and the attorneys general for all 20 Florida Judicial Circuits.
The groups argue that Section 10 is only one of a host of new laws within SB 1718 that “harm Florida immigrants and their families.”
Aside from Florida limiting which out-of-state licenses are valid in the state, the law also requires new hires to have a work status check if the hiring business has 25 or more employees. It also strengthens penalties against those who knowingly hire or transport undocumented immigrants in the state.
An individual plaintiff said they’re suing because the harms their family and many others, when they “aren’t doing anything to hurt anyone.”
“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?” the plaintiff said in a statement.
On Monday, the Governor’s Office released a statement regarding the lawsuit, calling it “outrageous and abhorrent.”
The ACLU has for years drifted increasingly leftward and out of the American mainstream. Long are the days when the ACLU defended actual civil liberties, such as free speech and religious rights. But taking the side of human smugglers–something truly outrageous and abhorrent–wasn’t on our bingo card.
Nevertheless, in Florida, we will continue to fight illegal immigration and the evil predations of human smuggling.
We look forward to defending Florida and its humane laws against attacks by the ACLU and its leftist cronies.
Jeremy T. Redfern, Press Secretary for the Governor’s Office
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. The complaint can be found here.
