DeSantis Dropped from Immigration Case

A federal judge has dismissed Gov. Ron DeSantis as a defendant in a challenge to part of a new Florida law that targets people who transport undocumented immigrants into the state. The Farmworker Association of Florida and individual plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in July in South Florida against DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, Statewide Prosecutor Nicholas Cox and state attorneys from throughout Florida. The law, which passed during the spring legislative session, makes it a felony to transport into the state people who enter the country illegally. The challenge argues, in part, that the law is unconstitutionally vague and should be blocked. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman last week granted a motion to dismiss DeSantis as a defendant, saying the governor doesn’t have power to enforce the law. The ruling did not dismiss the other defendants from the case. “Because the other named defendants in our case have the independent authority to enforce the law — and since Governor DeSantis’s presence in this litigation doesn’t ‘significantly increase the likelihood’ of the plaintiffs obtaining the relief they seek —the plaintiffs lack standing to assert their claims against the governor,” Altman wrote, partially quoting a legal precedent.

Tags: News Service of Florida