TALLAHASSEE – The Farm Worker Association of Florida, backed by high-powered legal organizations, sued Monday in federal court to block the state’s strict new immigration law, which Gov. Ron DeSantis is now using as a centerpiece of his presidential campaign.
The association, joined by several members identified only by their initials, says the wide-ranging law violates several provisions of the U.S. Constitution, beginning with treading into immigration law and policy reserved for the federal government.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Miami. The organizations announced their plans to sue July 1, when Florida’s new law took effect.
“This lawsuit will vindicate all of our constitutional rights and we remain committed to ensuring that immigrants are treated fairly, equally and with dignity,” said Paul Chavez, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project, one of the legal groups involved in the lawsuit.
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Americans for Immigrant Justice are part of the legal team fighting the law.
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The law, which DeSantis promoted last month during an appearance near the U.S.-Mexico border, imposes new restrictions on both employers and workers – a change which has prompted a recent exodus of immigrants from Florida and is contributing to a labor shortage in the state’s key agriculture, restaurant and tourism industries.
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DeSantis, who signed the law in May, has regularly attacked the Biden administration for what the governor and many Republicans ridicule as porous border policies. DeSantis drew attention last year for using Florida taxpayer dollars to lure 49 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, repeating the move in June when he sent three-dozen migrants from El Paso, Texas, to Sacramento, Calif.
DeSantis last month promised that if he gets to the White House he’d expand on the wall-building approach advanced by former President Donald Trump, who remains the clear frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination.
Florida’s new immigration law, pushed by the govenor and approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature, requires companies with 25 or more employees to use the federal database, E-Verify, to check the legal status of any new hire.
But the lawsuit filed by the Farm Worker organization focuses on Section 10 of the law, which makes it a felony to transport undocumented immigrants into Florida, one that could affect mixed-status families or farm workers who travel together.
It also invalidates out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to undocumented workers and makes it a felony to use false identity documents to get employment.
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“Section 10 is phrased in a way that could sweep in all manner of immigrants, including people who are lawfully present in the United States or are in the process of seeking lawful immigration status,” the lawsuit cites.
Several of the Farm Worker members, listed by their initials, also pointed out examples of problems they anticipate facing when they travel into Florida after visiting friends or relatives in neighboring states, or transporting people – some of whom may be undocumented.
The advocates’ lawsuit also charges the law is “vague and incoherent” because it “authorizes or even encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.”
The suit states, “Local and state law enforcement have no competence to apply all the various nuances of federal immigration law that might be relevant to determine when the law applies to a given individual.”
DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to the lawsuit.
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport.