Civil rights organizations reached out to a federal judge on Tuesday, seeking a halt to the enforcement of a particular section of Florida’s new state immigration law.
This section, known as Section 10, criminalizes the act of transporting someone who has unlawfully entered the United States.
Reports are that the request was promptly denied by the jurist due to a technicality.
The groups claim that Section 10 makes it unsafe for individuals to attend medical appointments, engage with family members, or travel to work. The complaint was part of a July lawsuit that challenges the legality of the law.
Judge rejects civil rights groups’ request.
Section 10, the groups contend, disrupts the daily lives of many of the individual Plaintiffs. The motion sought a temporary injunction to halt enforcement, but the request was immediately denied by US District Judge Roy Altman.
He cited a technicality, stating that Governor Ron DeSantis and other defendants, including prosecutors from across Florida, had not been properly notified about the motion.
However, the judge indicated that the civil rights groups could resubmit the request.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, asserts that Florida’s law is unconstitutional. The suit argues that federal law takes precedence over state law regarding immigration and that the Florida law disregards due process rights and is ambiguously written.
More of Florida’s new immigration law
- Migrant workers, advocates challenge DeSantis’ new immigration law
- New immigration law: State driver’s licenses no longer valid in Florida
- Hundreds “march for unity” outside Homestead City Hall to denounce new immigration law
How section 10 affects Floridians
The motion made on Tuesday included examples of the potentially negative impacts of the law.
It highlighted instances such as a woman who could be arrested for driving her grandson, who is seeking immigration relief, and a Catholic deacon who provides transportation for individuals to immigration-related appointments.
The law has been sharply criticized by some, including legal experts at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, who describe it as an act of cruelty, threatening ordinary Floridians with jail time “for doing the most ordinary things, like visiting family, going to work and driving kids to soccer games.”
