Judge blocks part of DeSantis immigration law that prohibits transporting illegals into Florida

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked an important part of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's controversial immigration plan, which made it a felony to transport illegal immigrants into the state.

The immigration plan was passed by the Republican state legislature last year, and was signed by DeSantis ahead of his presidential bid, which he suspended earlier this year. It was part of a larger anti-immigration bill that DeSantis touted as “most ambitious anti-illegal immigration laws in the country," according to Politico.

DeSantis has repeatedly slammed the Biden administration's response to the ongoing immigration crisis on the United States's Southern border.

The bill was blocked by U.S. District Judge Roy Altman, who agreed with prosecutors that the law was probably preempted by federal immigration laws, and rejected claims that the injunction would harm efforts to identify drug-traffickers. Altman was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

“By making it a felony to transport into Florida someone who ‘has not been inspected by the federal government since his or her unlawful entry,’ [the law] extends beyond the state’s authority to make arrests for violations of federal immigration law and, in so doing, intrudes into territory that’s preempted,” Altman wrote in his ruling. “Any harm the state may suffer from an injunction is outweighed by the harm [the law] poses both to the plaintiffs and the United States, which has the ultimate interest in protecting federal supremacy in the realm of immigration."

A spokesperson for Florida's Attorney General Ashley Moody said the state will likely appeal the ruling.

But critics of the law celebrated the victory, stating the law harmed immigrants and communities in Florida. The lawsuit challenging the law was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Americans for Immigrant Justice, American Immigration Council, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“This is a much-needed win for Floridians,” Spencer Amdur, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said. “For too long, our state has imposed a barrage of anti-immigrant laws and policies that harm citizens and non-citizens alike. This order recognizes the irreparable harm [the law] is causing immigrants, families, and their communities by unconstitutionally usurping the powers of the federal government to subject them to cruel criminal punishment.”

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.