Judge reverses his own block on Florida immigration law

A federal judge in Florida on Thursday reversed his own ruling that temporarily blocked a key part of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis's immigration plan.

U.S. District Judge Roy Altman issued an injunction on Wednesday that blocked a part of the immigration plan that made it a felony to transport illegal immigrants into the state. On Wednesday he clarified that the injunction was statewide, but on Thursday he said he would hold a briefing on the injunction, per The Hill.

Altman instructed both parties in the lawsuit to submit a brief by June 6 on whether the injunction should just apply to plaintiffs, or be a district- or statewide injunction.

“On further reflection,” Altman wrote in an order released Thursday afternoon, according to the Miami Herald. “We now invite further briefing on the proper scope of the injunction.”

Altman previously rejected arguments from the state that the injunction would block law enforcement officers from being able to identify drug traffickers. 

“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 Wednesday's 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."

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.

Before Thursday's reversal, a spokesperson for Florida's Attorney General Ashley Moody said the state would likely appeal the ruling. 

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