Lawyers for the Southern Poverty Law Center and a Harvard Law School organization have sued Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in federal court over the legality of a state-funded program that has relocated illegal immigrants out of state.
The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the potential 2024 presidential contender and his administration following the state’s transporting of Venezuelan immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard in September.
In September, the Florida legislature approved $12 million in funding for the purpose of transporting “unauthorized aliens from this state.”
This lawsuit is not over DeSantis’s sending immigrants by plane to President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware or to Martha’s Vineyard, where well-off politicians are known for vacationing.
TEXAS SHERIFF CRACKS DOWN ON CRIMINALS ARRESTED AT BORDER
Rather, it disputes the constitutionality of the state program, specifically over how it defines “unauthorized alien.”
The plaintiffs claimed that the immigrants who were transported were not illegally present in the United States or unauthorized because the federal government had approved their release and permitted them to remain in the country pending immigration court proceedings.
The $12 million in funding did not come from state taxpayers, but from interest the state generated off the federal government’s American Rescue Plan payment amid the coronavirus pandemic.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Lawyers from the Southern Poverty Law Center and Harvard Law, including the director of Harvard’s Criminal Justice Institute, filed the lawsuit against DeSantis and Florida Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue on behalf of plaintiffs Americans for Immigrant Justice, the Hope CommUnity Center, and Florida Immigrant Coalition.
It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
