Immigrant groups sue over state’s sanctuary cities ban
Florida’s governor and attorney general were sued Tuesday over a law banning sanctuary cities and requiring law enforcement to use their “best effort” to help enforce federal immigration law.
The 72-page complaint filed in federal court by a collection of immigrant advocacy groups argued that the law effectively turns local officers into Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and will lead to civil-rights violations, unjust deportations and the racial profiling of minorities.
A large focus of the complaint is just what the phrase “best effort” means and how it may be applied in practice. “This ‘best efforts’ clause will lead to state and local law enforcement using race and color as a proxy for immigration status,” the complaint reads.
Kara Gross, legislative director of the Florida ACLU, said that although the ACLU is not part of the suit, the organization has opposed the “unconstitutional, antiimmigrant, and inhumane” legislation since it was first introduced in December of last year.
According to Gross, the law will allow individuals stopped for minor offenses such as public intoxication, marijuana possession or even a broken taillight to be run through the ICE system and potentially detained if there is an administrative warrant in their name.
Gross also believes the law will open up the possibility for people who are citizens to have their rights violated. She pointed to the example of a Monroe County man who was nearly deported to Jamaica in April last year after being detained in response to a request from ICE.
The man was a U.S. citizen, born in Philadelphia, who had ne
ver lived in Jamaica. He filed a lawsuit against the sheriff of Monroe County and is being represented by the ACLU.
“The legislation effectively forces local law enforcement to act as ICE agents and requires local resources to be spent to enforce ICE’s extreme, antiimmigrant policies,” Gross said.
The city of South Miami joined the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, becoming the first local jurisdiction in Florida to challenge the new law. Philip Stoddard, mayor of South Miami, said that signing onto the suit was a unanimous decision made by his commission in a special vote.
Stoddard believes that the law, known by many as the “sanctuary cities ban,” has many constitutional issues, beginning with the fact that no cities in Florida were ever officially designated as sanctuary cities in the first place.
“It’s almost like banning people who are keeping unicorns,” he said. “It doesn’t actually apply to anyone.”
Stoddard said he is all in favor of removing serious criminals from his city, but he said that the law as it was passed is very vague in specifying just how police department’s should give ICE their full cooperation. In addition, he believes the law will require the police to violate the trust of the communities they serve.
Gross agreed with him. “If you believe your local law enforcement will deport you, you will be less likely to reach out to them to report crimes,” she said. “That undermines trust in law enforcement, but it also undermines the ability for law enforcement to work in the communities they serve and keep the public safe.”
One of the requirements of the new law is that every county in the state has to reach a formal agreement with ICE in order to be in compliance. However, as of July 3 it was reported by WRLN that only 41 out of 67 counties in the state had formally reached such an agreement.
One of the counties reported not to reach an agreement was Broward. The status of Palm Beach County was unclear. A request for comment was not returned by either the Broward or Palm Beach Sheriff ’s Offices.
In addition to over-stepping federal law and giving broad, undefined powers to local law enforcement, the lawsuit filed Tuesday claims that from the start the new law was “rooted in anti-immigrant animus.”
It alleges that the original version was drafted by “anti-immigrant hate groups” such as The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). It also alleges that the organization recruited state representatives to turn their “anti-immigrant” agenda into state law.
Shari Rendall, director of state and local engagement at FAIR, said the organization did not draft the antisanctuary legislation. In response to being called an “anti-immigrant hate group,” Rendall wrote, “FAIR supports enforcing U.S. immigration laws, securing our borders and legal immigration policies that favor the national interest.”
Rendall argued that the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the legal groups representing the lawsuit, was marginalizing its views on immigration policy.
In response to claims that the new law encroaches upon federal law, Rendall wrote, “Just because the regulation of immigration is a federal issue does not mean that state and local law enforcement agencies must overlook immigration violations that
harm their communities.”
She argued that state and local law enforcement already cooperate with other federal agents such as FBI agents or U.S. Marshals. “Why should immigration officers be any different?”
“The bottom line is shielding illegal aliens needlessly endangers innocent lives,” she said. “These criminals aliens should not be able to continue to live in communities and engage in further criminal activity.”
Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican who sponsored the bill in the Senate, on Tuesday called the legal challenge “reckless and irresponsible.” He also argued that it would waste taxpayer money to protect “criminals.”
“Banning sanctuary cities is about one thing and one thing only — public safety,” said Gruters, who is also the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
Thomas Kennedy, the political director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, one of the defendants in the suit, said that the repeated steering of the conversation back to safety and criminal activity by Republicans and supporters of the bill such as Sen. Gruters was ultimately just a ploy.
“This is not about going after criminals,” Kennedy said. “This is about the
2020 elections and appealing to the most extreme parts of their base.”
Kennedy said that the new law is only instilling fear in immigrant communities, which contribute to major Florida industries such as tourism and hospitality. He also said that immigrants who visit from other countries contribute to our tourism economy and the law could persuade them not to visit.
“We are attacking hardworking people [and] also making Florida an unwelcome place,” Kennedy said. “It’s not a good look for our state.”
Kennedy said that his organization and others filed the lawsuit after unsuccessfully challenging the law’s passing earlier this year. He and many other advocacy groups believe more productive solutions are needed to address immigration concerns in the state that do not involve forcing local jails to lock people up and waste taxpayer resources.
“We need comprehensive immigration reform, we need to create a pathway for these hard-working people to become citizens,” Kennedy said. “But instead we keep criminalizing this community and playing games with people’s lives for political gain.”