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人兽性交: Florida鈥檚 Failed Challenge to ICE Guidance Is State鈥檚 Latest Effort to Demonize Immigrants

MIAMI 鈥 A federal judge in the Middle District of Florida on Thursday denied the state of Florida鈥檚 request for a preliminary injunction to block the Biden administration's interim Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) guidance that shifts enforcement focus to non-citizens who pose a risk to national security, border security, or public safety.聽聽

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody promised to appeal the decision to the Eleventh Circuit. Florida, like Texas and Louisiana, filed suit to stop the Biden administration from implementing its own immigration policies and sought, in effect, to maintain the Trump administration鈥檚 policies indefinitely.聽

The current enforcement priorities represent a significant shift away from the Trump administration鈥檚 policy of detaining and deporting as many people as possible with no regard for equity or fairness. Advocates, including the Southern Poverty Law Center (人兽性交), have nevertheless warned that the Biden administration鈥檚 interim guidance still grants overly broad discretion to ICE. Despite the stated shift in priorities, ICE maintains the authority to conduct enforcement outside of the priority categories with certain approvals. And聽the interim guidance does not change any existing state or local laws regarding how local law enforcement works with ICE.聽

The following statement is from AJ Hernandez Anderson, a senior supervising attorney with the 人兽性交鈥檚 Immigrant Justice Project.聽 聽

鈥淭his lawsuit was nothing more than Florida state leadership鈥檚 latest effort to demonize immigrants, as evidenced by AG Moody鈥檚 affirmative steps to marginalize the Florida immigrant community in her press statements regarding the suit.聽聽

鈥淓very part of this suit is untethered from reality, duplicitously asserting that temporary ICE priorities will result in more crime in Florida when, in fact, an increase in non-citizens correlates with a decrease in crime in the state. Clearly, AG Moody聽prefers to detain all non-citizens, even when it is unconstitutional. Numerous courts have held that immigration detainers are unconstitutional because local law enforcement lacks authority to re-arrest a person on behalf of immigration officials when they would otherwise be free to go.聽聽

鈥淔lorida, like Texas and Louisiana, has re-opened the old Southern playbook in an attempt to nullify federal law and the federal government鈥檚 discretionary decisions about how best to use its resources. We鈥檝e seen similar efforts time and time again, especially when the federal government is attempting to secure more rights or better treatment for Black and Brown people in the South.聽 聽

鈥溔耸扌越 urges the Biden administration to further narrow its enforcement priorities and to reject a carceral model of immigration enforcement that uses a person鈥檚 contact with the criminal legal system鈥攚hich too often results from profiling and systemic racism鈥攁s a proxy for risk.聽

鈥淣ow that the state鈥檚 motion for preliminary injunction was rightly denied, Florida鈥檚 leaders should shift their focus to the real issues affecting Floridians instead of pursuing new ways to scapegoat immigrant communities and spout hateful rhetoric.鈥澛 聽