A judge rejects a request to overturn a Florida law that makes it illegal to drive someone into the country illegally

A component of Florida’s new state immigration legislation that makes it illegal to transport someone who has entered the country illegally has been challenged by civil rights organizations in federal court.

On Tuesday, Florida officials were ordered to halt applying this provision. On a technicality, the judge, however, instantly rejected the request. The organizations said in a motion filed as part of a lawsuit filed in July that the law’s Section 10 provision makes it dangerous for people to travel to work, attend family gatherings, and go to medical appointments.

The move, which requests a temporary injunction suspending enforcement, claimed that “for many individual Plaintiffs, Section 10 interferes with their ability to go about their daily lives.”

The U.S. acted almost immediately after it was submitted.

On a technicality, district judge Roy Altman rejected the request for a temporary injunction, claiming that Governor Ron DeSantis and other defendants, including attorneys from all throughout Florida, had not received the appropriate notice of the move.

The judge ruled that the civil rights organizations might resubmit their plea. Other elements of the new immigration law supported by DeSantis strengthen his migrant relocation initiative and cut back on social services for people without long-term legal status.

The use of E-Verify, a federal system that determines whether individuals are authorized to work in the United States, is being expanded to include companies with more than 25 employees. Hospitals that accept Medicaid are also required to ask patients about their citizenship on admissions papers.

DeSantis, a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, dispatched Florida National Guard members to Texas to guard the state’s borders and gave Florida the go-ahead to foot the bill for charter flights that transport migrants from Texas to other areas of the nation.

The governor’s office and Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s press secretary, were emailed for comment.

The case, which was filed in federal court in Miami, claims that Florida’s statute is illegal because it overlooks due process rights, violates federal law’s preemption of state immigration rules, and is written in an ambiguous manner.

The civil rights organizations highlighted as instances in their motion on Tuesday a mother who drove her grandson, who has a petition for immigration relief pending, to the danger of being arrested, and a Catholic deacon who takes individuals in his car to appointments linked to immigration.

“The sole intent of this statute is cruelty. According to Spencer Amdur, an attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, “It threatens Floridians with jail time for doing the most routine tasks, like visiting family, going to work, and driving kids to soccer tournaments.