PUNTA GORDA, Fla.—Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Attorney General Ashley Moody have filed an amended lawsuit against the Biden administration, challenging a new immigration policy after fresh evidence surfaced of illegal immigrants being released into the United States, some of them in Florida.
The Feb. 2 complaint was prompted in part by recent video footage taken outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Texas by a national broadcast news organization that followed a busload of dozens of adult males. Assisted by federal officials, the men were taken to an airport, from where they were flown to their U.S. destination of choice, with at least one of the individuals claiming to be heading to Miami.
“TSA [Transportation Security Administration] is even accepting immigration arrest warrants as identification sufficient to board a domestic flight,” the suit states.
The new policy, called “Parole + Alternatives to Detention,” releases illegals into the United States without “starting the legal process for their removal,” said a statement released by the governor’s office.
“The Biden administration has not only consciously refused to enforce immigration laws, but has also developed an operation to secretly resettle illegal aliens into communities across Florida and the rest of the United States,” DeSantis said in the statement.
In addition, this practice is being done in “the dark of night” without informing the states of where the illegals are being dropped off, “without any background checks, and without any efforts to initiate the legal process for their removal,” he said.
In September 2021, the Florida attorney general filed a challenge to the Biden administration’s “catch and release” border policy, claiming that it “ignores federal law.”
According to federal law, arriving immigrants—including asylum-seekers—are required to be detained while the courts decide if there is a “valid basis to enter the U.S.”
Moody suggests that, as a result of the September litigation, the federal government “abandoned its notice to report policy,” and replaced it with “Parole + Alternatives to Detention.”
“It is appalling that the president is using taxpayer dollars to fund his open-borders agenda–even facilitating flights to transport illegal immigrants around our own county,” she said in a statement. “Beyond that, his brazen lack of responsibility has led to the absolutely out-of-control conditions at our southwest border, where our border agents came into contact with more than two million illegal immigrants last year.”
The attorney general added that Biden’s policies are “helping human traffickers, criminals, and deadly drugs find their way across the border and into Florida.”
The amended action claims that while some illegals have “legitimate asylum claims, many do not.” Moody wrote that some immigrants who cross the border are gang members trafficking fentanyl, and “exploiting the immigration crisis.”
The litigation serves to protect national security and public safety, she said.
“Congress created a system for orderly processing of migrants,” she wrote. “This system allows authorities to admit the small fraction of migrants with valid asylum claims, and expel those who are not entitled to asylum, or worse, who mean our country harm.”
“I remain committed to fighting to protect Floridians from this disaster.”
