This week, a ruling came down that surprised a lot of conservatives: The Supreme Court rejected a motion by Florida to review a lower court ruling that blocked a new law that would have made it a crime to enter the state of Florida as an illegal immigrant.
Florida sees this as a loss, but I see this as the foundation to ending sanctuary cities.
The ruling came down on Wednesday, with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier arguing, “Illegal immigration continues to wreak havoc in the State, while that law cannot be enforced.
“And without this Court’s intervention, Florida and its citizens will remain disabled from combating the serious harms of illegal immigration for years as this litigation proceeds through the lower courts.”
The motion was denied, with no dissents and no opinion to accompany this.
Again, some say this would be a surprise, especially since the case fell on the desk of Justice Thomas, but I think we are seeing some strategy laid down by the conservative members of the Court, knowing that the sanctuary city case loomed.
Historically, the Supreme Court has sided with the federal government in virtually all immigration cases.
The exception to this rule is when Texas proved the federal government was not doing its job.
Texas had sued to allow its local police officers to help immigration by arresting illegals, and Texas was also permitted to add buoys to the Rio Grande.
In the Florida case, this administration is clearly enforcing immigration laws, and while Florida tried to write its legislation as being complementary to federal laws, the Court did not agree, or, as I stated, was setting the table for a bigger fight down the road.
In the overall scheme of things, that Florida case is small potatoes, as the fight to end sanctuary cities is the big one, and that fight has already been started by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Bondi filed suit against New York almost immediately after taking office, so that case should be able to work its way through the courts and go before the Supreme Court long before Trump leaves office. She stated, “Lawless sanctuary city policies are the root cause of the violence that Americans have seen in California, and New York State is similarly employing sanctuary city policies to prevent illegal aliens from apprehension. This latest lawsuit in a series of sanctuary city litigation underscores the Department of Justice’s commitment to keeping Americans safe and aggressively enforcing the law.”’
I think this Court wants to take on this case, and I think it will rule that local jurisdictions do not have the authority to dismiss federal immigration laws by harboring illegals.
After all, if you will not allow a state to rule that illegals are breaking laws by entering states, how can you allow a state to say that illegal immigration is no longer a crime it needs to prosecute? I hope to God I am right on this analysis, as it would be a monumental win for conservatives and the country as a whole.
