AUSTIN –Attorney
General Ken Paxton has joined an amicus brief before the Atlanta-based
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in support of Florida’s
law banning sanctuary cities. So-called sanctuary cities are political
subdivisions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration
authorities. As a result, sanctuary cities have become havens for
illegal aliens and all the social, economic, and criminal costs that
illegal immigration entails. The Florida law simply required local law
enforcement officials to comply with federal immigration law.
In
July 2019, the City of South Miami sued Governor Ron DeSantis, claiming
the sanctuary city ban unlawfully discriminated against illegal aliens.
A Florida federal district court halted the law’s enforcement in
September 2021. Shortly thereafter, Florida appealed the decision.
The
amicus brief is co-led by Georgia and Alabama, and Attorney General
Paxton is proud to lend his support. In Texas, he has continued to
defend our state’s sanctuary city ban. Indeed, in April 2022, Attorney
General Paxton won a settlement against the city of San Antonio for its refusal to comply with Texas’s anti-sanctuary city law.
Read the 11th Circuit amicus brief here.
