A Florida Judge on Monday dismissed a major lawsuit against the state’s Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis. The lawsuit challenged the Governor’s decision to use state funds to transfer illegal immigrants from the state of Texas to Martha’s Vineyard earlier this year.
Gov. DeSantis participated in the initiative that was initially led by Republican Governors of Texas and Arizona and used taxpayer funds to transport around 50 illegal immigrants from Texas to the wealthy Massachusetts island. The local officials in Martha’s Vineyard, who are mostly wealthy Democrat donors, and prominent pro-immigration and open-border activists worked with local and state officials to quickly mobilize the National Guard and transport the small population of illegal immigrants to a military base.
Florida’s Democrat State Senator Jason Pizzo sued Gov. DeSantis and his administration over the move that was rejected on Monday by Leon Circuit Judge John C. Cooper who gave Rizzo two weeks to retool his lawsuit and submit again.
“We’re talking about technical pleading issues, we’re not talking about the ultimate decision in this case, or anything else,” Judge Cooper said on Monday. “Anything that I said by the way of hypotheticals, or whatever, should not be taken as a ruling or anything of that nature, for or against.”
Further adding that he will “dismiss the complaint with leave to amend because I want the plaintiffs to argue or to allege in the complaint with some additional facts and clarity, similar to what I’ve heard today and similar to what’s in the response but I don’t think that’s in the complaint.”
Pizzo told reporters on Monday that he believes that Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration do not have the authority to transport illegal immigrants. His lawsuit seeks to block the Governor from using state funds to relocate illegal immigrants.
“It’s not authorized in the Senate or the House for your dollars or my dollars to be spent in Texas,” Pizzo told reporters.
Judge Cooper argued that Pizzo’s lawsuit does not provide enough details that show Gov. DeSantis’ program violating the Constitution.
“I don’t know that there is an enforcement official in this, or that the governor is a quote-unquote enforcement official under this statute,” Judge Cooper said. “It seems to me the ability to sue the governor in this case depends upon other facts that might be unique to the situation here, which I think need to be alleged.”
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