PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge on Monday began hearing arguments in a legal battle between Florida and the Biden administration over immigration, a long-running political fight that in recent days has taken center stage in the Florida Keys where hundreds of migrants have arrived by boat.
The trial, which is expected to go through Thursday, stems from a lawsuit Attorney General Ashley Moody filed against the Biden administration in 2021. The issue is hitting close to home simultaneously as Gov. Ron DeSantis says the migrant arrivals in the Keys are “likely to constitute a major disaster.”
In Pensacola this week, attorneys in Moody’s office will try to convince U.S. District Judge T.K. Wetherell that the U.S. government is violating federal law through policies that release undocumented immigrants who cross the southern border into the community, many of them hoping to reach Florida.
