Florida Senate - 2022                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 1808
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì413230bÎ413230                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                   Comm: OO            .                                
                  02/22/2022           .                                
                                       .                                
                                       .                                
                                       .                                
       —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————




       —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
       The Committee on Appropriations (Stewart) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment
    2  
    3         In title, after line 23
    4  insert:
    5         WHEREAS, Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States
    6  Constitution, commonly referred to as the Supremacy Clause,
    7  states: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States
    8  which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made,
    9  or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United
   10  States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in
   11  every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the
   12  Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary
   13  notwithstanding,” and
   14         WHEREAS, under the Supremacy Clause, states are prohibited
   15  from interfering with the Federal Government’s exercise of its
   16  constitutional powers and from assuming any functions that are
   17  exclusively entrusted to the Federal Government, and
   18         WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the
   19  Federal Government has broad and exclusive power to regulate
   20  immigration, preempting state and local laws that also attempt
   21  to do so, and
   22         WHEREAS, the Court held in Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52
   23  (1941) that “the regulation of aliens is so intimately blended
   24  and intertwined with responsibilities of the national government
   25  that where it acts, and the state also acts on the same subject,
   26  the act of Congress or treaty is supreme; and the law of the
   27  state, though enacted in the exercise of powers not
   28  controverted, must yield to it,” and
   29         WHEREAS, the Court also held in Hines that “where the
   30  federal government, in the exercise of its superior authority in
   31  this field, has enacted a complete scheme of regulation,” the
   32  “states cannot, inconsistently with the purpose of Congress,
   33  conflict or interfere with, curtail or complement, the federal
   34  law, or enforce additional or auxiliary regulations,” and
   35         WHEREAS, the State of Florida acknowledges that the
   36  Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution limits a
   37  state’s ability to prohibit through enforcement action
   38  activities of federal officers or agents, including federal
   39  contractors, which are expressly authorized by federal law, and
   40         WHEREAS, the Federal Government has a statutory duty to
   41  protect and care for the vulnerable children that Congress has
   42  placed in its custody and care, and
   43         WHEREAS, the movement of vulnerable immigrant populations
   44  into, around, and out of the State of Florida is necessary to
   45  fulfill the Federal Government’s statutory duties, and
   46         WHEREAS, pursuant to the Supremacy Clause, the State of
   47  Florida cannot interfere with or curtail that statutory duty;
   48  nor can the State of Florida enforce additional or auxiliary
   49  regulations upon federal immigration enforcement processes, and
   50         WHEREAS, where this act is in conflict with federal
   51  immigration enforcement efforts, and where this act is
   52  inconsistent with the purpose and intent of Congress to care for
   53  vulnerable children, federal law takes precedence, NOW,
   54  THEREFORE,