Speaking in an epic video statement released in the wake of a rogue federal judge ruling against his attempts to deal with illegal immigration by placing harsher penalties on illegal immigrants who enter the Sunshine State, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed defiance and called out the activist nature of the judge’s rulings.
For reference, the incident occurred in April of 2025. It began when, on Friday, April 4, 2025, Obama-appointed District Court Judge Kathleen Williams issued a temporary injunction against a Florida immigration law that had been passed by both houses of the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis in February of 2025.
The law at issue was SB 4-C, which created a litany of state crimes that make it a felony for most types of illegal aliens to enter Florida, and mandates, if they are caught, jail time without bond. The law was challenged by organizations like the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) and the Farmworker Association of Florida (FWAF). Judge Williams agreed with them that the law was likely unconstitutional, and placed an injunction on its implementation.
While the law remains in legal limbo as the appeals process plays out and battles continue in higher levels of the federal court, Gov. DeSantis and his Attorney General quickly vowed defiance and insisted that it is their prerogative to work with the Trump Administration to keep Florida safe from illegal aliens.
DeSantis, for his part, did so in an epic video posted to X. In it, he said, “Well, another day, another activist federal judge thinking that the judiciary should be setting immigration policy rather than the elected officials. We see it all the time with these judges all across America trying to throw sand in the gears of President Trump’s lawful use of executive power.”
Continuing, he explained how the rogue judiciary was attacking immigration enforcement in Florida, saying, “And then late Friday, we saw it here in Florida, where a liberal judge in South Florida ruled that Florida’s laws against entering our state illegally are somehow not permissible under the federal constitution.”
Building on that, the governor explained the sad expectation that such courts are likelier to be friendly to invaders than state officials, saying, “Now we totally anticipated this. We knew they would go into a favorable forum and get a result, just as I know the Trump administration has certainly not been surprised at how the judiciary is behaved. But the reality is, we have a right to be able, under our state constitution and our state police powers, to be able to hold people accountable who come into this state illegally and are violating the laws of the state of Florida, and so those arrests that have been made were proper. The laws that I signed in this regard are constitutional.”
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That’s when he got to vowing defiance, insisting that Florida would not take its foot off the gas in terms of pushing forward immigration enforcement operations. He said, “We of course are going to appeal this. I think it’ll probably end up in the Supreme Court, just like all these other things. But make no mistake about it, we are not taking the pedal off the gas one bit when it comes to enforcing federal immigration laws, we have been deputized and many of our agencies at both state and local, we have strong agreements with ICE.”
Concluding by vowing further defiance, the governor said that the illegals will be caught and deported, saying, “The Mission Continues. We are going to be willing partners with the federal government in making sure that the laws of our country with respect to illegal immigration are finally enforced, and that people here illegally are sent back to their home country.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video