Until Florida made Veronica Herrera-Lucha’s employment illegal, she supported four family members by working for Mi Vecino, Inc., a voter registration organization. In 2023, Florida enacted Senate Bill 7050: It prohibits noncitizens from “collecting or handling voter registration applications.” The fine for non-compliance is steep: If a noncitizen collects or handles a voter registration application on behalf of a voter registration organization, the organization is fined $50,000 for each noncitizen. Senate Bill 7050 makes Ms. Herrera-Lucha’s voter registration work at Mi Vecino illegal and threatens her livelihood.

Several voter registration organizations challenged Senate Bill 7050’s prohibition and penalty in federal court, alleging discrimination based on alienage in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The district court agreed, finding that Senate Bill 7050 violates the Fourteenth Amendment. In light of the state’s appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, Cato filed an amicus brief in support of the Plaintiffs.

Our brief argues that the federal government has the exclusive power to determine the rights of noncitizens in this area of the law. Because the federal government has expressly permitted certain categories of noncitizens to work, Florida’s law has been federally preempted and is therefore invalid.

Furthermore, the justifications offered for Senate Bill 7050’s labor ban are unsupported in law. Senate Bill 7050 aims to “protect the voter” by preventing noncitizens from handling registration forms, but citizenship status is unrelated to the responsible handling of a ballot. In fact, the record offers no evidence that noncitizens are more likely to mishandle voter registration applications. Florida’s law accomplishes little besides imposing costs and burdens on voter registration organizations.