The Southern Poverty Law Center and immigration rights groups are suing the DeSantis administration, alleging that its program to transport “unauthorized aliens” out of state amounts to state-sponsored harassment of the undocumented.

The federal legal complaint was filed Dec. 1 in the Southern District of Florida against Gov. Ron DeSantis and the secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation, Jared Perdue. The lawsuit challenges Florida’s decision in September to fly about 50 Venezuelan and Peruvian migrants from Texas to Massachusetts without giving notice to local officials.

“This case is about (a) section of the Florida appropriations act, which violates the Supremacy Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) by usurping the federal government’s sole role in regulating and enforcing immigration law, muddying an already complex area of law, leading to chaos and confusion; and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause, through its state-sponsored harassment of immigrants based on race, color and national origin,” the lawsuit states.