Florida Governor Appoints AG Ashley Moody to Replace Marco Rubio in the Senate

FAIR Take | January 2025
Last Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Florida’s Attorney General, Ashley Moody, to the U.S. Senate. Moody will replace Sen. Marco Rubio, President Trump’s nominee for secretary of State, and serve alongside Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).
Moody has served as the state’s 38th Attorney General since 2019. In that position, she has been a staunch advocate for secure borders and immigration enforcement. In September 2021, Moody sued the Biden administration over its unlawful “Parole + ATD” program. Under the Biden administration, “Parole + ATD” was recklessly designed to allow the Border Patrol to release hundreds of thousands of aliens into the country in direct violation of the requirement that parole only be granted on a case-by-case basis. In addition to arguing that the administration was violating the parole statute, Moody also contended that the program went against statutory detention mandates. In March 2023, a federal judge enjoined the Parole + ATD program, stating that the administration had “effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country.” Later that same year, Moody also successfully blocked a substantially similar policy, dubbed “parole with conditions,” that DHS implemented to circumvent the court order blocking “Parole + ATD.”
During her time as Attorney General, Moody also exposed the devastating impacts of open-borders policies on unaccompanied alien children (UACs). Most notably, during her tenure, several Florida grand jury reports exposed horrific trafficking and exploitation of UACs occurring under Biden administration. In one of those reports, the grand jury charged that the federal government “is facilitating the forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children” and that “approximately 90,000 [UACs] have been turned over to someone claimed to be a family member without DNA testing and without adequate document verification, and about 30,000 have been surrendered to someone to whom they have no known relation.” Throughout the grand jury’s investigation, Attorney General Moody repeatedly called on Congress to get involved and make changes to protect vulnerable minors, even heading to Washington, D.C. in 2023 to meet with House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other Members.
In her time as Attorney General, Moody has also consistently supported strong border security policies by:
- Calling on Congress to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas;
- Leading a multistate amicus brief to prevent the Biden administration from negotiating a closed-door settlement agreement with open-borders groups regarding Biden’s 2023 asylum rule;
- Demanding detailed information on DHS processes, policies and procedures regarding aliens on the terrorist watchlist following a House Judiciary report exposing stunning failures;
- Submitting a public comment highlighting major concerns with the Biden administration’s “Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule,” noting that “[w]ith the new discoveries by the statewide grand jury, we are fighting back and demanding ORR strengthen, not weaken, the vetting process for sponsors entrusted to care for these children.”
Following her appointment, Attorney General Moody expressed readiness to fight for strong immigration policies in the U.S. Senate: “For the last four years, Florida fought the failed Biden administration’s reckless border policies. Time after time, we sued to stop them from violating federal immigration law. [Governor Desantis] and I won many of these legal battles. In the U.S. Senate, I will support [President Trump] and fight for legislation that strengthens the border, builds the wall, and removes those who entered unlawfully.” Sen. Rick Scott, who has represented Florida in the Senate since 2019, applauded the appointment: “Ashley has done an incredible job fighting for Floridians and keeping our communities safe as Attorney General. I have no doubt she will do an incredible job as senator!”
Moody will officially take her seat in the coming days following Sen. Rubio’s confirmation as secretary of State on Monday night. She will serve in the Senate until 2026, at which point the Senate seat will be on the ballot in a special election. FAIR looks forward to working with Sen. Moody throughout the 119th Congress to secure our borders, stop mass illegal immigration, and reform our immigration system.
To read FAIR’s Legislative Agenda for the 119th Congress, click here.
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