Good morning and welcome to Thursday.

Congress and the Biden administration are haggling over major changes to immigration law and national security as record numbers of people are being apprehended at the border and many cities don’t have enough shelters for migrants.

In Florida, the state’s tough immigration law is getting a closer look too as U.S. District Judge Roy Altman weighs three different motions in the coming weeks. A hearing in Miami yesterday was the latest development over the law, one Gov. Ron DeSantis often heralds on the presidential campaign trail.

Civil rights and immigration groups want Altman — a Trump appointee — to block a portion of the law (SB 1718) that makes it a felony to “knowingly and willfully” transport undocumented immigrants into Florida.

They said it caused migrants to cancel holiday get-togethers with family, upended seasonal planting and harvesting work trips and caused them to miss worship services and medical appointments.

The state argued that the law only applied to people who hadn’t given federal authorities notice of their U.S. presence. But the plaintiffs said the wording was too vague, tries to supersede federal law and could end up targeting people who are in the process of obtaining legal immigration status. The law’s language says people who have “not been inspected by the federal government” can face arrest.

As of the end of September, only three people were arrested under the expanded human smuggling rules, the Tampa Bay Times reported, though neither this statistic nor more recent ones were raised during yesterday’s nearly 2.5-hour hearing.

The DeSantis team had an ask of Altman too. They want the governor’s name dropped from the lawsuit, saying he isn’t the one enforcing the immigration law. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and county state attorneys are also listed as defendants in the suit.

Altman repeatedly questioned the state over their enforcement argument, noting that DeSantis has played a role in enforcing laws given that he suspended two state prosecutors — Andrew Warren and Monique Worrell. Attorneys countered that he hadn’t done so under this statute.

The final piece Altman is considering is whether to allow some plaintiffs to stay anonymous as the case advances. For now, certain plaintiffs are listed in the lawsuit only by their initials. Attorneys argued yesterday that undocumented immigrants and their families were worried about facing harassment, threats, prosecution or risk having their children taken from them if their names appear in easily accessible court documents.

“Tensions have risen since the passage of this law,” Evelyn Wiese, attorney at Americans for Immigrant Justice, said at the hearing.

While Altman didn’t rule immediately, he said anonymity typically is granted only in very narrow cases, such as to help protect juveniles or victims of abuse, otherwise it’s hard to draw the line about who gets to keep their identities secret in court.

“Typically the person who takes a shot at the king has to do it in the public eye,” argued Robert Schenck of the DeSantis administration.

— WHERE’S RON? Gov. DeSantis will participate in a virtual press conference with Iowa media at 11 a.m. EST and he’ll join Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel during the 9 p.m. EST hour.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off next week and the week after for the holidays but back to our normal schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 2.

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TODAY — Florida Board of governors meeting and state House health care appropriation meeting. (Tune in.)

KICKING OFF TODAY — The Florida Chamber Insurance Summit in Orlando, with speeches coming from Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.

FIRST DAY IN COURT — Trial over gender-affirming care kicks off in Tallahassee, reports POLITICO’s Arek Sarkissian. At issue at the trial is a law, passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature and signed by DeSantis earlier this year, that tightened regulatory controls over treatments for gender-affirming care.

The restrictions include requiring patients to sign informed consent forms and prohibits anyone but doctors from prescribing medication such as hormone therapies.

But the lawsuit, filed in Tallahassee federal court by transgender rights groups, transgender adults and the parents of transgender children, also sought to stop Florida from enforcing new medical rules and a state law that bans gender-affirming treatments for transgender kids.

LAWSUIT — Teachers sue Florida over pronoun restrictions in schools, reports POLITICO’s Andrew Atterbury. Three Florida teachers sued state and local officials in federal court Wednesday seeking to overturn a new law forbidding employees from using pronouns in schools that differ from their sex at birth.

The group, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, contend that the law passed by state Republicans and lauded by DeSantis earlier this year amounts to sex discrimination and violates their constitutional rights, putting them at risk of losing their educator credentials — or jobs — for being “who they are.”

INVESTIGATIVE SERIES — “As dangerous kratom products go unregulated, lobbyists write the laws,” reports the Tampa Bay Times’ Kirby Wilson and Sam Ogozalek. “Florida lawmakers considered banning kratom three times in the past decade. But industry advocates successfully fought the efforts, ensuring powders, gummies and liquid extracts are readily available at gas stations and smoke shops from Pensacola to Miami. The products vary dramatically in strength — but manufacturers don’t have to disclose or limit their intensity at all.”

DEATH TOLL — “Some Florida families who lost their kids to gun violence channel their pain into action,” reports WUSF’s Stephanie Colombini. “Teenagers account for the vast majority of deaths and injuries. Black youth are most at-risk. In Florida, 72 kids have died in shootings this year while dozens more have been hurt.”

PREGNANCY COMPLICATIONS — “Texas barred abortion for a fetus with a fatal diagnosis. Does Florida law do the same?” asks the Orlando Sentinel’s Caroline Catherman. “Doctors and advocates in Florida are drawing profound lessons from the case of Kate Cox, a Texas woman who was denied an abortion despite what her doctor deemed as threats to the fetus’ life, her life, and her future fertility. The most important lesson: The medical exemptions written into abortion-restricting laws in Texas, Florida and elsewhere are difficult to interpret, and offer little certainty for women seeking to end a dangerous pregnancy.”

RELATED: “Pregnant Florida woman denied emergency abortion, sent home from hospital: ‘I knew I would die within … days,’” reports Cara Lynn Shultz of People magazine

NEW BILL — “The latest version of a vacation rental bill gets its first hearing in Tallahassee,” reports the Florida Phoenix’s Mitch Perry. “As another legislative session looms in Tallahassee, so comes another attempt by Florida lawmakers to give more power to the state rather than local governments to regulate short-term vacation rental homes in the Sunshine State.”

— “Florida is trying to catch up to the retention rate of medical residents in other states,” reports the Florida Phoenix’ Jackie Llanos

PRICE TAG — “Disney World oversight district spent up to $360K on scathing report,” reports the Orlando Sentinel’s Skyler Swisher. “The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District budgeted $360,000 for ‘legislative reporting,’ including $110,000 that went to Donald J. Kochan, a conservative law professor at Virginia’s George Mason University. The report will be provided to the governor and the Florida Legislature, as required by a law overhauling the special district.”

PREGNANCY CENTER SCRUTINY — “Broward anti-abortion center broke the rules and still got more and more taxpayer money,” reports the Miami Herald’s Clara-Sophia Daly and Reveal News’ Laura C. Morel. “For at least three years, the pregnancy center failed to file its federal Form 990s, the tax forms required for nonprofits, and other required paperwork, leading the Internal Revenue Service and the state to temporarily revoke its tax-exempt status.”

PRESSURE MOUNTS — Rep. Vern Buchanan is the latest elected Republican calling on Republican Party of Florida Chair Christian Ziegler to resign amid an investigation into allegations of sexual assault. Ahead of the Florida GOP’s emergency meeting taking place Sunday, Buchanan urged Ziegler to “voluntarily step down before the executive committee takes action against him.”

“His position as party leader is no longer tenable given what has transpired,” Buchanan said.

SONG THAT NEVER ENDS — “The fight between Trump and DeSantis could spill far beyond 2024,” reports NBC News’ Matt Dixon and Allan Smith. “Should Ron DeSantis fall short in the 2024 presidential primary campaign, there are two paths that could lay before him. In one, he could become the ‘MAGA heir apparent.’ In the other, he could become Donald Trump’s permanent political punching bag. And allies of both men see the second one as a distinct possibility.”

CONDEMNING ANTISEMITISM — Florida House Democrats split votes on a resolution introduced by Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and other lawmakers that condemns antisemitism on college campuses and calls on university presidents at Harvard and MIT to resign.

Moskowitz was joined by fellow Florida Democrats Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Darren Soto, and Lois Frankel in approving the measure which passed overwhelmingly with 303 lawmakers total voting to approve it.

“These are Ivy League university presidents that were asked a softball question: ‘Does calling for the genocide of Jews count as harassment under their school’s policies?,’” Moskowitz said in a statement. “That’s not a trick question, and it’s infuriating that these leaders of young people would try to equivocate with some nonsense about ‘it depends on the context.’”

Reps. Frederica Wilson, Maxwell Frost, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Kathy Castor voted against the resolution.

Moskowitz has joined other moderate Democrats in calling on universities to address rising antisemitism on college campuses since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7.

Every Florida House Republican voted to approve the resolution.

— Lawrence Ukenye

POLITICAL FOOTBALL — “Why Sen. Rick Scott wants answers on Florida State football playoff snub,” reports Tampa Bay Times’ Matt Baker. “I think this goes to the core point of what people think about our country right now: They think that the institutions are playing games,” Scott told the Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday morning. “People are losing trust of institutions in this country, whether it’s the FBI, what they’ve done, whether it’s the Department of Justice, whether it’s people attacking the Supreme Court. That’s what’s going on right now. It’s not good for this country when people can’t trust their institutions.”

LOST IN THE MAIL? — Looks like the DeSantises had a naughty and nice list for their annual Christmas party.

— “Getting ready for Christmas? Here are 8 Florida cities to visit to get in the holiday mood,” per the Palm Beach Post’s C.A. Bridges

BIRTHDAYS: State Rep. David Borrero … former U.S. Rep. Sandy Adams ... Florida native Dinah Voyles Pulver, investigative and environmental reporter USA Today