Florida is designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday. 

The move mirrors a similar action taken by Texas in which Gov. Greg Abbott designated the CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.

“Florida agencies are hereby directed to undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support,” DeSantis wrote on X. 

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The governor’s order said the Muslim Brotherhood has long engaged in and supported violence, political assassinations and terror attacks on civilians with the intent of establishing a worldwide Islamic caliphate. 

It also said the group, as well as Hamas have active fundraising arms in the United States. 

SCATHING REPORT CALLS ON US TO LABEL ISLAMIST GROUP INFILTRATING ALL ASPECTS OF AMERICAN LIFE AS TERRORIST ORG

The order said CAIR, which was created to challenge stereotypes against Islam and Muslims, has had individuals associated with it that have been convicted of providing and aspiring to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations. 

In a post on X, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said: “Great news! Thanks for this important Executive Order, Governor. We are ready to support!”

A joint statement by CAIR and its Florida chapter said the DeSantis administration has prioritized serving their interest of the Israeli government over the people of the state. 

“He diverted millions in Florida taxpayer dollars to the Israeli government’s bonds. He threatened to shut down every Florida college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, only to back off when CAIR sued him in federal court,” the statement said. “Like Greg Abbott in Texas, Ron DeSantis is an Israel First politician who wants to smear and silence Americans, especially American Muslims, critical of U.S. support for Israel’s war crimes. Governor DeSantis knows full well that CAIR-Florida is an American civil rights organization that has spent decades advancing free speech, religious freedom, and justice for all, including for the Palestinian people. That’s precisely why Governor DeSantis is targeting our civil rights group with this unconstitutional and defamatory proclamation.

“We look forward to defeating Governor DeSantis’ latest Israel First stunt in a court of law, where facts matter and conspiracy theories have no weight,” the groups added. “In the meantime, we encourage all Floridians and all Americans to speak up against this latest attempt to shred the Constitution for the benefit of a foreign government.”

Florida’s designation is at the state level. It doesn’t carry the legal force of a federal Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) listing, which only the U.S. State Department can issue. 

In Texas, Muslim and interfaith leaders have demanded that Abott reverse his proclamation regarding CAIR. In a lawsuit against Texas over the governor’s declaration, CAIR argued that it violates both the U.S. Constitution and state law.

The order violates its First Amendment rights and due-process protections, CAIR said, arguing that the state overstepped its authority because terrorism designations fall under federal, not state, jurisdiction.

The mother of murdered Florida teenager Danika Troy says her 14-year-old daughter was lured into the woods by one of the boys now charged with killing her, a teen she believed had romantic feelings for her.

In an interview with the New York Post, Ashley Troy said 16-year-old Gabriel Williams “pretended to have feelings for her,” leading Danika to trust him enough to follow him into the wooded trail where she was ambushed. 

“That’s how she was lured,” she said.

Williams and 14-year-old Kimahri Blevins have both been charged with first-degree premeditated murder in Danika’s death.

FAMILIES CLAIM TEEN MURDER SUSPECT WAS ‘PLOTTING’ DEADLY HIT-AND-RUN FOR MONTHS BEFORE KILLING TWO GIRLS

Ashley said she is still desperate for answers. “I still need answers. I’m just left asking why,” she told the outlet. “She just wanted to be in love.”

Danika was reported missing by her mother on Dec. 1. The next day, a passerby discovered her body in a wooded area in Pace, a community in Florida’s Panhandle. Investigators said she had been shot multiple times and set on fire.

Authorities quickly identified the alleged killers, two teens who knew Danika from school, and took them into custody.

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Detectives initially believed the murder may have stemmed from a social-media dispute over Thanksgiving break. According to the sheriff’s office, the boys claimed they targeted Danika because she had blocked Blevins on social media and called Williams “worthless and a gang banger.”

Ashley rejected that narrative. “What those boys said is an excuse,” she told the Post.

Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson confirmed Thursday that Danika’s body had been positively identified and said investigators rapidly zeroed in on Williams and Blevins. Both suspects had prior “run-ins” with law enforcement, he said, though details were not released because of their ages.

TEEN MURDER SUSPECT ALLEGEDLY SWATTED VICTIM’S HOME WEEKS BEFORE DEADLY HIT-AND-RUN: LAWYER

Johnson described the killing in stark terms. 

“This is where it gets really horrific,” he said, explaining that Williams allegedly stole his mother’s handgun before shooting Danika. “It’s bad enough you kill a 14-year-old. You’re 14. You’re 16. Shoot her multiple times, and then they set her on fire.”

The motive for the killing remains unclear. Johnson said the explanations the teens offered “don’t fit the forensics or any facts of the case,” adding, “so we don’t have a legit motive.”

REPEAT OFFENDER ALLEGEDLY KILLS 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL, HAS CRIMINAL HISTORY DATING BACK TO 2000: OFFICIALS

Both suspects remain held without bond at the Department of Juvenile Justice on first-degree murder charges. Prosecutors are coordinating with investigators as they determine whether the teens will be charged as adults.

“If you do an adult crime, you gotta do adult time,” Johnson said.

Ashley previously said she believes “evil influence” played a role in her daughter’s killing, but she wants accountability. She said she wants “nothing less than for them to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. 

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.

Voters in Miami, Florida, cast ballots Tuesday in a runoff election for mayor in a race that’s grabbed plenty of national attention in recent weeks as Democrats aim to end a decades-long losing streak in red-leaning Florida.

Democrat Eileen Higgins, a former county commissioner, is facing off against Republican Emilio Gonzalez, a former city manager backed by President Donald Trump.

While the election is technically nonpartisan, the ballot box face-off has become the latest showdown this year between Democrats and Republicans, with both parties pouring in resources.

And Democrats, energized by last month’s decisive 2025 election victories and by last week’s double-digit overperformance in a special election in a red-leaning congressional district in Tennessee, are aiming for victory in Miami for an office they haven’t held in 30 years.

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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and allied groups have invested in the race.

DNC Chair Kent Martin told Fox News Digital that following last week’s “historic overperformance in Tennessee and the record Democratic momentum across the country this year,” the DNC is now “laser focused” on Miami’s mayoral runoff.

“The energy is on Democrats’ side and the DNC is all-in support of Eileen Higgins from now until Election Day,” Martin emphasized in a statement to Fox News Digital last week.

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Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Florida has been helping Gonzalez.

And Trump, over the weekend, took to social media to try and boost Gonzalez.

“Miami’s Mayor Race is Tuesday. It is a big and important race!!! Vote for Republican Gonzalez,” the president wrote.

Florida was once the largest of the general election battleground states, but has shifted dramatically to the right over the past decade.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election by nearly 20 points in 2022, and Trump carried the state by 13 points in last year’s presidential election victory.

But Miami remains a rare blue oasis in the Sunshine State. Trump narrowly lost the city in last year’s presidential election, although the president won the wider Miami-Dade County by 11 points.

Higgins, a mechanical engineer and former Peace Corps director in Belize, focused on the issue of affordability and of making local government work better and faster during her campaign.

González, a veteran and senior adviser at an asset management firm, spotlighted the fight against overdevelopment and called for the elimination of property taxes for primary homes, as he bid for mayor.

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Higgins captured 36% of the vote in the Nov. 4 election, with Gonzalez coming in second at 19%, in the multi-candidate field.

The runoff winner will succeed term-limited Republican Mayor Francis Suarez, who grabbed national attention two years ago as he briefly and unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nomination.