Left: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducting a raid (Fox News/YouTube). Right: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (Office of Attorney General).
Florida”s attorney general is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and allow him to continue enforcing a state law criminalizing the entry and presence in Florida of migrants who have entered the United States illegally.
Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday filed an emergency appeal asking the justices to stay a lower court order directing Florida to stop enforcing SB 4-C while the AG’s appeal plays out.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on April 4, issued a 14-day stay blocking the law signed into effect by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February which purports to grant state law enforcement the power to arrest and prosecute undocumented immigrants.
Uthmeier’s 34-page filing asserts that his state’s inability to implement the law has left Florida exposed and vulnerable to the “evil effects of illegal immigration,” which he describes as “more than sadistic.”
“[The district court] held that Florida’s law was field and conflict preempted by federal immigration law, and that SB 4-C violated the Dormant Commerce Clause,” the AG wrote. “Worse still, the district court bound all Florida law enforcement officers, who are not parties to this case. That decision inflicts irreparable harm on Florida and its ability to protect its citizens from the deluge of illegal immigration.”
Florida’s immigration law — and its enforcement — has been a powder keg for controversy, recently resulting in Uthmeier being held in contempt of court.
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When the judge ordered the legislation not to be enforced, she reasoned it was the federal government’s responsibility to apprehend and litigate migrants, not individual states. She extended her order on April 18, and then issued a preliminary injunction on April 29, noting how the new law was “likely” unconstitutional.
The emergency appeal asserts that the law is narrowly tailored in such a way as to avoid running up against federal immigration law.
“Nothing in SB 4-C poses a conflict with federal law. Just the opposite, Florida’s law scrupulously tracks federal law,” the filing states. “SB 4-C similarly does not violate the Dormant Commerce Clause, since it is unrelated to economic protectionism.”
Uthmeier’s emergency filing comes after a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit refused to stay Williams’ order
Immigration advocates accused Uthmeier of committing “quintessential contempt of court” by defying Williams’ rulings after he sent letters to law enforcement authorities in the state — first on April 18, directing them not to enforce the law, only to reverse course and order them on April 23 to enforce the law as they please. In the latter letter, Uthmeier told authorities that “no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce” SB 4-C, and went on to claim that he “cannot prevent” the arrests as attorney general in an email.
The judge ordered Uthmeier to explain why he should not be held in contempt, which he did — unsuccessfully — at a hearing and in filings.
Williams ultimately found that Uthmeier failed to make a convincing argument that the correspondence he sent to Florida authorities were anything other than evidence of him flouting her injunction.
“This language is a direct contradiction of his prior notice to law enforcement agency heads that they should ‘instruct [their] officers and agents to comply with Judge Williams’ directives’ that ‘law enforcement officers should take no steps to enforce’ [the law],” Williams said, quoting Uthmeier’s letters. “In fact, it is difficult to imagine language better crafted to reverse officers’ understanding of whether they are bound by the TRO short of ‘I hereby … inform you that no court order prohibits your enforcement.”
Uthmeier’s sanctions include biweekly reports that Uthmeier must now file about arrests, detentions or any other police actions taking place under Florida’s new immigration enforcement law.
Despite the sanctions, Uthmeier remained defiant.
“If being held in contempt is what it costs to defend the rule of law and stand firmly behind President Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration, so be it,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter, in response.
Chris Perez contributed to this report.
