Florida seeks to enforce a law making it a crime for people in the US illegally to enter the state
By MIKE SCHNEIDER and DAVID FISCHER
MIAMI (AP) — Florida’s attorney general asked federal courts Wednesday to let authorities enforce a new state law making it a misdemeanor for people in the U.S. illegally to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials.
State Attorney General James Uthmeier also asked U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami to put on hold her injunction against enforcing the law while the order is appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
“That law does nothing more than exercise Florida’s inherent sovereign authority to protect its citizens by aiding the enforcement of federal immigration law,” Uthmeier said in Wednesday’s court filing.
The judge’s order on Tuesday noted that there was a substantial likelihood that the Florida law would be found unconstitutional.
The judge specified in her ruling Tuesday that her order applied to all of the state’s local law enforcement agencies, despite a recent letter to the contrary from Uthmeier. The judge also set a hearing in May to determine if Uthmeier should be held in contempt for sending the letter to law enforcement agencies in Florida.
“Defendants must be prepared to discuss why sanctions should not be imposed for AG Uthmeier’s failure to comply with a court order,” the judge wrote.
The judge had issued a 14-day temporary restraining order on April 4, shortly after the lawsuit challenging the law was filed by the Florida Immigrant Coalition and other groups with support from the American Civil Liberties Union. Williams extended the order another 11 days after learning the Florida Highway Patrol had arrested more than a dozen people, including a U.S. citizen.
After Williams issued her extension April 18, Uthmeier sent a memo to state and local law enforcement officers telling them to refrain from enforcing the law, even though he disagreed with the injunction. But five days later, he sent another memo saying that the judge was legally wrong and that he couldn’t prevent local police officers and deputies from enforcing the law.
Uthmeier said Wednesday in the state’s request to put the judge’s order on hold that the Florida attorney general’s office was likely to succeed in defending the law because the plaintiffs had no standing and that the state law was consistent with federal statutes.
The lawsuit claims the new law violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution by encroaching on federal duties.
“Florida politicians tried to turn fear into policy and made it a crime simply to exist as an immigrant in this state,” Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement. “The court rightly reminded them: immigration enforcement is a job for the federal government, not a political weapon for states to use.”
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