Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier responded to a federal judge’s threat to hold him in contempt for defying an order to stop local immigration arrests earlier this month. Uthmeier stated that “we will vigorously defend our laws” and “not tell law enforcement to stop fulfilling their constitutional duties.”
Uthmeier said Friday that he believed Florida authorities were “fulfilling their constitutional duties” by violating U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ local immigration arrest order, which he intends to continue doing.
“We believe the court has overstepped and lacks jurisdiction there, and I will not tell law enforcement to stop fulfilling their constitutional duties,” Uthmeier told Fox News.
“I do not believe an AG should be held in contempt for respecting the rule of law and appropriate separation of powers,” according to the attorney general. “The ACLU is determined to obstruct President Donald Trump’s efforts to detain and deport illegal immigrants, and we intend to fight back. We will vigorously defend our laws while advancing President Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration.”
Williams, an Obama appointee, issued a 14-day stay on April 4 to block a law signed into effect by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February, which allowed state law enforcement to arrest and prosecute undocumented immigrants. It is now a first-degree misdemeanor to enter Florida as a “unauthorized alien.”
Williams ruled that the law would not be enforced in Florida, arguing that it was the federal government’s responsibility to apprehend and litigate migrants, not individual states.
Uthmeier initially directed authorities in the Sunshine State to stop immigration arrests, but reworded his directive just days later, saying he actually “cannot prevent” the arrests, according to the Miami Herald. Williams confronted Uthmeier and his legal team at a hearing last Tuesday, demanding answers.
“I’m not offended by someone disagreeing with me or my order,” Williams told local ABC affiliate WPLG.
“I’m offended when someone says, ‘You don’t have to abide by it!'” she told Uthmeier’s lawyers.
The judge and local media outlets have reported multiple arrests in violation of Williams’ order.
On Wednesday, Uthmeier’s attorneys filed a motion to halt Williams’ decision while they appeal. They argued that the plaintiffs in the Uthmeier case did not “allege sufficient facts” to determine whether they are “presently engaging, or will imminently engage” in conduct that will result in charges under the new law.
The Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida, and two women who claim to be undocumented are suing the Attorney General.
“At best, they allege speculative travel plans,” the motion read. “Nor do they have any legally protected interest in vindicating illegal, unrelated conduct,” according to the complaint.
Uthmeier’s lawyers insisted that the new Florida law “tracks federal law to a tee” and retains “common federal-law defenses and says nothing of who should be admitted or removed from the country,” they argued.
“That law does nothing more than exercise Florida’s inherent sovereign authority to protect its citizens by aiding the enforcement of federal immigration law,” according to the motion.
At an April 18 hearing, Robert Schenck, a lawyer representing the Office of the Attorney General, claimed that while Williams’ order prohibited state officials from issuing arrest warrants, the state believed law enforcement officers did not have to comply because they do not act “in concert” with one another, according to the Herald.
Williams informed Uthmeier’s legal team last Tuesday that his reversal “threw everything out of whack,” prompting her to schedule a show-cause hearing on May 29. The judge ordered Uthmeier to show cause by May 12 for not being held in contempt or sanctioned for violating her TRO.
