A federal judge ordered that Florida law enforcement must not support an immigration policy.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams condemned Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier for urging law enforcement agencies to defy her previous order blocking a statute that made it a misdemeanor for illegal immigrants to enter Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed the bill in February.
“What I am offended by is someone suggesting you don’t have to follow my order, that it’s not legitimate,” Williams said.
Williams wrote in the Tuesday order that the law “gives state officials authority to prosecute illegal entry or reentry in cases where federal actors may choose not to.”
“Even if federal and state officials choose to commence parallel dual prosecutions under both laws, SB 4-C’s mandatory detention provision limits federal law enforcement discretion to recommend pre-trial release and obstructs federal courts’ ability to conduct proceedings requiring defendants’ presence. Relatedly, state officials are free to prosecute a charge under SB 4-C even while a federal immigration proceeding is underway, which may determine that the defendant may remain lawfully present under federal law.”
“To posit, as Defendants do, that law enforcement may arrest individuals for conduct they know has no current legal basis to sustain criminal charges, is to upend Fourth Amendment jurisprudence in its entirety,” Williams wrote.
Last week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to law enforcement declaring that Williams’ previous order against the measure “cannot possibly restrain Florida’s law enforcement agencies from enforcing Florida Statutes.”
DeSantis said at the time that “immigration law must be enforced and FL is leading on working with the Trump administration to get it done.”
