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Miami Herald
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Florida's attorney general appeals judge's contempt finding in immigration case
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has appealed a federal judge's ruling that found him in civil contempt because of a letter he sent in April after she ordered a halt to enforcement of a new state immigration law. Uthmeier's lawyers last week filed a notice of appealing U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams' ruling to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. As is common, the notice does not detail arguments that Uthmeier will make at the Atlanta-based appeals court. But the appeal is the latest move in an unusual dispute between Uthmeier and the Miami-based judge. The issue stems from a law, passed during a February special legislative session, that created state crimes for undocumented immigrants who enter or re-enter Florida. The Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida and two individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit on April 2, contending, in part, that the law violates what is known as the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution because immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. Williams on April 4 issued a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the law. She extended the temporary restraining order April 18 and directed Uthmeier to send a letter notifying police agencies that they could not enforce the law. The directive came after reports of arrests. Uthmeier sent such a letter April 18 but followed with an April 23 letter that spurred the contempt issue. Uthmeier has argued that the temporary restraining order — and a longer-lasting preliminary injunction issued later — should only apply to him and local state attorneys because they were the named defendants in the underlying legal challenge to the law (SB 4-C). In the April 23 letter to police agencies, Uthmeier reiterated that position and said he could not prevent police from enforcing the law 'where there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from doing so,' according to Williams' June 17 contempt ruling. Williams said that statement and other wording in the letter violated her order, writing that in a 'variety of ways, Uthmeier's April 23rd letter conveyed to law enforcement that they could and should disregard the April 18th letter's message that they were required by court order to cease enforcement of SB 4-C.' 'Uthmeier's role endows him with a unique capacity to uphold or undermine the rule of law, and when he does the latter by violating a court order, the integrity of the legal system depends on his conduct being within the court's remedial reach,' Williams wrote in the 27-page contempt ruling. In a court filing in May, Uthmeier's lawyers said he complied with the temporary restraining order by not enforcing the law and notifying law-enforcement agencies about the temporary restraining order. The filing said Uthmeier was free to express his disagreement with Williams' decision in the April 23 letter. 'The attorney general has consistently abided by the court's order to cease enforcing (the law),' the document said. 'Nowhere does the TRO (expressly or impliedly) require the attorney general to refrain from sharing his views about the order with law enforcement.' The filing also said Williams' reading of the April 23 letter 'relies on one portion of one sentence, rather than reading (the) letter as a whole and in the context of what preceded it: the April 18 letter' and a legal brief that also was filed April 23. To carry out the contempt finding, Williams ordered Uthmeier to file bi-weekly reports about whether any arrests, detentions or other law-enforcement actions had occurred under the blocked law — filings he has submitted. Williams on April 29 issued a preliminary injunction to continue blocking the law, saying it likely was preempted by federal immigration-enforcement authority. In part, she pointed to the law requiring that violators go to jail and indicated that could conflict with federal authority. Uthmeier also has appealed the preliminary-injunction ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. He asked the appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of the preliminary injunction but was turned down. Such a stay would have allowed enforcement of the law while the legal battle plays out.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US supreme court blocks Florida from enforcing anti-immigration law
The US supreme court maintained on Wednesday a judicial block on a Republican-crafted Florida law that makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants in the United States to enter the state. The justices denied a request by state officials to lift an order by the Florida-based US district judge Kathleen Williams that barred them from carrying out arrests and prosecutions under the law while a legal challenge plays out in lower courts. Williams ruled that Florida's law conflicted with the federal government's authority over immigration policy. The law, signed by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, in February and backed by the Trump administration, made it a felony for some undocumented migrants to enter Florida, while also imposing pre-trial jail time without bond. 'This denial reaffirms a bedrock principle that dates back 150 years: States may not regulate immigration,' said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. 'It is past time for states to get the message.' After Williams blocked the law, Florida's attorney general, James Uthmeier, a Republican, and other state officials filed the emergency request on 17 June asking the supreme court to halt the judge's order. Williams had found that the Florida law was probably unconstitutional for encroaching on the federal government's exclusive authority over US immigration policy. Related: Undocumented builders face unchecked exploitation amid Trump raids: 'It's more work, less pay' The state's request to the justices was backed by America First Legal, a conservative group co-founded by Stephen Miller, a senior aide to Donald Trump and a key architect of the administration's hardline immigration policies. Florida's immigration measure, called SB 4-C, was passed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature and signed into law by DeSantis. It made Florida one of at least seven states to pass such laws in recent years, according to court filings. The American Civil Liberties Union in April sued in federal court to challenge the law, arguing that the state should not be able to 'enforce its own state immigration system outside of federal supervision and control'. Williams agreed. The law imposed mandatory minimum sentences for undocumented adult immigrants who are convicted of entering Florida after arriving in the United States without following federal immigration law. Florida officials contend that the state measure complies with – rather than conflicts with – federal law. Sentences for violations begin at nine months' imprisonment for first offenders and reach up to five years for certain undocumented immigrants in the country who have felony records and enter Florida after having been deported or ordered by a federal judge to be removed from the United States. The state law exempts undocumented immigrants in the country who were given certain authorization by the federal government to remain in the United States. Florida's immigration crackdown makes no exceptions, however, for those seeking humanitarian protection or with pending applications for immigration relief, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued in federal court to challenge the law. The ACLU filed a class-action suit on behalf of two undocumented immigrants who reside in Florida, an immigration advocacy group called the Florida Immigrant Coalition and the non-profit group Farmworker Association of Florida, whose members include immigrants in the United States illegally who travel in and out of Florida seasonally to harvest crops. Some of the arguments in the lawsuit included claims that it violates the federal 'commerce clause', which bars states from blocking commerce between states. Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, in a statement issued after the challenge was filed said that Florida's law 'is not just unconstitutional – it's cruel and dangerous'. Williams issued a preliminary injunction in April that barred Florida officials from enforcing the measure. The Atlanta-based 11th US circuit court of appeals in June upheld the judge's ruling, prompting the Florida officials to make an emergency request to the supreme court. In a filing on 7 July, the state of Florida pointed to a brief filed by the Trump administration in the appeals case, in support of SB 4-C. 'That decision is wrong and should be reversed,' administration lawyers wrote at the time. On the same day that Florida's attorney general filed the state's supreme court request, Williams found him in civil contempt of court for failing to follow her order to direct all state law enforcement officers not to enforce the immigration measure while it remained blocked by the judge. Williams said that Uthmeier only informed the state law enforcement agencies about her order and later instructed them to arrest people anyway. Williams ordered Uthmeier to provide an update to the court every two weeks on any enforcement of the law. Other states have tried to pass similar laws, including Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho and Iowa, which have attempted to make entering their jurisdictions, while undocumented, a state crime.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida attorney general asks Supreme Court to pave way for new immigration law
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow the state to enforce its new immigration law as an appeal plays out in a lower court. The new law, S.B. 4-C, makes it a state crime for people to enter Florida after arriving in the U.S. illegally and evading immigration authorities. 'Illegal immigration continues to wreak havoc in the State while that law cannot be enforced,' Uthmeier's office wrote in the application. 'And without this Court's intervention, Florida and its citizens will remain disabled from combatting the serious harms of illegal immigration for years as this litigation proceeds through the lower courts,' it continued. Two anonymous people living in Florida illegally, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, and the Farmworker Association of Florida, sued over the law. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an appointee of former President Obama, blocked police from enforcing it indefinitely, agreeing the statute is likely preempted by federal immigration law and unconstitutional. Florida's efforts at the Supreme Court come after a three-judge panel on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to lift the block as the state's appeal moves forward. The state argued its law is tailored to avoid any conflict with federal immigration authorities. 'Nothing in SB 4-C poses a conflict with federal law. Just the opposite, Florida's law scrupulously tracks federal law. SB 4-C similarly does not violate the Dormant Commerce Clause, since it is un-related to economic protectionism,' Uthmeier's office wrote in court filings. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the plaintiffs, declined to comment. Last year, the Supreme Court allowed a Texas law to take effect that makes it a state crime to illegally cross the Mexican border into the state, refusing the Biden administration's request for an emergency order blocking it on preemption grounds. Florida's request adds to what is already a jam-packed emergency docket at the Supreme Court. The justices are mulling six pending emergency applications from the Trump administration. Three ask to partially enforce the president's birthright citizenship executive order, while the others deal with his deportation policies and efforts to reshape various federal departments. Two death row inmates set to be executed in Florida and Mississippi this week have also asked the court for emergency interventions. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supreme Court won't let Florida enforce new immigration law for now
Washington — The Supreme Court on Wednesday left in place a block on a new Florida immigration law that imposes criminal penalties on migrants who are in the U.S. illegally and enter into the state, with the justices declining to pause a lower court decision that stopped it from taking effect while legal proceedings move forward. The measure, known as SB 4-C, was approved by Florida's GOP-led legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year as part of what state Republican lawmakers said was an effort to protect the state from illegal immigration. But a pair of migrants and two nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the law, and its enforcement has been blocked since April. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sought the Supreme Court's intervention last month and asked the high court to allow enforcement of the law. But in denying his bid for emergency relief, the preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams will remain in place while the legal battle moves forward. There were no noted dissents by the justices. Florida's immigration law makes it a misdemeanor for people who are in the country illegally to enter the state. The measure was passed alongside federal efforts by President Trump to implement his sweeping immigration agenda, a centerpiece of which is the president's promise of mass deportations. Williams ruled earlier this year that the law is likely unconstitutional, and a federal appeals court in Atlanta declined to pause that decision. Separate from the legality of Florida's immigration law, the court battle led Williams to find Uthmeier in civil contempt after he sent letters to law enforcement agencies in the state about her decision. The judge's first move was to grant a temporary restraining order that barred enforcement of the state's law. As part of her decision, Williams ordered Uthmeier to notify all law enforcement agencies in the state of the injunction. The attorney general circulated a letter to those agencies in April telling them that officers and agents should comply with Williams' directive. But Uthmeier sent a follow-up letter five days later telling them that "there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from" enforcing the law, and that "no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce" the state's measure. In a decision finding Uthmeier in civil contempt of her April order to provide notice to all law enforcement officers tasked with enforcing the state's immigration law, Williams said that "when instructed to inform law enforcement that they are proscribed from enforcing an enjoined law, he may not tell them otherwise." "Litigants cannot change the plain meaning of words as it suits them, especially when conveying a court's clear and unambiguous order," she wrote. "Fidelity to the rule of law can have no other meaning." Williams ordered Uthmeier to file biweekly reports on whether any arrests, detentions or other law enforcement actions occurred under Florida's law. Sneak peek: Who Killed Aileen Seiden in Room 15? Social media content creator shows his hustle Everything we know so far about the deadly Texas floods
USA Today
09-07-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Federal judge holds Florida AG James Uthmeier in contempt over immigration law
Gov. Ron DeSantis said the law was designed to help carry out President Donald Trump's immigration policies. A federal judge Tuesday found Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in civil contempt because of a letter he sent in April to police after she ordered a halt to enforcement of a new state immigration law. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said Uthmeier violated a directive to notify police agencies that a temporary restraining order barred them from enforcing the law, which targets undocumented immigrants entering the state. 'Uthmeier's role endows him with a unique capacity to uphold or undermine the rule of law, and when he does the latter by violating a court order, the integrity of the legal system depends on his conduct being within the court's remedial reach,' Williams wrote in Tuesday's 27-page decision. The decision came after a series of events that started April 4 when Williams issued a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the law, which passed during a February special legislative session and created state crimes for undocumented immigrants who enter or re-enter Florida. Williams extended the temporary restraining order April 18 and directed Uthmeier to send a letter notifying police agencies that they could not enforce the law. The directive came after reports of arrests. Uthmeier sent such a letter April 18 but followed with an April 23 letter that spurred the contempt issue. Asked for comment, an Uthmeier spokesperson referred to an X post, in which the attorney general said, "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." 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. Uthmeier has argued that the temporary restraining order — and a longer-lasting preliminary injunction issued later — should only apply to him and local state attorneys because they were the named defendants in the underlying legal challenge to the law (SB 4-C). In the April 23 letter to police agencies, Uthmeier reiterated that position and said he could not prevent police from enforcing the law 'where there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from doing so,' Tuesday's decision said. Williams said that statement and other wording in the letter violated her order, writing that in a 'variety of ways, Uthmeier's April 23rd letter conveyed to law enforcement that they could and should disregard the April 18th letter's message that they were required by court order to cease enforcement of SB 4-C.' The judge on April 29 approved the preliminary injunction against the law and ordered Uthmeier to 'show cause' about why he should not be held in contempt or sanctioned because of the April 23 letter. In a court filing last month, Uthmeier's lawyers said he complied with the temporary restraining order by not enforcing the law and notifying law-enforcement agencies about the temporary restraining order. The filing said Uthmeier was free to express his disagreement with Williams' decision in the April 23 letter. 'The attorney general has consistently abided by the court's order to cease enforcing (the law),' the document said. 'Nowhere does the TRO (expressly or impliedly) require the attorney general to refrain from sharing his views about the order with law enforcement.' The filing also said Williams' reading of the April 23 letter 'relies on one portion of one sentence, rather than reading (the) letter as a whole and in the context of what preceded it: the April 18 letter' and a legal brief that also was filed April 23. 'In the April 23 letter, the attorney general expressly reiterated the court's conclusion that the TRO 'bound' the letter's recipients,' Uthmeier's lawyers wrote. 'He explained — as he had in the April 18 letter — that he believed the court's conclusion as to permissible scope of the TRO was 'wrong,' and he noted that the April 18 letter had promised his 'office would be arguing as much in short order.'' But Williams on Tuesday also pointed to public comments that Uthmeier made, including that he would not order law-enforcement agencies to 'stand down on enforcing the Trump agenda and carrying out Florida's law.' 'To be clear, the court (Williams) is unconcerned with Uthmeier's criticism and disapproval of the court and the court's order,' the judge wrote. 'But respect for the integrity of court orders is of paramount importance. Within the bounds of the local rules and professional rules of conduct, Uthmeier is free to broadcast his continued appeal of the court's injunction and his view that the court's rulings are erroneous. However, when instructed to inform law enforcement that they are proscribed from enforcing an enjoined law, he may not tell them otherwise.' To carry out the contempt finding, Williams ordered Uthmeier to file bi-weekly reports about whether any arrests, detentions or other law-enforcement actions had occurred under the blocked law. She wrote that she has not been made aware of any arrests or detentions since the April 18 order. The Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida and two individual plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on April 2, contending, in part, that the law violates what is known as the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution because immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. In issuing the preliminary injunction, Williams said the law likely was preempted by federal immigration authority. Among other things, she pointed to the law requiring that violators go to jail. Legislative supporters of the law and Gov. Ron DeSantis said the law was designed to help carry out President Donald Trump's immigration policies. DeSantis appointed Uthmeier as attorney general in February, after Uthmeier served as the governor's chief of staff. Uthmeier has appealed the April 29 preliminary injunction to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the issue remains pending. ©2025 The News Service of Florida. All rights reserved.
