Florida Attorney General Says He’ll Ignore Federal Judge’s Immigration Order

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has been threatened with contempt by a federal judge after she ordered him to instruct law enforcement officers to stop enforcing a state immigration law, according to a Friday report.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee, demanded that Uthmeier stop enforcing a Florida law that law allows Florida law enforcement officials to charge illegal immigrants who enter the state to avoid federal immigration authorities with misdemeanors.

In her ruling, Williams said the state law may be unconstitutional, Fox News reported, writing that immigration enforcement is solely a federal responsibility under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

But in a rebuttal, Uthmeier argued that the state has a right to protect its borders from those who are in the country illegally and who come to Florida to escape federal immigration enforcement.

“The judge wants me to put my stamp of approval on an order prohibiting all state law enforcement from enforcing Florida’s immigration laws when no law enforcement are party to the lawsuit,” he said before vowing to defy the order.

“I’m just not going to do that. We believe the court has overstepped and lacks jurisdiction there, and I will not tell law enforcement to stop fulfilling their constitutional duties,” he told Fox News.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit to stop Florida from enforcing it’s law. Should Williams declare Uthmeier in contempt, it’s likely she would order the U.S. Marshals to detain the AG, setting up a showdown with the Trump administration and, specifically, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose Justice Department oversees the Marshals.

“I do not believe an AG should be held in contempt for respecting the rule of law and appropriate separation of powers. The ACLU is dead set on obstructing President Donald Trump’s efforts to detain and deport illegals, and we are going to fight back. We will vigorously defend our laws and advance President Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration,” he said.

The ACLU celebrated the court’s decision to continue blocking the law in a press release where it purposely obfuscated the difference between an immigrant and an illegal immigrant.

“This is a win for human rights, for immigrant families, for fairness, for the rule of law, and for everyone who believes in the Constitution,” Bacardi Jackson, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida, said. “Florida politicians tried to turn fear into policy and made it a crime simply to exist as an immigrant in this state. The court rightly reminded them: immigration enforcement is a job for the federal government, not a political weapon for states to use.”

“The court made it clear — this law goes too far,” Oscar Sarabia Roman, Staff Attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project said. “Florida tried to sidestep federal immigration laws and punish people for traveling into the state. But immigration rules are set by Congress, not state politicians.”

“This ruling affirms fairness, justice, and the rule of law — values that have defined us as a nation,” Sui Chung, Executive Director at Americans for Immigrant Justice said. “SB 4-C unfairly targeted immigrants and disrupted the lives of hardworking residents of Florida.”

However, the attorney general said that all he wanted to do was protect the citizens of his state.

“That law does nothing more than exercise Florida’s inherent sovereign authority to protect its citizens by aiding the enforcement of federal immigration law,” he said.

“I explained that I believed her after-the-fact expansion of her order to nonparties was wrong, and that my office would be arguing as much in short order. Today, my office filed a brief explaining why her order cannot possibly restrain Florida’s law enforcement agencies from enforcing Florida Statutes Sections 811.102 and 811.103. We will continue to argue that position—including on appeal as soon as possible,” he said.

The judge said that she was prepared to issue a preliminary injunction against the law and was “shocked” that the attorney general was ignoring her.