Left: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (Office of Attorney General). Right: U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams (American Bar Association/YouTube).
Florida’s Attorney General, James Uthmeier, has responded strongly to a federal judge’s warning of contempt charges against him for disregarding an order issued earlier this month that halted local immigration arrests. He asserted that “we will vigorously defend our laws” and will not instruct law enforcement to cease their lawful responsibilities.
Uthmeier affirmed on Friday that he believes Florida officials are “fulfilling their constitutional duties” by ignoring U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ directive concerning local immigration arrests, and he intends to maintain this course of action.
“We believe the court has overstepped and lacks jurisdiction there, and I will not tell law enforcement to stop fulfilling their constitutional duties,” Uthmeier said.
“I do not believe an AG should be held in contempt for respecting the rule of law and appropriate separation of powers,” the attorney general added. “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.”
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Williams, a Barack Obama appointee, issued a 14-day stay on April 4 that blocked a law signed into effect by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February, which gave state law enforcement the power to arrest and prosecute undocumented immigrants. It is now a first-degree misdemeanor for a person to enter Florida as an “unauthorized alien.”
Williams ordered that the law 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 from being carried out, but he reworded his directive just days later — saying he actually “cannot prevent” the arrests from happening, according to the Miami Herald. Williams lashed out at Uthmeier and his legal team at a hearing last Tuesday and demanded answers.
“I’m not offended by someone disagreeing with me or my order,” Williams said, according to local ABC affiliate WPLG.
“What I am offended by is someone saying, ‘You don’t have to abide by it!’” she told Uthmeier’s lawyers.
Multiple arrests have been carried out in violation of Williams’ order, according to the judge and local media outlets.
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On Wednesday, Uthmeier’s attorneys filed a motion to pause Williams’ ruling while they appeal. They argued that the plaintiffs in the Uthmeier case have failed to “allege sufficient facts” to know whether they are “presently engaging, or will imminently engage” in conduct that will lead to charges under the new law. The AG is being sued by the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Farmworker Association of Florida and two women who allegedly lack permanent legal status.
“At best, they allege speculative travel plans,” the motion said. “Nor do they have any legally protected interest in vindicating illegal, unrelated conduct,” it charged.
Uthmeier’s lawyers insisted that the new Florida law “tracks federal law to a tee” and it also 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,” the motion concluded.
Robert Schenck, a lawyer who is representing the Office of the Attorney General, claimed at an April 18 hearing that while state officials were blocked from issuing arrest warrants under Williams’ order, the state believed law enforcement officers did not have to comply because they don’t act “in concert” with one another, per the Herald.
Williams told Uthmeier’s legal team last Tuesday that he “threw everything out of whack” with his reversal and now she’s forced to hold a show-cause hearing, which is set for May 29. The judge ordered Uthmeier to show cause “on or before” May 12 on why he should not be held in contempt or sanctioned for violating her TRO.
