MIAMI — Florida’s attorney general on Wednesday appealed a federal judge’s injunction that temporarily stops authorities from enforcing a new state law making it a misdemeanor for people who came to the U.S. illegally to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials.
State Attorney General James Uthmeier and local prosecutors also asked U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami to put her injunction on hold while the order is appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
In her ruling on Tuesday, the judge specified that her order applied to all of the state’s local law enforcement agencies, despite a recent letter to the contrary from Uthmeier. The judge also set a hearing in May to determine if Uthmeier should be held in contempt for sending the letter to law enforcement agencies in Florida.
The judge had issued a 14-day temporary restraining order on April 4, shortly after a lawsuit challenging the law was filed by the Florida Immigrant Coalition and other groups with support from the American Civil Liberties Union. Williams extended the order another 11 days after learning the Florida Highway Patrol had arrested more than a dozen people, including a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit claims the new law violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution by encroaching on federal duties.
After Williams issued her extension April 18, Uthmeier sent a memo to state and local law enforcement officers telling them to refrain from enforcing the law, even though he disagreed with the injuction. But five days later, he sent another memo saying that the judge was legally wrong and that he couldn’t prevent local police officers and deputies from enforcing the law.