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Miami, FL - A federal judge in Miami has issued a strong rebuke to Florida’s top legal officials, clarifying that her order blocking the state’s controversial immigration law applies to all local law enforcement agencies, not just the named defendants in the case.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams announced her intention to issue a preliminary injunction halting the enforcement of Senate Bill 4-C, a law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in February.
The law makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants to enter Florida by evading federal immigration authorities.
Advocacy groups, including the Florida Immigrant Coalition and the ACLU, argue the law oversteps state authority and violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
The case escalated after Florida Highway Patrol allegedly arrested more than a dozen people under the law, including a U.S. citizen, despite a temporary restraining order Williams had issued on April 4th.
The judge extended that order on April 18th after learning of the arrests.
Attorney General James Uthmeier initially told law enforcement to pause enforcement of the law but later issued a memo contradicting the judge’s order, suggesting agencies could continue enforcement.
This drew sharp criticism from Judge Williams, who questioned why officers would make arrests if prosecutors were barred from pursuing charges.
Attorneys for the state argued the judge’s order only applied to the parties named in the lawsuit, but Williams rejected that interpretation.
ACLU attorneys argued it would be impractical to name all 373 law enforcement agencies in the complaint.
No further arrests have been reported since Uthmeier’s conflicting memo was released.