As legal wrangling continues in a lower court, Attorney General James Uthmeier's office Wednesday asked a federal appeals court to at least temporarily allow the state to carry out a new law targeting undocumented immigrants who enter Florida.
Uthmeier's office filed a 34-page motion at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking a stay of a preliminary injunction issued last week by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams that blocked enforcement of the law. A stay, if granted, would allow enforcement while an underlying appeal of the injunction plays out.
The law, passed during a February special legislative session, created state crimes for undocumented immigrants who enter or re-enter Florida. The Republican-controlled Legislature said the law was aimed at helping carry out President Donald Trump's policies on preventing illegal immigration.
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In issuing the preliminary injunction, Williams said the law likely was preempted by federal immigration authority. Among other things, she pointed to the law (SB 4-C) requiring that violators go to jail.
"First, it gives state officials authority to prosecute illegal entry or reentry in cases where federal actors may choose not to," the judge wrote.
"Even if federal and state officials choose to commence parallel dual prosecutions under both laws, SB 4-C's mandatory detention provision limits federal law enforcement discretion to recommend pre-trial release and obstructs federal courts' ability to conduct proceedings requiring defendants' presence. Relatedly, state officials are free to prosecute a charge under SB 4-C even while a federal immigration proceeding is underway, which may determine that the defendant may remain lawfully present under federal law."
Uthmeier's office quickly appealed the preliminary injunction and followed Wednesday by asking for a stay while the Atlanta-based appeals court considers the underlying issues. Wednesday's motion, in part, disputed that the state law improperly infringed on federal immigration authority.
"To aid the United States in curbing illegal immigration within the state's borders, SB 4-C criminalizes the entry into Florida of those who have illegally entered the United States," the motion said. "That law tracks federal law to a tee. It also retains federal-law defenses and says nothing of who should be admitted or removed from the country."
Uthmeier's office last week also asked Williams for a stay of the injunction while the appeal is considered. But with plaintiffs given until next week to respond to that request, Uthmeier's office argued in Wednesday's filing at the appeals court that Williams' delay in ruling effectively was a failure to provide a stay.
The Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida and two individual plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on April 2, alleging, 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. The lawsuit names as defendants Uthmeier and local state attorneys.
Williams in early April also issued a temporary restraining order to block the law, before issuing the longer-lasting preliminary injunction. In addition to the stay issue, wrangling has continued in the district court about the possibility that Williams could hold Uthmeier in contempt.
Williams gave Uthmeier until Monday to "show cause" why he should not be held in contempt or sanctioned for allegedly violating the temporary restraining order. She cited an April 23 letter that Uthmeier sent to law-enforcement agencies "advising them, in part, that 'no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes (their) agencies from continuing to enforce' SB 4-C."
Williams scheduled a May 29 hearing on the contempt or sanctions issue.
Uthmeier has contended that law-enforcement officers are not defendants in the lawsuit and, as a result, aren't subject to the court's order. His office also made that argument in Wednesday's filing at the appeals court.
"In Florida, law-enforcement and prosecutorial agencies derive powers from separate constitutional and statutory sections," Wednesday's filing said. "None of those sections grant defendants (Uthmeier and state attorneys) control over law-enforcement officials, and Florida law is typically explicit when it grants such control. Further underscoring defendants' lack of control, defendants cannot remove or discipline law-enforcement officers, nor do law-enforcement agencies draw their funds from defendants' budgets."
The filing said that if the appeals court doesn't issue a stay of the injunction, it should narrow the injunction to cover only Uthmeier and state attorneys.
But in last week's ruling, Williams blasted Uthmeier's arguments on the scope issue, writing that the "logical outcome of defendants' argument raises grave constitutional concerns."
"To posit, as defendants do, that law enforcement may arrest individuals for conduct they know has no current legal basis to sustain criminal charges, is to upend Fourth Amendment jurisprudence in its entirety," she wrote, referring to the amendment that protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures and generally requires such things as search warrants.
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