Federal judge says local police must follow order to halt enforcement of Florida immigration law

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MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge told attorneys for the state of Florida on Tuesday that an order freezing the enforcement of a new state immigration law absolutely did apply to all of the state's local law enforcement agencies, despite a recent letter to the contrary from the state's attorney general.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said during a hearing in Miami that she planned to issue a preliminary injunction against a state statute that makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented migrants to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation into law in February as part of President Donald Trump’s push to crack down on illegal immigration, though many of Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts are currently mired in battles with federal judges.

The judge had issued a 14-day temporary restraining order on April 4, shortly after the lawsuit was filed by the Florida Immigrant Coalition and other groups with support from the American Civil Liberties Union. She then extended it 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.

During Tuesday's hearing, Williams asked Jeffrey DeSousa, who is representing the Florida Office of the Attorney General, why Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier released a memo to law enforcement agencies last week saying they didn't need to follow her order.

DeSousa said his office's position is that a judge's order can only apply to the named parties in the lawsuit being tried. Williams asked what would be the point of allowing law enforcement officers to arrest people without probable cause when prosecutors weren't allowed to prosecute them, though DeSousa didn’t directly answer.

DeSousa also argued that the immigrant groups filing the lawsuit could have named the individual law enforcement agencies in their complaint, rather than just the Florida attorney general, the statewide prosecutor and Florida's 20 state attorneys.

ACLU attorney Oscar Sarabia Roman said it would not have been practical to individually name all 373 of the state's law enforcement agencies in their complaint. He added that the judge's order should have the authority to prevent local police from enforcing the new law.

After Williams issued her order 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 it. 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. No additional arrests have been reported since Uthmeier's second memo.