TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Trump administration Monday argued a federal appeals court should overturn a district judge’s ruling that blocked a new Florida law targeting undocumented immigrants who enter the state.
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys filed a 33-page brief backing the state’s appeal of a preliminary injunction issued in April by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams. In addition to appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of Williams’ ruling — a request, that if granted, would allow enforcement of the law while the underlying legal battle plays out.
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Williams ruled that the law (SB 4-C), which created state crimes for undocumented immigrants who enter or re-enter Florida, likely was preempted by federal immigration-enforcement authority.
But Justice Department attorneys Monday disputed that conclusion, saying the state law “complements existing federal immigration law by punishing those within, or that come within, Florida’s regulatory reach who previously entered or reentered the country in violation of U.S. immigration law.”
The brief also said wording in the Florida law largely mirrors the federal Immigration and Naturalization Act, or INA.
“The Florida law does not authorize any conduct forbidden by federal law, but instead uses language borrowed nearly verbatim from the INA to prohibit conduct that parallels conduct prohibited by the INA,” the Justice Department attorneys wrote. “Florida’s law is in harmony, not conflict, with federal law.”
The law, passed during a February special legislative session, came as Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers rushed to help carry out President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.
Attorneys for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida and two individual plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on April 2 in federal court in South Florida, 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 across Florida.
Williams on April 4 issued a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the law and extended the restraining order on April 18. Ultimately, she issued a longer-lasting preliminary injunction on April 29, saying the law was likely unconstitutional.
Among other things, Williams pointed to the law 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.”
The Justice Department’s friend-of-the-court brief Monday was filed at the Atlanta-based appeals court. But Uthmeier’s office also submitted it as “supplemental authority” in the state’s pending request to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of the preliminary injunction.
A panel of the appeals court last month rejected such a stay, and arguments on the injunction are scheduled in October.
Meanwhile, documents filed last week in federal district court by Uthmeier and R.J. Larizza, state attorney in the 7th Judicial Circuit, disclosed that two men were arrested May 29 in St. Johns County under the enjoined law.
Larizza’s office, which handles cases in St. Johns and three other counties, did not prosecute one of the men and asked a judge to vacate a charge against the other man, according to the documents.
Uthmeier and Williams have been involved in a high-profile dispute about whether the preliminary injunction should apply to law-enforcement officers across the state — a dispute that resulted in the judge finding Uthmeier in civil contempt.
Uthmeier argued the injunction should only apply to him and local state attorneys, the named defendants in the lawsuit. But Williams also applied it to police agencies across Florida, effectively seeking to ensure that it would not be enforced.
She also ordered Uthmeier to file status reports about whether arrests have been made. The disclosures last week came in such a status report.