Records Show Florida Continued Immigration Arrests After Judge Told Them To Stop

A federal judge paused enforcement of a harsh anti-immigration law in April, citing the likelihood that a pending legal challenge would succeed — but Florida Highway Patrol officers continued to enforce the law and arrested at least 27 people in the weeks that followed, HuffPost has learned.

Senate Bill 4-C, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law in February, made it a state crime for people to enter Florida without legal status. In response to a lawsuit challenging the legality of the law, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams granted a temporary restraining order on April 4, blocking law enforcement from making arrests pursuant to SB-4C. She later converted the temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction, pausing enforcement while litigation is ongoing.

Less than two weeks after the temporary restraining order went into effect, a state trooper arrested U.S.-born citizen Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez and charged him with illegally entering the state as an “unauthorized alien.” He was detained at the local jail even after his mother produced his birth certificate and Social Security card at a court hearing. Lopez-Gomez was released the following day, but his arrest drew attention to the state’s non-compliance with Williams’ order.

After Lopez-Gomez’s arrest, HuffPost filed a public records request with the Florida Highway Patrol, asking how people had been arrested pursuant to SB-4C since the law was paused. The law enforcement agency provided report numbers for 27 arrests between April 4 and May 26. That number does not represent the total number of SB-4C arrests in the state during that time, as the Florida Highway Patrol is just one of hundreds of law enforcement agencies that were authorized to make arrests under the immigration law. At least nine of the people arrested landed in immigration detention, the Tampa Bay Times previously reported.

Some of the arrests came to light through the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law, filed by Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida and two women who fear arrest under SB-4C against Florida’s attorney general and several state prosecutors. During an April 18 hearing, lawyers representing the plaintiffs reported learning of more than a dozen arrests that had occurred since the temporary restraining order took effect. At the time, a lawyer representing the Florida attorney general’s office argued that the temporary restraining order only applied to the parties listed in the suit, not to individual law enforcement agencies.

“I am astounded and don’t understand this argument,” Williams said. “When I issued the temporary restraining order, it never occurred to me that police officers would not be bound by it,” the judge continued. “It never occurred to me that the state attorneys would not give direction to law enforcement so that we would not have these unfortunate arrests.”

Williams warned that arresting people under a blocked law could constitute “false imprisonment.” In a written order, the judge stated that her order applied to all law enforcement officers with the power to enforce SB-4C and directed the state to notify those tasked with enforcing the law.

Initially, Attorney General James Uthmeier complied, notifying law enforcement agencies that they should “take no steps to enforce” SB-4C. But in a follow-up letter days later, Uthmeier wrote that although Williams ordered him to notify law enforcement of her order, he “cannot prevent you from enforcing” the law. “It is my view that no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce Florida’s new illegal entry and reentry laws,” the attorney general wrote.

Last month, Williams found Uthmeier was in civil contempt of her order to notify law enforcement not to enforce SB-4C. She cited the attorney general’s follow-up letter, as well as several public statements he made during interviews, where he said he would not “rubber stamp her order” or “tell them all to stand down.”

Uthmeier’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The judge ordered Uthmeier to file bi-weekly reports detailing any additional arrests made pursuant to SB-4C. The first report, filed July 1, detailed two arrests made by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office on May 29. Court records show that at least one of the individuals arrested was taken into ICE custody. The other individual pleaded guilty to the charges against him. In both cases, the state dismissed or vacated the immigration charges after Williams’ contempt finding. But the initial arrests placed them on ICE’s radar, and it is unclear whether they are currently free — or even in the U.S.

Uthmeier appealed Williams’ decision to pause enforcement of SB-4C all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined last week to allow Florida to resume enforcement.