Miami judge delays whether to hold Florida attorney general in contempt of court

MIAMI — Despite strongly criticizing the state’s top legal officer, a Miami federal judge on Thursday put off deciding whether to hold Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in contempt of court in a politically fraught immigration case.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams found Uthmeier violated her temporary restraining order to stop enforcing a new state law that makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants to enter Florida after illegally crossing into the United States.

At Thursday’s hearing, Williams said the attorney general, who was not present, was essentially advising police agencies to “go out and arrest, there’s nothing stopping you.”

“What about my order is improper, unlawful and illegitimate?” an irked Williams asked Uthmeier’s attorney, pointing out there would be “anarchy” if people didn’t follow the law.

At first, Uthmeier seemed to obey her order when he instructed the Florida Highway Patrol and other police agencies on April 18 that they had to refrain from enforcing the new law — after Williams learned FHP officers had arrested more than a dozen people for illegally entering the state under the new misdemeanor law, including a U.S. citizen.

But Williams said the attorney general crossed the line five days later when Uthmeier informed those same police agencies “there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from” enforcing the statute.

Uthmeier’s defense lawyer, Jesse Panuccio, who formerly served in top positions in state government and the Justice Department under Republican administrations, said the judge was only focusing on a “snippet” of the attorney general’s April 23 letter to police agencies telling them they did not have to abide by the judge’s order, not the whole context of his message.

Panuccio disputed the judge’s assertion that the attorney general violated her restraining order.

“I don’t think this letter is saying that — there is no evidence,” he said, adding that state police agencies have not made any additional arrests since April 18, the date of her second restraining order. “There is no contempt.”

During Thursday’s hearing, Williams did not indicate when she would decide on whether to issue contempt sanctions.

She took umbrage with Uthmeier’s remarks in TV interviews and social media, as she paraphrased a few of his public comments: “I’m not going to rubber stamp her order. ... I’m not going to ask law enforcement to stand down.”

“That’s Mr. Uthmeier saying what he meant,” Williams told his attorney. “It’s pretty clear what he’s saying.”

An attorney representing immigrant groups that sued the state in Miami federal court said Uthmeier’s letter was “an attempt to evade and undermine the court’s order.”

“It’s clearly a contempt of court,” American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Cody Wofsy told Williams during the hearing.

Uthmeier, 37, is a Florida native who served as chief of staff for Gov. Ron DeSantis before he appointed him as the state’s 39th attorney general in February.

Whether the judge finds Uthmeier in contempt for giving state police agencies the latitude to arrest illegal immigrants entering Florida — despite her order to the contrary — remains an open question. There’s no precedent for a state attorney general ignoring a federal judge’s order, certainly not in the Southern District of Florida.

Uthmeier, who has not appeared at a series of hearings before Williams, could face up to a $1,000 fine and/or six months in jail time if she finds him in contempt of court.

But one thing is clear: Uthmeier is not backing down, saying he did not violate the judge’s restraining order stopping the state’s enforcement of the immigration law, according to a court filing. Williams’ order “did not prohibit — much less clearly prohibit — the attorney general from holding a legal view contrary to the conclusions reached by” the judge or from notifying state law enforcement agencies of the filing of “a brief explaining his legal position.”

Attorney general: Law enforcement not named in suit

Uthmeier, whose views have been publicly backed by DeSantis, said the judge has no authority to order him to instruct FHP, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and other police agencies to refrain from arresting illegal immigrants upon arrival in the state because law enforcement officers are not named as defendants in the federal immigration case under Williams’ review.

In addition to his contesting the judge’s contempt of court claim, Uthmeier also expressed his dissatisfaction with Williams in a recent interview with FOX 35 in Orlando: “This is Law 101,” he said. “She doesn’t have jurisdiction.”

Jeremy Redfern, a spokesman for Uthmeier, characterized Williams’ position as “lawfare” by an “Obama-appointed judge” on the social media site X, suggesting she has used her power as a legal weapon to thwart the Republican-led government’s efforts to assist the Trump administration on immigration enforcement.

President Barack Obama appointed Williams to the Miami federal bench in 2010; the U.S. Senate confirmed her the following year.

Democrat judge, Republican judge — two different responses by DeSantis

The DeSantis administration’s verbal assault on Williams, a Democrat who served as a prosecutor and public defender in Miami before becoming a federal judge, has been striking. It contrasts sharply with how the DeSantis administration treated one of her colleagues on the federal bench in Miami after the judge halted the enforcement of a previous state immigration law.

Two years ago, DeSantis championed legislation that made it a crime to transport undocumented immigrants into Florida — a state law he touted in his GOP primary campaign for president.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, stopped enforcement of the state law with a preliminary injunction sought by a farm workers’ group. Altman wrote that he temporarily blocked the law because the group would otherwise “suffer irreparable harm,” though he eventually limited the scope of his order to the immigrant group, not the entire state, as Williams did.

But unlike their harsh criticism of Judge Williams, DeSantis and other Florida officials kept their objections to Judge Altman civil, limiting their differences with him to court filings. At the time, Ashley Moody was the state attorney general. She’s now a U.S. senator in Florida, appointed by DeSantis in January to replace Marco Rubio, who resigned from the Senate to become secretary of state in the Trump administration.

There were no critical comments about Altman at news conferences or on social media, like the verbal barrage against Williams.

This year, however, the political dynamics of U.S. immigration policy have changed dramatically under President Donald Trump. His administration has launched a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the United States, targeting not only foreign nationals with criminal records but also Venezuelans and other migrants with Temporary Protected Status and humanitarian parole granted by the Biden administration.

In executing his agenda, Trump has relied on Republican-dominated states like Florida in helping detain illegal immigrants so that U.S. authorities can deport them, leading to confrontations with federal judges like Williams.

Plaintiffs: State’s new law is unconstitutional

The showdown between Williams and the state attorney general’s office came nearly one month after the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Farmworker Association of Florida and others represented by ACLU lawyers filed suit in early April, saying that the new state law is unconstitutional because only federal authorities have the power to enforce immigration laws.

Williams agreed on a preliminary basis, citing the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution, which says federal law takes precedence over state and local laws.

In late April, Williams said she was “surprised and shocked” to learn that Uthmeier first told state police officers to obey her order not to arrest undocumented immigrants entering Florida but later said he “cannot prevent” them from making arrests under the new state law.

Williams issued a preliminary injunction on April 29 prohibiting all state law enforcement official and police agencies, including FHP, from arresting undocumented immigrants who come into Florida.

Contempt of court penalties

The judge scheduled Thursday’s hearing after she found that Uthmeier violated her prior restraining order in the immigration case.

Last month, Williams said the state attorney general’s directive telling police officers that they could make arrests “threw everything out of whack,” leaving her with no choice but to hold a hearing to allow Uthmeier to explain why she should not hold him in contempt of her restraining order.

“What I am offended by is someone suggesting you don’t have to follow my order, that it’s not legitimate,” Williams said.

Uthmeier and his lawyers argued that Williams’ restraining orders and injunction should only apply to the defendants named in the immigrant groups’ lawsuit, namely the state attorney general, statewide prosecutor and 20 state attorneys in Florida — not police agencies and officers.

Here’s what triggered the confrontation: Uthmeier told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and other police agencies that they could continue to enforce the state statute criminalizing illegal immigrants arriving in Florida who hadn’t notified federal authorities of their entry into the U.S. — contrary to Williams’ April 18 restraining order.

That day, Williams scolded lawyers for the attorney general’s office after learning that Florida Highway Patrol officers arrested more than a dozen people — including a U.S. citizen born in Georgia — after she had ordered them to stop on April 4 when she issued a 14-day temporary restraining order that “prohibited the enforcement” of the state’s immigration law.

Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez, 20, the U.S. citizen, was arrested by FHP officers on April 16, held in Leon County Sheriff’s jail in Tallahassee and later released.

Williams’ order applied to those “who are in active concert or participation with” the defendants named in the immigration groups’ lawsuit. Williams said her order enjoined the named defendants, the state attorney general and various state prosecutors in Florida, but also state, county and local police officers.

Judge blocks enforcement of law a second time

Saying she was “astounded” by the FHP arrests, Williams extended her ruling for another 11 days, blocking the enforcement of the state immigration law through April 29. She spelled out that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol and all other police agencies were bound by her ruling.

After the April 18 hearing, Uthmeier sent a memo to state and local law enforcement officers and told them they “must refrain” from enforcing the law and obey the judge’s order, even though he disagreed with it.

“Please instruct your officers and agents to comply with Judge Williams’ directive,” he wrote in the memo.

But five days later, he changed his mind, saying her latest order was legally “wrong.”

“Judge Williams ordered my office to notify you of the evolving scope of her order, and I did so,” Uthmeier wrote in another memo on April 23 to Florida law enforcement agencies. “But I cannot prevent you from enforcing (the state immigration law) where there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from doing so.”

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