Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to allow the state to enforce a new immigration law that criminalizes unlawful re-entry into Florida.
The law, known as SB 4-C, was blocked by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, who ruled it was likely unconstitutional. In her initial decision, Williams issued a temporary restraining order and directed the attorney general to notify all law enforcement agencies in the state that the law could not be enforced.
Despite the order, Uthmeier sent a follow-up letter to law enforcement officials stating that “no judicial order … properly restrains you from” enforcing the law and that “no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce” it. In response, Judge Williams found Uthmeier in civil contempt last week, writing: “Litigants cannot change the plain meaning of words as it suits them, especially when conveying a court’s clear and unambiguous order. Fidelity to the rule of law can have no other meaning.”
Judge Williams also ordered Uthmeier to file biweekly reports detailing any arrests, detentions, or actions taken under the law while her injunction remains in place.
In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Uthmeier argued that the injunction is harming the state. “Florida is enjoined from enforcing its statute to the detriment of Florida’s citizens and the state’s sovereign prerogative to protect them from harm,” he wrote. “Illegal immigration continues to wreak havoc in the state while that law cannot be enforced. And without this court’s intervention, Florida and its citizens will remain disabled from combatting the serious harms of illegal immigration for years as this litigation proceeds through the lower courts.”
The law, passed earlier this year, makes it a crime for people living in the U.S. unlawfully to “knowingly enter or re-enter Florida” after entering the country by “eluding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers.” State officials say the measure supports federal immigration enforcement efforts and is consistent with federal law.
However, two migrants living unlawfully in Florida, along with the Florida Immigrant Coalition and the Farmworker Association of Florida, sued Uthmeier and 20 state attorneys, arguing that the law is preempted by federal law and violates the U.S. Constitution.
Uthmeier defended the measure in Supreme Court filings, calling it a “measured effort” by the state to protect its sovereignty. He wrote that lawmakers enacted the law in response to “devastating harms killing Florida’s citizens and destroying their communities.”
Signed into law on February 13, 2025, by Governor DeSantis, SB 4-C and its companion bill SB 2-C are part of a broader immigration crackdown. The legislation introduced a range of new penalties and policy changes, including enhanced charges for undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes, restrictions on in-state tuition, and a controversial provision mandating the death penalty for undocumented immigrants convicted of capital felonies, such as first-degree murder.
Under SB 2-C, undocumented immigrants who vote or assist noncitizens in voting can be charged with a third-degree felony.
