Florida AG Uthmeier again defends his stance in state immigration case
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in Tampa on June 2, 2025. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says it's pretty basic why he won't tell local law enforcement officers in Florida to stand down from enforcing a new state law on immigration enforcement, as a federal judge ordered him to do earlier this year.
He says it's because he's not their boss.
'These guys — they don't work for me,' Uthmeier said on Monday in Tampa, referring to two Florida sheriffs standing next to him: Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey and Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister.
'They're independently elected county officers and they do a great job, but at the end of the day, they are their own officers. I'm not going to direct them when I don't have the authority and I don't believe the judge has the authority to do so.'
Uthmeier spoke just days after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams heard legal arguments about whether she should hold him in contempt of court regarding the implementation of a new state law on immigration (SB 4-C), which makes it a misdemeanor for people in the U.S. illegally to enter Florida.
Following a legal challenge by attorneys representing immigrant rights organizations, Williams blocked enforcement of the law on April 4.
The issue that remains tethered to Uthmeier is a letter he sent to state law enforcement agencies, sheriffs, and police chiefs on April 23, when he wrote that he couldn't stop them from making arrests under the new law, and that, to him, 'no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce Florida's new illegal entry and reentry laws.'
Judge Williams has said that Uthmeier not above the law and must abide by the court's orders.
Uthmeier said on Monday that the issue goes to the separations of powers and legal jurisdictions.
'Nobody respects the rule of law more than me,' he said in response to an inquiry by a Phoenix reporter.
'But on your first day in law school you learn about the jurisdiction that judges have. And the orders of judges apply to parties before the judge in the case. The case in question in the Southern District. There have been prosecutors that have been sued in that case but no law enforcement agencies. So, when that judge asked me to direct law enforcement to stand down on enforcing the law, I'm not going to do that, because I do not have the authority to do that.'
Uthmeier's office as well as the statewide prosecutor and state's attorneys have appealed Williams injunction barring enforcement of the law to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
'Again, I'm abiding by the court's order, but law enforcement has a job to do, and as long as they're not a party in the case and there's no injunction that is lawfully binding them, then I'm not going to stand in the way,' he said.
Uthmeier, a former chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis, was appointed by the governor to succeed Ashley Moody and become Florida's attorney general in February. He has already announced that he will run for a full term next year.
DeSantis is backing Uthmeier's stance in this case, saying last month in Tampa that the federal judge in this case has gone beyond her authority in calling on Florida law enforcement agencies to stop making immigration arrests.
'She's trying to exercise authority that she does not possess. Fine,' DeSantis said at the time. 'There's parties to the case and she's rendered a decision even though it's a flawed decision that will be appealed. … You can't go out and then say some sheriff in the Panhandle is somehow subject to your order — they were not involved in the litigation at all.'
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