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The US Supreme Court Wednesday blocked a Florida law that would have criminalized the entrance of illegal immigrants into the state, leaving in place a previous district court ruling that froze the law in April.
Axios reported that the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, which he had filed after the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals refused to prevent the April preliminary injunction against the law from going into effect.
According to FOX News, the justices ruled 6-3 to leave the lower court’s ruling in place. The law would have made it a crime for illegal immigrants to enter Florida if they had previously been deported or blocked from entering the US. Re-entering the state after being deported would have been considered a felony, FOX News added, while violators of the law would have been imprisoned without bond until their court hearings.
CatholicVote previously reported that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, had signed the immigration law in February, but the measure was immediately challenged by two anonymous illegal immigrants, the Florida Immigrant Coalition and the Farmworker Association of Florida. The plaintiffs argued the law overstepped Florida’s authority by overriding federal immigration enforcement.
US District Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee, issued the injunction that froze the law, prompting Uthmeier to challenge the ruling in court.
“Illegal immigration continues to wreak havoc in the State while that law cannot be enforced,” Uthmeier’s office had written to the Supreme Court, asking for the injunction to be overturned. “And without this Court’s intervention, Florida and its citizens will remain disabled from combating the serious harms of illegal immigration for years as this litigation proceeds through the lower courts.”
According to FOX News, 18 other states and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) had supported Florida’s law through amicus briefs filed in the Supreme Court and 11th Circuit Appeals Court.
Axios reported that despite Wednesday’s ruling, Uthmeier’s spokesperson, Jae Williams, said the attorney general’s office “will proceed with our appeal.” Williams also said the office thanks US Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ for supporting Florida’s law.
“Thanks to President Trump, we can still carry out the intent of Florida’s immigration law through our nation-leading number of 287(g) agreements with ICE, but Florida’s sovereignty cannot be left up to the whims of the next presidential administration,” Williams said. “The law passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor DeSantis is important to Florida’s future, and we believe it will prevail on the merits.”
