SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It's not just President Trump who's fighting in court for more power to try to crack down on illegal immigration. Some state officials are also doing it. The Republican attorney general of Florida has been held in contempt of court. A federal judge there worries people are still being arrested under a law that the court has blocked. WFSU's Regan McCarthy reports from Tallahassee that the U.S. Supreme Court could weigh in soon.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Singing) ...Together. We shall not be moved. Voices rise together. We shall not be moved.
REGAN MCCARTHY, BYLINE: On the lawn of Florida's Capitol building recently, protesters sing, cheer and wave signs with phrases like due process for all and no human is illegal. Joelle Nunez, with the Tallahassee Immigration Rights Alliance, helped organize the event.
JOELLE NUNEZ: Seeing the fact that so many of these arrests have been based on pure racial profiling, without really even checking papers, I'm very scared that someone in my family could get arrested.
MCCARTHY: This spring, during a traffic stop, the Florida Highway Patrol arrested a man under a new state law. The law makes it a crime for someone without legal status in the U.S. to enter Florida. But he was a U.S. citizen and was released the next day. Also a federal judge had already blocked the law while courts consider whether the state law oversteps duties that belong to the federal government.
CODY WOFSY: This kind of law is essentially trying to take that power that Congress gave to federal officials and say, instead, we're going to put it in the hands of Florida state officers.
MCCARTHY: Cody Wofsy is a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups that sued the state. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier notified officers around the state about the ruling. But days later, according to the court, he sent a second letter saying since local law enforcement weren't sued directly, the ruling doesn't apply to them. He went to the media to make his case.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JAMES UTHMEIER: There's not a single law enforcement agency as a party in front of the court in this case.
MCCARTHY: That's Uthmeier talking to Newsmax on a clip posted to the attorney general's X account in May.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UTHMEIER: The first day of law school, they tell you about separation of powers. They tell you that a judge can't order people around who are not under the jurisdiction of the court. So I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to bow down and withhold my oath. I gave an oath to the Constitution, and that's where my loyalty lies.
MCCARTHY: U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams cited some of those comments when she found Uthmeier in civil contempt. She called his argument implausible and ordered him to start reporting any arrests under the law. The Tampa Bay Times says more than two dozen people have been arrested since the law was blocked, and Uthmeier recently acknowledged two arrests in court documents, saying those charges were dropped. Governor Ron DeSantis has backed the attorney general.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RON DESANTIS: The judge does not have roving authority to set policy throughout the state or the United States of America. And so he has no obligation to restrict people who were not parties to the case.
MCCARTHY: In court documents, Uthmeier argues states can pass legislation to stem illegal immigration. And he says Florida's law follows the federal law. He's made an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court to let Florida enforce the law. Other states with similar laws have backed his case. A couple days ago, an appeals court upheld a block on the Texas version of the law.
For NPR News, I'm Regan McCarthy in Tallahassee.
(SOUNDBITE OF LA LOM'S "SANTEE ALLEY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.