TALLAHASSEE, FL.Even though a federal judge has stopped the enforcement of a Florida statute that prohibits individuals who are illegally in the United States from entering the state while it is being challenged in court, some law enforcement officials are nevertheless charging people under the legislation.
According to a report Florida’s attorney general must submit as retribution for disobeying the judge’s decision, two further individuals were detained and charged under the legislation in July.
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A sheriff’s officer in Sarasota County, on the southwest coast of the state, took both men into custody. The charges were brought months after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami initially stopped the state statute’s implementation, which makes it a misdemeanor for individuals who are in the United States illegally to evade immigration authorities and enter Florida.
The judge ordered Florida Attorney General James Uthmeierto to submit bimonthly reports detailing whether any arrests, detentions, or law enforcement actions had been taken in accordance with the law as a punishment for disobeying her order and being convicted in civil contempt.
The males were accused with driving under the influence of alcohol and driving without a valid license in separate incidents on July 3 and July 28. According to the status report, the State Attorney’s Office for the 12th Judicial Circuit threw out the charges of unauthorized entrance against them and asked the sheriff’s office to inform the arresting officer of the court order that stopped the law’s execution.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by a Uthmeier representative.
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs, immigration rights activists, questioned in a separate court filing whether state officials were utilizing the statute that was banned to defend the detainees’ confinement at Alligator Alcatraz, a remote immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades.
An email purportedly sent by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee to congressional offices was presented to the court by the advocates’ attorneys, who claimed that Florida officials are depending on the legal authority afforded by the banned statute.
Attorneys for the immigrant rights organizations stated that ICE’s communication raises serious concerns about possible widespread violations of the court’s injunction and asked the court to force the state to provide an explanation of the legal basis for its detention of individuals at the Everglades facility.
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The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative is where Kate Payne is a corps member.A nonprofit national service initiative called Report for America places reporters in local newsrooms to explore topics that aren’t often covered.
