MIAMI (AP) – A federal court considered Thursday whether the Attorney General of Florida was disobedient who forbade the enforcement of a new Study Act, making it a crime for people in the US illegally to enter Florida and whether he should be kept in disdain and punished.
Judge Kathleen Williams in the US specified in her ruling last month that her temporary limiting order against enforcement of the law in Florida applied to all local legislative enforcement agencies of the state. The Miami judge later noted that there was a considerable chance that the Law of Florida would be found unconstitutional.
But Attorney General James Uthmeier of Florida sent a letter of 23 April to Florida's law enforcement agencies and said that he could not prevent the laws from forcing the law “where there is no legal order that you do not stop here properly.”
“As explained in brief that my office has submitted today, I believe that no legal, legitimate order is currently impeding your agencies to continue to maintain the new illegal entry and return laws of Florida,” said the Attorney General of Florida in the letter.
Dozens of people, including an American citizen, have been arrested under the law. Uthmeier appealed the judge's order to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
In judicial articles, Uthmeier said that in the letter of 23 April he only informed local law enforcement agencies that he had submitted a court order that had a legal vision that did not agree with the judge's order. He had obey the judge's order by informing local law enforcement agencies in a letter of 18 April that they could not enforce the law while the court case went, according to the court applications of Uthmeier.
“There is no basis for contempt or sanctions,” said Uthmeier. “Interpreting an order to prohibit an attorney general in order not to agree with a federal command while the follows are also an extraordinary, being a first statement of federal judicial power in terms of serious constitutional concerns.”
But lawyers for an immigrant rights groups who challenged the law in Florida said it was unacceptable that the letter from the Attorney General of Florida will encourage the arrests that he fully understood specifically forbidden. “
Even if the arguments of Uthmeier are taken at nominal value, that he only declared his legal position, he did nothing to clarify the confusion, despite sufficient opportunities, lawyers for the Florida Immigrant Coalition said. They said that the options that the judge could consider, include financial sanctions and refer the behavior of Uthmeier to the Florida bar for disciplinary procedures or to federal authorities for prosecution.
“Objectively and in the context of the earlier letter, the second letter from the Attorney General clearly undermined the notification he had to provide, and invited arrests that he knew would be violations of the order of this Court,” said the lawyers of immigrant rights in judicial articles. “That is typical contempt of the court.”
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