Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has directed state law enforcement to stop arrests of undocumented immigrants under a new immigration law as a federal judge doubled the restrictive order against the state.
The directive comes after U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams said at a hearing Friday that the state’s decision “shocked” her decision to continue being arrested after ordering the cessation of officials earlier this month.
The Florida Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News numbers.
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and former Gov. Jeanette Nuñez participated in the first day of the legislative session in Tallahassee, Florida on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Under state law, illegal immigration into Florida is a misdemeanor.
In a letter to state officials, Uthmeier directed state law enforcement to comply with the judge’s order, although he did not agree to the decision.
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Handle incoming and immigrant detainees at the Krome Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida. (Jack Gruber/USA Today)
The order comes after lawyers sued the state for the order that authorities have arrested 15 people in the past two weeks, including a U.S. citizen born in Georgia.
Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez, 20, was pulled by the Florida Highway Patrol near the Florida-Georgia border last week and was later detained by immigration officials. It is unclear whether Gomez was detained in a new law signed in February by Governor Ron DeSantis, who provided identification after his arrest.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis talked about immigration and conducted a memorandum of understanding between U.S. immigration and customs enforcement, homeland security investigations and Florida Highway Patrol during a roundtable meeting at the Florida Gulf Coast University on January 29, 2025. (Andrew West/News-Press/USA Today Network)
Gomez was charged with illegal entry into Florida and held at the Leon County Jail, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) required him to be detained for up to 48 hours. The next day, Gomez was released after his mother provided his birth certificate, social insurance card and national ID card in court.
The ICE and the Florida Immigration Alliance did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
A task force composed of local and federal law enforcement agencies searched for suspected illegal immigrant vehicles in St. Johns County, Florida and after a traffic stop on Monday, February 24, 2025. (Fox News figures by Stephanie Keith)
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The next hearing on the state’s enforcement of the law is scheduled for April 29.
Dana McNicholl of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to the report.
