By Paul Waldmiller
Did you know that a federal judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of a new Florida immigration law last Friday?
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams suspended the new law for 14 days while scheduling a hearing before her on April 18th. The was recently enacted just two-months ago which makes it a crime for illegal immigrants to enter Florida after entering the country illegally. Williams called the law likely unconstitutional, stating that the power to control immigration is exclusively a federal power, not under the state of Florida’s jurisdiction.
The ruling is a setback for Governor Ron DeSantis and law enforcement officials who had already begun making arrests and prosecuting cases under the law. The plaintiffs, including the Farmworker Association of Florida and two individual immigrants, argued that the law violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
In her ruling, Judge Williams communicated that the state law’s mandatory-detention provision limits federal law enforcement discretion to recommend pre-trial release and obstructs federal courts’ ability to conduct proceedings requiring defendants’ presence.
This decision follows a similar ruling from May 2024, where a federal court blocked a section of Florida’s anti-immigrant law, Senate Bill 1718, because of concerns regarding its purported “unconstitutionality and potential harm to immigrant communities.”