A federal judge on Friday said he was “shocked” that Florida officials were violating the order and blocking enforcement of new state laws targeting immigrants illegally entering the state.
During a hearing in Miami federal court, it was revealed that up to 15 arrests have been made by Florida law enforcement officials over the past two weeks in violation of the April 4th order.
US District Judge Kathleen Williams expressed her distrust when she focused on the case of a US citizen born in Georgia who was arrested Wednesday under new state law by the Florida Highway Patrol and was detained for two days at Tallahassee Jail before a county judge dismissed the charges. The man was released Thursday night.
Williams stopped considering detaining state officials in court denial on Friday. However, she extended her first 14-day restraining order for 11 more days for an additional 29th April, carrying out another hearing. She told her attorneys with the state attorney general’s office to prepare to explain the argument that her former stay would not apply to Florida Highway patrols.
In the latest order to discover that state law is unconstitutional, the judge clearly made it clear that both state officials and law enforcement officials were detained in custody of halting the arrest of immigrants who entered illegally in Florida without first notifying federal authorities.
When Williams said her original restraint order was their belief that it was the state’s attorney that it was an official in the state attorney general and other enforcement departments, she found it “surprising,” but not described it as an “independent” law enforcement agency, such as the Florida Highway Patrol.
“When we issued a temporary restraining order, it never happened that officers were not held captive by it,” Williams said. “We never made sure that these unfortunate arrests were avoided because state lawyers didn’t give directions to law enforcement.”
At another point in the hearing, the judge said the arrest had “no such basis.” “Why are these people not released soon?”
Robert Schenk, the attorney representing Florida Attorney General James Usmier’s office, argued that the state’s belief that law enforcement officials were held to restraining orders, but were held to restraining orders, because the top officials would not act “in concert” with each other.
“Your honor, that’s our understanding of our command,” Schenk said.
“I’m surprised and don’t understand this argument,” Williams retorted, saying he couldn’t believe Highway Patrol officials would ignore her orders. “It’s about them not working with state officials.”
Williams said that after the judge imposed the original detention order on April 4, 15 people have been arrested in Leon County and elsewhere in Florida, 15 people have been arrested in Leon County.
“We agree and feel this is also very concerned,” said ACLU lawyer Oscar Saravia Roman, who criticized the fl of her order in the state.
Williams discovered that the original restraining orders did not have the power to enact the laws of the state legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Without an immediate suspension of enforcement, (immigrants) will suffer irreparable harm from being at risk of arrest, prosecution and detention under unconstitutional state law,” Williams wrote in a statewide injunction. Her order prohibited the state and its “official officers, agents, employees, lawyers and those who are actively performing or participating with them” from enforcing the law.
Yes, despite her stay in state law, Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested a Georgia man in North Florida this week under laws targeting immigrants who illegally enter Florida, but it turns out that the man is a US citizen born in Georgia.
Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez, 20, was arrested Wednesday under state law, making it a misdemeanor for an adult immigrant living illegally to enter Florida without checking in to federal border authorities in the United States, according to police reports.
The Highway Patrol issued a statement Friday.
“Lopez Gomez is a passenger in a vehicle pulled for speeding and has issued a statement to Florida police officers that he is not legally permitted to be in the United States,” the statement said. “There were also federal detainees issued for him. He was taken to the Leon County Jail.”
The agency said, “The Florida Highway Patrol will be willing to work with federal partners to engage in the enforcement of immigration law’s interior duties.”
The state agency did not address questions about whether Lopez Gomez’s arrest was under review, whether the state agency issued guidelines to troopers when a federal court order was issued, or whether it would take steps to prevent US citizens from being arrested.
The immigration lawyer accused the man of arrest, saying he violated Judge Williams’ 14-day stay.
“There is a statewide injunction against those who enforce that law,” said Paul Chavez, American litigation director for immigration justice and a federal litigation lawyer challenging state law. “The court’s order is very clear.”
“Arrests under this law are unconstitutional,” said Alana Greer, an attorney who recently joined the federal lawsuit by the organization Community Justice Project.
Lopez Gomez was released Thursday night and reunited with his family after being detained for more than 30 hours at Leon County Jail in Tallahassee.
Neither Desantis’s nor Uthmeier’s office responded to Miami Herald’s questions about whether the state had directed police to continue enforcement of the law despite a federal court order.
The timing of Lopez Gomez’s arrest, first reported by Florida Phoenix, raises questions about whether the court order was disliked. It also came as the Trump administration was fighting federal courts that blocked some of its immigration enforcement and deportation policies.
However, even if the law was not blocked by federal courts, the birth certificate provided to the Miami Herald shows that Lopez Gomez was born in August 2004 at Grady General Hospital in Cairo, Georgia.
A highway patrol officer identified as Gregory Ah Sam in his arrest form pulled the car because of speeding, the report said. There were three people in the car, and the officer asked them for their IDs. The two provided the officers with their Guatemalan ID, while Lopez Gomez provided their Georgia ID.
“Then I asked them if they had entered Florida illegally. It all said yes, they knew,” the officer wrote. He added that Lopez Gomez and two other people have been arrested at the illicit entrance to the state under Florida law. All three were taken to the Leon County Jail in Tallahassee.
Lopez Gomez was born in the United States, but he spent most of his childhood in Mexico, his family said. His native language is the indigenous Mayan tuzari.
Judge Lashawn Riggans discovered that there was no reason to arrest Lopez Gomez. Court records also show he was released Thursday without bail. Court records also said there was immigration and customs retention. That is, federal agencies have called on local governments to detain Lopez Gomez. It was not clear whether the ice detainees were still in place in light of Lopez Gomez’s release on Thursday evening.
The ICE request listed Lopez Gomez’s citizenship as Mexico and ordered him to be held in local custody. The document says there was a possible cause for his potential to believe he could be deported due to biometric information from the federal database and statements made by Lopez Gomez. ICE did not respond to Herald’s request for comments.
“That’s not a situation where there’s a debate that he’s a US citizen. Everyone involved is throwing their hands and causing this blatant constitutional violation,” Greer said.
Lopez Gomez’s parents told the Herald that he spent most of his childhood in Mexico before returning to his Georgia homeland. He worked for the same carpet installation company for four years, but headed to work when he stopped with two Guatemalan colleagues.
Lopez Gomez is the oldest of his four children, all born in the United States. One relative of someone who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation said the family “fears that they will be treated as undocumented because of our appearance.”
“He didn’t do anything wrong. He was on the road to work – he wasn’t even driving – and they took him away, I think it’s because he looks Hispanic,” his relative said. “He doesn’t deserve this.”
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this story.
