Federal judge ‘astounded’ that Florida cops violated her order on immigration arrests
A federal judge on Friday said she was “astounded” that Florida authorities violated her order blocking them from enforcing a new state law that targets undocumented immigrants who enter the state.
During a hearing in Miami federal court, it was disclosed that as many as 15 arrests have been made by Florida law enforcement officers over the past two weeks in violation of her April 4 order.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams expressed her disbelief as she focused on the case of a U.S. citizen born in Georgia who was arrested under the new state law on Wednesday by the Florida Highway Patrol and held for two days in a Tallahassee jail before a county judge dismissed the charge. The man was released Thursday night.
Williams stopped short Friday of considering holding state authorities in contempt of court. But she extended her initial 14-day restraining order for another 11 days and set another hearing for April 29. She told lawyers with the state Attorney General’s Office to be prepared to explain their argument that her original stay did not apply to the Florida Highway Patrol, which made arrests of the U.S. citizen and various immigrants as they entered the state.
In her latest order finding the state law unconstitutional, the judge made it explicitly clear that both top state officials and law enforcement officers were bound by her stay halting arrests of undocumented immigrants entering Florida without first notifying federal authorities.
Williams said she found it “astounding” when state lawyers said it was their belief that her original restraining order applied to the state Attorney General’s office and other executive branch officials — but not to what they described as “independent” law enforcement agencies, such as FHP.
“When I issued the temporary restraining order, it never occurred to me that police officers would not be bound by it,” Williams said. “It never occurred to me that the state attorneys would not give direction to law enforcement so that we would not have these unfortunate arrests.”
At another point in the hearing, the judge said: “There is no such basis,” for the arrests. ”Why aren’t these people being released immediately?”
Robert Schenck, a lawyer representing Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s Office, argued that it was the state’s belief that top officials were bound by her restraining order but not law enforcement officers because they don’t act “in concert” with one another.
“Your honor, that is our understanding of the order,” Schenck said.
“I’m astounded and don’t understand this argument,” Williams countered, saying that she could not believe FHP officers would ignore her order. “That’s concerning that they don’t work in concert with state officials.”
Williams expressed her dismay after a group of lawyers for a proposed class of immigrants suing the state disclosed that as many as 15 people were arrested in Leon County and elsewhere in Florida after the judge had imposed her original restraining order on April 4. Of those, 13 were arrested in Leon County, one in Orange County and one in Hillsborough County.
“We agree and we also find this very concerning,” said ACLU attorney Oscar Sarabia Roman as he criticized the state’s flouting of her order.
In her original restraining order, Williams found that the state Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis had no authority to enact the law, because the power of making and enforcing immigration laws belongs exclusively to the federal government.
“Absent an immediate pause to enforcement, [immigrants] will suffer irreparable harm by being placed at risk of arrest, prosecution, and detention under an unconstitutional state statute,” Williams wrote in the state-wide injunction. Her order prohibited the state and its “officers, agents, employees, attorneys, and any person who are in active concert or participation with them” from enforcing the law.
Yes despite her stay of the state law, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrested the Georgia man in north Florida this week under the statute targeting undocumented immigrants who enter Florida illegally — though it turned out the man is a U.S. citizen, born in Georgia.
Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez, 20, was arrested Wednesday under the state law, which makes it a misdemeanor for an undocumented adult immigrant to enter Florida without first checking in with federal border authorities, according to a police report.
FHP issued a statement on Friday.
“Mr. Lopez-Gomez was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over for speeding and made a statement to a Florida State Trooper that he was not legally authorized to be in the United States,” the statement said. “There was also a federal detainer issued for him. He was transported to the Leon County Jail.”
The agency added: “Florida Highway Patrol will continue to work willingly with our federal partners to engage in interior enforcement of immigration law.”
The state agency did not address questions on whether the Lopez Gomez arrest would be under review, whether the state agency issued guidelines to troopers when the federal court order was issued, or whether they would take steps to ensure U.S. citizens would not be arrested.
Immigration lawyers condemned the man’s arrest, saying it violated Judge Williams’ 14-day stay.
“There is a state-wide injunction against anybody enforcing that law,” said Paul Chavez, litigation director at Americans for Immigrant Justice and an attorney in the federal lawsuit challenging the state law. “The court order is very clear.”
Alana Greer, an attorney whose organization Community Justice Project recently joined the federal suit, said “any arrests under this statute are unconstitutional.”
Lopez Gomez was released and reunited with his family on Thursday night after being detained for over 30 hours at the Leon County Jail in Tallahassee.
Neither DeSantis’ nor Uthmeier’s offices responded to Miami Herald questions about whether the state has directed police to continue enforcing the law despite the federal court order.
But days after the order was issued, DeSantis called the federal judge an “activist” for blocking the state’s enforcement and said that elected officials — not the judicial branch — should be be dictating immigration enforcement policies.
The governor also said the state would continue to work with the federal government to help identify and deport immigrants who are in the country illegally.
“Make no mistake about it, we are not taking the pedal off the gas one bit when it comes to enforcing federal immigration laws,” DeSantis said.
His office did not respond when asked if the governor’s remarks meant the state would continue to enforce the state immigration law despite the court order.
The timing of Lopez Gomez’s arrest, first reported by the Florida Phoenix, raises questions about whether the court order was disobeyed. It also took place as the Trump administration has wrangled with federal courts that have blocked some of its immigration enforcement and deportation policies.
But even if the law had not been blocked by the federal court, a birth certificate, which was provided to the Miami Herald, shows Lopez Gomez was born in Grady General Hospital in Cairo, Georgia, in August 2004.
The FHP officer, identified on the arrest form as Gregory Ah Sam, pulled over the car because it was speeding, the report says. There were three people in the car, and the officer asked them for IDs. Two provided the officer with Guatemalan IDs and Lopez Gomez provided his Georgia ID.
“I then asked them if they had entered the state of Florida illegally, which all stated yes, they were aware,” the officer wrote. He added that he arrested Lopez Gomez and the two others, another passenger and the driver, for unauthorized entrance into the state under the Florida law. All three were taken to the Leon County Jail in Tallahassee.
READ MORE: How Florida is telling highway troopers to hold, detain immigrants wanted by the feds
Lopez Gomez was born in the United States but he spent a significant part of his childhood in Mexico, his family members said. His native language is Tzotzil, an indigenous Maya language.
Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans found that there was no probable cause to arrest Lopez Gomez, according to court records, which also show he was released on Thursday without having to pay bail. The court record also noted there was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold, which means the federal agency had asked local authorities to keep Lopez Gomez detained. It was not clear if the ICE detainer was 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 probable cause to believe he could be deported because of biometric information in federal databases and because of statements Lopez Gomez had made. ICE did not respond to a Herald request for comment.
“It’s not a situation where there is debate that he’s a U.S. citizen. All parties involved are throwing up their hands and letting this blatant violation of the constitution to happen,” Greer said.
Lopez Gomez’s relatives told the Herald he had spent most of his childhood in Mexico before returning to his Georgia hometown. He had worked at the same carpet installation company for four years and was headed to work with two Guatemalan co-workers when they were stopped.
Lopez Gomez is the oldest of four children, all born in the United States. One relative, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said the family was “afraid they would be treated as undocumented just because of how we look.”
“He did nothing wrong. He was just on his way to work — he wasn’t even driving — and they took him away. I believe it’s because he looks Hispanic,” his relative said. “He doesn’t deserve this.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 3:05 PM.
