A federal judge paused enforcement of a harsh anti-immigration law in April, citing the likelihood that a pending legal challenge would succeed — but Florida Highway Patrol officers continued to enforce the law and arrested at least 27 people in the weeks that followed, HuffPost has learned.
Senate Bill 4-C, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law in February, made it a state crime for people to enter Florida without legal status. In response to a lawsuit challenging the legality of the law, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams granted a temporary restraining order on April 4, blocking law enforcement from making arrests pursuant to SB-4C. She later converted the temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction, pausing enforcement while litigation is ongoing.
Less than two weeks after the temporary restraining order went into effect, a state trooper arrested U.S.-born citizen Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez and charged him with illegally entering the state as an “unauthorized alien.” He was detained at the local jail even after his mother produced his birth certificate and Social Security card at a court hearing. Lopez-Gomez was released the following day, but his arrest drew attention to the state’s non-compliance with Williams’ order.