In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider the Florida attorney general's request to reinstate parts of a controversial new immigration law that a lower court had blocked.
This means certain Florida police and prosecutors still won't be able to arrest and charge undocumented immigrants with state-level crimes, as the new anti-illegal immigration law signed in February by Gov. Ron DeSantis provided for until a district judge temporarily blocked enforcement in April.
"The application for stay presented to Justice [Clarence] Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied," reads the brief order, issued Wednesday afternoon.
No additional information was provided.
The decision—or lack thereof—is the latest chapter in Florida's push to become the number one state for anti-illegal immigration efforts.
Since President Donald Trump's inauguration, DeSantis and state Attorney General James Uthmeier (formerly DeSantis's chief of staff) have lauded their work to require all 67 counties to partner with federal immigration authorities and their new migrant detention facility in the Everglades, called Alligator Alcatraz.
These actions were facilitated by SB-4, the massive anti-illegal immigration law DeSantis muscled through the legislature earlier this year.
That law mandated state and local partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, revoked in-state tuition for undocumented students, and empowered local authorities to arrest and charge migrants illegally in Florida.
But U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams threw a wrench into the Republicans' immigration crackdowns when she temporarily blocked police from acting as federal immigration authorities.
Uthmeier, who flouted her order because he claimed it didn't apply to all state police, was held in civil contempt soon after.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Uthmeier's request to pause Williams' ruling last month, according to NBC, although it will be heard in October.
Uthmeier, along with the Trump administration, had contended in documents to the Supreme Court that Florida's law aligned with the federal government's "requirements and objectives" and was "materially identical" to federal entry laws.
