Uthmeier’s open-carry guidance means state police can’t arrest migrants, activist group argues

A Florida activist group is using an unusual angle to persuade a federal court to keep a strict immigration law blocked: Attorney General James Uthmeier’s argument on open carry of guns.

Cody Wofsy, an ACLU attorney representing the Immigrants’ Rights Project, wrote a brief letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit Monday evening citing Uthmeier’s declaration that the open carry of firearms is the “law of the state.” Uthmeier’s memo to law enforcement last week was based on a state appellate court decision striking down Florida’s ban on publicly displaying guns.

Wofsy — part of a large coalition asking the three-judge 11th Circuit panel to keep blocking Florida’s SB 4-C immigration law — says Uthmeier’s thought process on why officers shouldn’t arrest Floridians openly carrying guns is identical to pro-immigration groups’ arguments on why state police can’t arrest migrants illegally in the country.

“He stated that this [open carry] decision was ‘binding on all Florida’s trial courts,’ even though there was still a possibility the Court of Appeal might rehear the issue,” Wofsy wrote. He pointed out that both courts enjoined prosecutions of people either openly carrying firearms or illegally in the state, and both cases involved instructing law enforcement not to arrest these individuals.

“Yet here — unlike in the [open-carry case] — Attorney General Uthmeier contests that commonsense conclusion,” Wofsy continued. “Rather than advising that police should ‘refrain from arresting’ for a crime that cannot be prosecuted, he encouraged police to make such arrests in violation of the district court’s order.”

What is the court case about?

Uthmeier has been long locked in a battle with federal Judge Kathleen Williams in the Southern District of Florida. In April, following a lawsuit by pro-immigration groups to strike down SB 4-C, she issued a preliminary injunction against the law for infringing on federal authority. Immigration regulation is ultimately a federal power.

Although Williams said this prevented all officers from making arrests of non-citizens, Uthmeier disputed the order’s scope by claiming it only applied to some police, not the Florida Highway Patrol. Williams held him in civil contempt (although he later challenged that ruling and won).

Uthmeier’s office appealed to the 11th Circuit, which denied his request to unpause the law. He then asked the U.S. Supreme Court for emergency relief allowing officers to make arrests, but they summarily rejected the motion. Now, the 11th Circuit panel must decide whether a preliminary injunction was rightfully applied. Oral arguments will be held in Atlanta on Oct. 9.

SB-4C is a sweeping immigration package approved in February. Its wide-ranging provisions include empowering state prosecutors and officers to arrest migrants illegally in the state, striking in-state tuition for undocumented college students and mandating the death penalty for noncitizens convicted of capital crimes.

The ACLU and the attorney general’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Court strikes down Florida’s open carry ban

Last week, the Florida 1st District Court of Appeal struck down a 1987 Florida law banning the open carry of firearms. This led some sheriffs to immediately vow not to arrest people publicly displaying their guns, although others, like Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, initially cast doubt on whether the DCA’s ruling took precedence over a 2017 Florida Supreme Court decision upholding the ban.

Although the First District said the ruling wouldn’t be final until Sep. 25 to give time for rehearing or other legal motions, Uthmeier as the state’s chief legal officer swiftly addressed the confusion in a memo sent to all state law enforcement, declaring open carry as the “law of the state.”

He referred to a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court case requiring laws addressing the Second Amendment to be based on “historic” tradition. And because no other appellate court had considered the open carry ban since the 2022 ruling, the DCA’s finding was final.

Of note, the open-carry ban had been defended in court by Republican attorneys general in recent years past, including now-U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody and now-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. But this isn’t the only gun control Florida law Uthmeier has vowed to let die: During the tail end of the 2025 legislative session, soon after he was appointed to his post, Uthmeier said he would not defend a 2018 law banning under-21-year-olds from purchasing long guns.

The Legislature passed the law in the weeks following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Parkland.

Along with Illinois, California, and New York, Florida was just one of four states that had explicitly outlawed open carry. Unlike these blue states, Florida allows residents to conceal carry without a permit.