MIAMI — A Miami federal judge said Tuesday she was “surprised and shocked” when state Attorney General James Uthmeier first told police officers to obey her order not to arrest undocumented immigrants entering Florida but later said he “cannot prevent” them from making arrests under a new state law.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams is considering whether to find Uthmeier in contempt of court.

Williams said she would issue a preliminary injunction late Tuesday prohibiting all state law enforcement officials and police agencies from arresting undocumented immigrants who come into Florida. She also scheduled a critical hearing for late May that could lead to Uthmeier being held in contempt of court for flouting her prior restraining order in the immigration case.

Williams said the state attorney general’s directive telling police officers that they could make arrests “threw everything out of whack,” leaving her with no choice but to hold a show-cause hearing to allow Uthmeier to explain why she should not hold him in contempt of her order. The judge gave lawyers for the attorney general a brief break during Tuesday’s hearing to consult with him about withdrawing his advice to police officers to ignore her order, but they said Uthmeier was not retreating from his position.

“What I am offended by is someone suggesting you don’t have to follow my order, that it’s not legitimate,” Williams said.

The showdown between the federal judge and the state attorney general’s office came nearly one month after immigrant groups and their lawyers filed sued suit against Uthmeier and state prosecutors across Florida, saying that the new state law, which makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants to enter the state, is unconstitutional because only federal authorities have the power to enforce immigration laws. After the lawsuit was filed early this month, Williams issued two temporary restraining orders that banned state authorities from enforcing the new law.

The development in Florida coincides with efforts by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, led by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, to question the scope of federal judges’ orders. Justice Department lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to limit the authority of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions in immigration and other cases.

Here’s what triggered the confrontation in Miami federal court: Last Wednesday, Uthmeier told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and other police agencies that they could continue to enforce the state statute criminalizing illegal immigrants arriving in Florida who hadn’t notified federal authorities of their entry into the U.S. — contrary to Williams’ April 18 restraining order.

That day, Williams scolded lawyers for the attorney general’s office after learning that Florida Highway Patrol officers arrested more than a dozen people — including a U.S. citizen — after she had ordered them to stop on April 4 when she issued a 14-day temporary restraining order that “prohibited the enforcement” of the state’s immigration law. The order applied to those “who are in active concert or participation with” the defendants named in the immigration groups’ lawsuit. Williams said her order enjoined the named defendants, the state attorney general and various state prosecutors in Florida, but also state, county and local police officers.

Saying she was “astounded” by the FHP arrests, Williams extended her ruling for another 11 days, blocking the enforcement of the state immigration law through Tuesday, April 29. In her latest order, she spelled out that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol and all other police agencies were bound by her ruling.

After the April 18 hearing, Uthmeier sent a memo to state and local law enforcement officers and told them they “must refrain” from enforcing the law and obey the judge’s order, even though he disagreed with it.

“Please instruct your officers and agents to comply with Judge Williams’ directive,” he wrote in the memo.

But five days later, he changed his mind, saying her latest order was legally “wrong.”

“Judge Williams ordered my office to notify you of the evolving scope of her order, and I did so,” Uthmeier wrote in another memo to Florida law enforcement agencies. “But I cannot prevent you from enforcing (the state immigration law) where there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from doing so.”

In a court filing leading up to Tuesday’s hearing, Uthmeier’s office argued that the immigrant groups’ lawsuit only applies to his office and state prosecutors in Florida, noting that “a court’s judgment binds only the parties to a suit.”

Lawyers for his office argued the judge’s ruling does not apply to “independent” law enforcement agencies, such as the Florida Highway Patrol, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, county sheriffs’ offices and local police.

“They are not parties,” the attorney general’s office asserted, because they are not “in active concert or participation with” his office and state prosecutors in Florida.

Uthmeier’s office argued “defendants have no power to control or direct” the behavior of state and local law enforcement.

“While the Attorney General communicated the (judge’s) view that law enforcement should not make arrests under (the state immigration law), he did so solely to comply with this Court’s order — which Defendants maintain is unlawful,” the office added.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Jeffrey DeSousa, the acting solicitor general for the Florida Attorney’s General’s Office, reiterated that argument.

“There was a problem with the scope of the order,” DeSousa told the judge, arguing it didn’t apply to local, county or state law enforcement agencies.

Williams said “it was somewhat shocking to me” that the attorney general would advise Florida police officers that they could arrest undocumented immigrants entering Florida while he acknowledged that her restraining order enjoined state prosecutors from enforcing the law.

“I’m concerned what the defendants fail to grasp is the unique nature of law enforcement,” said Williams, who was appointed as federal judge in 2011 by President Barack Obama.

Oscar Sarabia, an attorney for the ACLU, one of several advocates in the Miami case, argued that Williams’ order prohibited all state authorities and police agencies from enforcing the law.

“It’s clear from longstanding precedent,” Sarabia said. “The court should find that all law enforcement in Florida are bound by the court’s injunction.”

Meanwhile, several state prosecutors named in the immigrant groups’ lawsuit have told local and county police officers to abide by Williams’ restraining order.

“I have reminded law enforcement officers in Miami-Dade that Judge William’s order remains in place and that officers are prohibited from enforcing” the state law, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said.

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(Miami Herald staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this story.)

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