Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has been in a lot of headlines lately.
On June 17, a federal judge found him in civil contempt for telling Florida law enforcement they could ignore a court order not to enforce a new state immigration law – and then bragging about it in media interviews.
On the same day, he suggested on his personal X account that U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, be deported after she spoke out against recent aggressive incidents of immigration enforcement. “Denaturalize and Deport,” he said.
On June 19, Uthmeier posted a video to X calling for “Alligator Alcatraz,” a proposed immigrant detention facility at a remote area in the Everglades.
Before being named as attorney general, Uthmeier was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff. Before that, he was the governor’s top in-house attorney. He has been one of the most influential people in Florida state government and one of DeSantis’ key advisors.
Here’s what to know:
Why was James Uthmeier held in contempt?
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered a temporary halt to a new Florida law making it a state crime for undocumented immigrants to enter or re-enter the state. She extended it on April 18 and directed Uthmeier to send a letter notifying police agencies that they could not enforce the law after reports that arrests had continued anyway.
Uthmeier sent that in a letter on April 18, but sent another on April 23 that said the court order was wrong and that he could not prevent police from enforcing the law “where there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from doing so,” according to the contempt decision.
He also talked about the letter in multiple media interviews, included in the contempt decision, saying he was not going to “rubber stamp her order” and that he wasn’t going to “bow down.”
Williams found him in contempt on June 17, saying “Uthmeier’s role endows him with a unique capacity to uphold or undermine the rule of law, and when he does the latter by violating a court order, the integrity of the legal system depends on his conduct being within the court’s remedial reach.”
In response, Uthmeier posted to X, “If being held in contempt is what it costs to defend the rule of law and stand firmly behind President Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration, so be it.”
Why did James Uthmeier call for U.S. Rep. Omar to be deported?
Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, posted a video strongly criticizing President Donald Trump, the harsh immigration crackdowns across the country, and the path the country was taking.
“To have democracy, a beacon of hope for the world, to now be turned into one of the worst countries where the military are in our streets without any regard for people’s constitutional rights; while our president is spending millions of dollars propping himself up like a failed dictator with a military parade,” Omar said.
“It is really shocking and should be a wake-up call for all Americans to say this is not the country we were born in, the country we believe in, the country our Founding Fathers imagined, and this is not the country supported by our Constitution, our ideals, our values.”
Uthmeier shared her video and added, simply, “Denaturalize and Deport.”
Ilhan, a refugee and Muslim who came to the U.S. from Africa in the 1990s, is a naturalized citizen. She was first elected in 2019 and often has been a target of Republicans and right-wing commentators.
DeSantis also called for her deportation during his presidential run after comments she made to Somali American constituents.
What is ‘Alligator Alcatraz’?
On June 19, Uthmeier posted a video to X suggesting that the “virtually abandoned” Miami-Dade Hollier training facility, a 39-square mile airport facility with a 10,500-foot runway, could be easily converted into a temporary immigrant detention center to aid in Florida’s efforts to locate and deport “criminal aliens.”
“I call it Alligator Alcatraz,” he said, over a pounding rock beat. “It’s 30 square-mile-area is completely surrounded by the Everglades. It presents an efficient low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there’s not much waiting for ’em other than alligators and pythons.
“Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” he added.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seemed to approve: They reposted his video.
Illegal immigration has long been a DeSantis priority, and the state has passed some of the harshest anti-immigrant laws in the country.
Under the governor’s direction, state and local law enforcement have formed partnerships with ICE and several large raids have occurred in the Florida including construction sites in Wildwood and in Tallahassee, and a massive multi-city six-day sweep called “Operation Tidal Wave” that netted 1,120 people and has been touted as the “Florida blueprint” for similar raids around the country.
Who is James Uthmeier?
When DeSantis selected Attorney General Ashley Moody to replace Marco Rubio in the Senate, he didn’t look far for a replacement.
Uthmeier, 37, was born and raised in Destin and attended Fort Walton Beach High School. He got his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Florida (where he competed in varsity track and field) and a law degree from the Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., according to his LinkedIn page. He was a law clerk for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and worked for Rubio in Washington.
He later was an associate at the Jones Day law firm, also in Washington, and then worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce in several roles, including as senior advisor and counsel to then-Secretary Wilbur Ross in the first Trump administration.
Uthmeier joins DeSantis team
Uthmeier moved to Tallahassee in 2019 to become a deputy general counsel for DeSantis, then rose to the top legal spot the next year. He became chief of staff in October 2021 when Adrian Lukis left the governor’s office.
Uthmeier also was campaign manager for DeSantis’ unsuccessful bid for president, spearheaded the governor’s efforts to defeat last year’s recreational marijuana and abortion-rights ballot initiatives and was involved with a controversial program to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, among other things.
Uthmeier and the DeSantis administration have resisted providing Uthemeier’s personal phone records for two years since the migrant flight, saying they were not public records. In February, Uthmeier nominated DeSantis “public safety czar” Larry Keefe, who was instrumental in planning the flights, to oversee immigration enforcement in Florida.
The attorney general has called for an investigation into internet “manosphere” personality, masculinity guru and self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, who came to Florida from Romania where they were facing accusations of forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sex with a minor and money laundering.
Tate taunted DeSantis on X for weeks before saying they had talked and all was well. The governor’s office denied that, and Uthmeier said in March the investigation was still ongoing.
“Every time these guys open their mouths, it gets them deeper in a hole,” Uthmeier said during an appearance on “The Dana Show,” “If we can show that they committed crimes on Florida soil, then we will continue to pursue them, you know, at all costs.”
Uthmeier’s name also came up during the Hope Florida Foundation scandal, when state lawmakers questioned a $10 million donation to the fundraising arm of a state program championed by First Lady Casey DeSantis. It was part of a $67 million lawsuit settlement with Florida’s largest Medicaid contractor, Centene.
The foundation passed the $10 million to political committees who then funneled it to a political committee, controlled by Uthmeier at the time, to support the governor’s campaign against the amendment that would’ve legalized recreational marijuana in Florida. Uthmeier has said he was not involved with the money transfer. According to the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee bureau, a criminal investigation has been opened.
His UF alumni page adds that he was the governor’s “Chief Ethics Officer and directed the judicial nominations process.”
What to know about the new Florida attorney general
While in Tallahassee, Uthmeier has been an adjunct professor at Florida State University College of Law. He and his wife Jean have taught religious education classes at the St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral, a Roman Catholic church near FSU.
He’s been active in The Federalist Society, the national group that bills itself as a “conservative and libertarian intellectual network that extends to all levels of the legal community” – and is a favorite of DeSantis.
The Uthmeiers have three children.
Jim Rosica contributed from Tallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Who is Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier? ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ contempt decision
Reporting by C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
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