Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asked the Supreme Court on Monday to pause a lower court’s order blocking a state law that makes it a misdemeanor for an illegal immigrant to be present in the Sunshine State.

Uthmeier filed a petition to the high court asking for a stay pending appeal of District Judge Kathleen Williams’s preliminary injunction blocking the law, after a federal appeals court denied the request earlier this month.

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“Florida is enjoined from enforcing its statute to the detriment of Florida’s citizens and the State’s sovereign prerogative to protect them from harm. Illegal immigration continues to wreak havoc in the State while that law cannot be enforced,” Uthmeier wrote in the petition. “And without this Court’s intervention, Florida and its citizens will remain disabled from combatting the serious harms of illegal immigration for years as this litigation proceeds through the lower courts.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed Senate Bill 4-C into law earlier this year, making it a misdemeanor offense for illegal immigrants to enter the state. Williams ruled that federal immigration law preempts state law, something Uthmeier argued against in his filing to the Supreme Court.

Uthmeier argued that the Florida law is not preempted by federal law, arguing that it has key differences from a well-known case involving an Arizona law, which allowed the state and local governments to enforce immigration law and was struck down by the 2012 decision in Arizona v. United States. He argued that SB 4-C is not about the removal of illegal immigrants, as the Arizona law was, and that it only criminalizes illegal entry into Florida, rather than the U.S.

The Florida Attorney General also claimed the law was designed to work with federal immigration law rather than against it.

“If a State’s police powers are powers at all, they allow a State to criminalize harms destructive to the community. That is why States routinely regulated the movement of illegal aliens before, during, and after the Founding,” the petition to the high court said. “There is no doubt that the Federal government has an important role in the immigration context, and Florida was cognizant of that fact when it crafted SB 4-C, purposefully aligning the law with federal requirements and objectives.”

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The legal battle over Florida’s SB 4-C has thrust Uthmeier, who was appointed as Florida attorney general in February to replace Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL), into the spotlight.

Uthmeier was held in civil contempt by Williams last week after he sent a letter to law enforcement in Florida telling them he could not punish them for enforcing the law at the center of the lawsuit. He responded to the ruling by saying, “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.”