A U.S. judge temporarily blocked part of a Florida law on Wednesday that imposes criminal penalties for willfully transporting people who lack legal immigration status into the state. The law, which took effect in 2023, amended the crime of human smuggling to classify such cases as felonies. Altman, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, blocked the law pending the outcome of a lawsuit by the Farmworker Association of Florida and seven people who say they have been impacted. Altman said on Wednesday the law is likely invalid because it “extends beyond the state’s authority to make arrests for violations of federal immigration law and, in so doing, intrudes into territory that’s preempted” by U.S. law.