Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says it’s pretty basic why he won’t tell local law enforcement officers in Florida to stand down from enforcing a new state law on immigration enforcement, as a federal judge ordered him to do earlier this year.

He says it’s because he’s not their boss.

“These guys — they don’t work for me,” Uthmeier said on Monday in Tampa, referring to two Florida sheriffs standing next to him: Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey and Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister.

“They’re independently elected county officers and they do a great job, but at the end of the day, they are their own officers. I’m not going to direct them when I don’t have the authority and I don’t believe the judge has the authority to do so.”

Uthmeier spoke just days after U.S. Distri

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