Mayor Jane Castor (right) has updated the Tampa Police Department’s immigration enforcement policies. Photo: City of Tampa.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor has revised the city’s immigration enforcement policies days after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened her with removal from office.
In a letter posted to X last week, Uthmeier claimed Castor was “forcing sanctuary policies on the Tampa Police Department.” Those included not disclosing the immigration status of crime victims or witnesses.
“The City of Tampa has no intention of violating state or federal law,” Castor said in a letter sent to Uthmeier on Monday. “We will continue to use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law, as well as state law.”
Florida’s “anti-sanctuary” law prohibits any action that “impedes local law enforcement agencies from cooperating” with federal immigration agencies. Uthmeier noted that municipal governments must “use best efforts” to comply.
He ordered Castor to reverse all alleged sanctuary policies by March 31 or face civil penalties, “including removal from office by the governor.” Castor subsequently said in a prepared statement that “Tampa is one of the safest cities of our size in the nation because we built trust with our community through collaboration.”
Uthmeier’s letter stated that the Tampa Police Department (TPD) “ostensibly supports” policies that protect crime victims and witnesses “because they do not want illegal aliens to be concerned with immigration consequences by cooperating with law enforcement.”
Castor said Monday that TPD has revised its policy and added language from state statutes. The changes went into effect immediately.
The updated policy reiterates that officers are “not required to provide a federal immigration agency with information related to victims or witnesses “necessary to the investigation or prosecution of a crime” that occurred in the United States.
“Florida Statute 908.104 (9) does not authorize a law enforcement agency to detain an alien unlawfully present in the United States pursuant to an immigration detainer solely because the alien witnessed or reported a crime or was a victim of a criminal offense,” states the revised documents.
However, Castor has eliminated a policy that prohibited officers from participating in “broad-based enforcement” efforts, another point of contention for Uthmeier. Those operations include traffic checkpoints, workplace raids, and “saturation sweeps.”
The updated policy states that only officers who have completed the federal 287(g) training program and received related credentials can assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
Those who become Designated Immigration Officers (DIOs) have the authority to “question any person believed to be an alien regarding their right to remain in the United States,” and to arrest someone without a warrant, “when there is reason to believe the individual is in violation of immigration law” and is “likely to flee the country.”
DIOs can inquire about immigration statuses if a person is suspected of, or observed engaging in, criminal activity; if they present an articulable threat to public safety or national security; or if the officer has reliable information that the suspect is unlawfully in the country.
“All law enforcement officers shall have a clear and lawful basis for any enforcement action, investigative stop, or detention,” states the policy. “Immigration status inquiries shall never be initiated solely on the basis of a person’s race, color, ethnicity, accent, manner of speaking, or presumed national origin.”
As of Friday, the City of St. Petersburg, Mayor Ken Welch, and Police Chief Anthony Holloway had not received any state correspondence regarding a lack of cooperation with immigration enforcement. Welch and Holloway declined to comment on issues concerning other jurisdictions.
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