Days after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier accused Tampa Mayor Jane Castor of “forcing sanctuary policies on the Tampa Police Department,” the city’s leader said she is revising the department’s rules.
“The city of Tampa has no intention of violating state or federal law,” Castor said in a letter to Uthmeier on Monday. “We will continue to use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law, as well as state law.”
Among the changes is the removal of a ban on Tampa police officers engaging in “broad-based” immigration enforcement actions like traffic checkpoints, workplace enforcement operations and “area saturation sweeps.”
In a letter posted to X last week, Uthmeier ordered Castor to reverse certain Tampa Police Department policies by March 31 or face removal from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The department, he said, has enacted policies that limit the specific information Tampa police share with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and “restrict the immigration enforcement activities in which the department may participate.”
Uthmeier said Tampa police officers are not allowed to share information regarding victims or witnesses of a crime with federal immigration agencies, including “whether they have lawful status.” He said the department has “procedures in place to protect the integrity of a case when a victim or witness is here unlawfully.”
In her letter to Uthmeier Monday, Castor said the department had revised its policy and added language from state statutes. The change went into effect immediately.
A policy that prohibited broad-based enforcement, such as workplace operations and traffic checkpoints, no longer exists, according to a document shared in a city news release.
The former policy also said officers were “not required” to share information with federal agencies regarding victims or witnesses of a crime, “nor shall they inquire into or investigate the immigration status of cooperative victims, witnesses, or individuals requesting police services.”
The restrictions were meant to build trust between the police department and immigrant communities, the policy said.
The department’s updated procedures say officers are not required to provide federal immigration agencies with information about victims or witnesses if they are necessary to the investigation or prosecution of a crime that occurred in the United States, among other criteria.
According to the updated document, state statute “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.”
Tampa’s Police Department participates in the 287(g) program, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiative that lets local officers perform limited immigration agent functions.
In a statement responding to Uthmeier last week, Castor said Tampa is “one of (the) safest cities of our size in the nation because we built trust with our community through collaboration.”