{"id":190475,"date":"2026-03-13T18:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190475\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T18:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:06:28","slug":"florida-ag-threatens-to-remove-tampa-mayor-unless-she-turns-over-info-to-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190475\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida AG Threatens to Remove Tampa Mayor Unless She Turns Over Info to ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier<\/a> (R)\u2014one of the main architects of Alligator Alcatraz<\/a> (the country\u2019s very own concentration camp<\/a> built in the Everglades where hundreds have been reported missing<\/a> and guards are apparently now donning<\/a> Grim Reaper patches) and an anti-abortion freak who seems to have nothing better to do than help spread lies about the abortion pill mifepristone<\/a>\u2014has gone all-in on yet another fascist initiative. On Wednesday, he sent a letter<\/a> to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor (D) to intimidate her into handing over the immigration status of victims and witnesses of crime to ICE.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sanctuary policies, which\u00a0protect<\/a> state and local authorities from cooperating with ICE, have been banned<\/a> in Florida since 2019. But the city\u2019s police department (TPD) is still limited from sharing with ICE the details of any victims or witnesses to a crime\u2014as part of an effort to reassure people here illegally that they won\u2019t get in trouble for reporting anything to the police.<\/p>\n

Tampa is a major hub for immigrant communities, with more than 270,000 people moving to the city<\/a> from another country since 2020. But it\u2019s been a big target of Trump\u2019s cruel deportation campaign, impacting an estimated 82,000 individuals<\/a> who live in the area without the proper documentation. As of February, NBC estimated more than 28,000<\/a> are currently in detention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTPD [Tampa Police Department]\u2019s policies prohibiting its officers from sharing certain information with federal immigration authorities and limiting the immigration enforcement activities in which it participates effectively establishes a sanctuary policy,\u201d he wrote in the letter, which he\u00a0released on Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0He warned<\/a> that if she does not put a stop to it by March 31, Gov. Ron DeSantis would remove her\u2014an elected official\u2014from office. Sure! That\u2019s how this works!\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a written statement reported<\/a> by various news outlets, Castor on Wednesday replied, \u201cTampa is one of the safest cities of our size in the nation because we built trust with our community through collaboration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Castor also reminded Uthmeier that TPD, complying with state law<\/a>, signed the 287(g) agreement\u2014or a \u201cdeportation-collaboration program\u201d that enables<\/a> local police and sheriff departments to conduct ICE operations. \u201cThe City of Tampa will review the concerns raised and evaluate our policies and procedures to ensure that we use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to NPR\u2019s WUSF<\/a> afterwards, she said that there are ways to apprehend people committing crimes without \u201cthrowing a very wide and deep net and pulling everybody up in that net\u2026The way that it\u2019s being approached now, I think it has no advantage for anyone\u2014Americans, immigrants, legal or otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castor is not the first elected official Uthmeier has threatened to remove from office for refusing to comply with his anti-immigration mandate. Unfortunately, in the past, he\u2019s been successful every time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Fort Myers, in March, he stopped a new local policy from blocking city police from asking people about their immigration status by threatening the entire city council with removal. He did the same to a board of commissioners in Key West City in June, when they nullified their 287(g) agreement. And, in July, when the mayor and commission of Orange County declined a request by ICE to start letting corrections officers send its detainees to ICE if they are undocumented, he threatened to remove every single one from office.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we signed the damn thing because we really had to. We were put in a tough spot,\u201d the mayor told\u00a0Florida Phoenix<\/a> at the time. \u201cI can\u2019t let our entire board of county commissioners and myself be removed from office.\u201d Ah, yes. Another gorgeous day in a thriving democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R)\u2014one of the main architects of Alligator Alcatraz (the country\u2019s very own concentration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-190475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}