Area residents are continuing to urge the Fort Myers City Council to rescind a 287(g) agreement allowing community police officers to be trained to act as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At a May 4 Council meeting, speakers also challenged the legality of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier\u2019s threat to remove council members from office after a 3-3 vote initially denied the 287(g) agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The item was not on the meeting agenda, and Council has not publicly debated the issue since reversing its decision following Uthmeier\u2019s warning. Fort Myers City Attorney Grant Alley told council members it was \u201cvery unclear\u201d whether they violated state law by voting against the agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Immigration activists said the 287(g) program creates a \u201cchilling\u201d effect in neighborhoods, discouraging residents from reporting crimes or interacting with community police officers who may also serve as ICE agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More than a dozen people stood in council chambers during the May 4 meeting, while seven speakers gave public comment opposing the agreement and describing it as harmful to the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kathryn Pogin asked council members to file a complaint in court seeking a ruling on whether they have the authority to rescind the agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She added, quoting a common legal saying, \u201cIf you have the facts on your side pound the facts, if you have the law on the side pound the law (and) if you don\u2019t have either pound the table. Uthmeier is brilliant and he\u2019s great at pounding the table, but I don\u2019t think he had either.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a March 18, 2025, letter, Uthmeier told three council members who initially voted against the agreement that their \u201caction constitutes a serious and direct violation of the law.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He argued that denying the 287(g) agreement would create a \u201csanctuary policy\u201d for undocumented immigrants, which he said violates state rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A speaker addresses Fort Myers City Council as residents voice opposition to a 287(g) agreement during a May 4 meeting. More than a dozen attendees stood in chambers while several speakers urged council members to reopen discussion of the policy.<\/p>\n
Evan Williams<\/p>\n
\u201cImmediate corrective action is required,\u201d Uthmeier wrote, adding that failure to act could result in \u201call applicable civil and criminal penalties,\u201d including \u201cremoval from office by the governor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After receiving the letter and guidance from the city attorney, council members unanimously reversed their decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speakers at the May 4 meeting asked Council to reopen discussion of the agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be one thing if you just made a decision I didn\u2019t agree with,\u201d said Max Marver. \u201cBut allowing the state government to dictate the way that you lead this community is antithetical to what you guys are supposed to be doing here and what we\u2019re all supposed to be doing here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speakers said the agreement has eroded trust between the community and local police.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt still sickens me as a near lifelong member of this community that the Council allowed itself to be manipulated by an impotent, unelected state attorney general and forced into signing such a deal with an organization that does not belong anywhere near our streets,\u201d Cory Andrews said. \u201cAnd it should not also rope in our brave officers into doing duties that are not within their purview.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Area residents are continuing to urge the Fort Myers City Council to rescind a 287(g) agreement allowing community…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[15240,209,211,210,832,897,1877,12831],"class_list":{"0":"post-259592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-287g-agreement","9":"tag-cape-coral","10":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","11":"tag-cape-coral-news","12":"tag-city-council","13":"tag-fort-myers","14":"tag-ice","15":"tag-immigration-enforcement"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259592","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=259592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}