'Govern yourselves accordingly': Florida goes after city that rejected ICE partnership

Ana Ceballos and Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald on Mar 18, 2025

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Florida’s attorney general is threatening to punish Fort Myers City Council members for rejecting a proposed immigration partnership with the federal government, marking the first attempt by the state to publicly force local officials to get involved in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

In a letter Tuesday, Attorney General James Uthmeier told City Council members that their decision to not enroll in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement program known as 287(g) “constitutes a serious and direct violation” of a Florida law that bans “sanctuary cities” — or localities that limit collaboration on immigration enforcement in a broad variety of ways.

“Failure to correct the Council’s actions will result in the enforcement of all applicable civil and criminal penalties, including but not limited to being held in contempt, declaratory or injunctive relief, and removal from office by the Governor,” Uthmeier wrote in the letter.

A few hours before Uthmeier sent the letter, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a broad warning to local officials who did not participate in the 287(g) program. He said the “days of inaction are over,” and signaled that he would be willing to take action against them.

“Govern yourselves accordingly,” the governor said in a post on X.

The governor’s warning and the attorney general’s letter are the latest example of how Florida is using its powers to force local officials to play a role in helping President Donald Trump find, arrest and deport undocumented immigrants.

DeSantis has previously used his executive authority to remove local officials from office, including two Orlando-area and Tampa-area prosecutors. In one case, a federal judge ruled that DeSantis violated the Florida Constitution and the First Amendment, but said there was no recourse to restore the prosecutor back into office.

When it comes to immigration enforcement, DeSantis has been one of the most aggressive governors in the country to enact laws designed to help Trump’s immigration agenda. The situation in Fort Myers could be a test for how much the state will get involved in ensuring that happens locally.

Fort Myers appears to be the first city in the state to vote against having its city police department enroll in the 287(g) program. The decision was an emotional one, with City Council members crying as they prepared to vote on Monday. Their final decision also did not come without first considering the consequences.

At one point on Monday, the city attorney, Grant Alley, told council members that “there will be consequences,” even though he did not know what they would be.

Florida statutes require law enforcement agencies to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities, but it only explicitly requires sheriffs and chief correctional officers who operate county detention facilities to enroll in the 287(g) program, which has three models. State law does not require agencies to enroll in a specific model.

Just seven weeks into Trump’s second term, more than 100 Florida law enforcement agencies have been approved to participate in the 287(g) task force model, which allows officers to stop, question and detain undocumented immigrants in the course of their routine jobs out in the community.

The Florida Sheriff’s Association recently announced that all of the county jails in the state had joined agreements with ICE to comply. In recent weeks, a growing number of local and state police departments have also signed on to these partnerships, too.

Today, the participating agencies include the Highway Patrol, the sheriff’s office in Miami-Dade, Monroe and Hillsborough counties and local police departments in Coral Gables, Tampa and St. Petersburg.

In a meeting last week, Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak, the legislative affairs head of the Florida Police Chiefs Association, said city law enforcement agencies were not required to join these agreements under Florida law. But the ICE partnership, he said, is a way to comply with Florida’s ban on sanctuary cities, which prohibits local governments from limiting cooperation on immigration enforcement with the federal government.

In Fort Myers, Police Chief Jason Fields characterized the ICE partnership as a procedural agreement.

READ MORE: Coral Gables becomes Miami-Dade testing ground for Trump and DeSantis immigration crackdown

“We’re not going to be kicking in people’s doors and pulling mothers and children out of houses. Our focus is always to go after the most violent, dangerous people out there to make the community safe.,” Fields said right before the vote.

Commissioners who voted against the ICE agreement said they were concerned about racial profiling and the criminalization of residents. Fort Myers is roughly a quarter Latino and a fifth foreign-born, according to Census data.

“My city is not for sale,” said city councilmember Darla Bonk, in tears.