Former Presidential campaign manager and Chief of Staff to RON DeSANTIS, Florida's Governor, our overbearing unelected Florida Attorney General JAMES WILLIAM UTHMEIER (born November 25, 1987) was appointed to the AG job by his bossy boss, Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS.
Wikipedia reports: "On February 17, 2025, Uthmeier was sworn in as the 39th Florida attorney general.[3][12] At 37, he became one of the youngest state attorneys general.[6] On February 25, 2025, he filed paperwork to seek a full term in 2026.[13] The following day, Uthmeier released a new seal for the Office of the Florida attorney general, referencing the 'Free State of Florida."'14]"
From Florida Phoenix:
Jane Castor is the latest local official AG Uthmeier has threatened to remove from office
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor speaking at the Tampa Convention Center on Nov.13, 2024. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is now threatening to remove Tampa Mayor Jane Castor from office over an immigration dispute, warning the state would act unless she stops “forcing sanctuary policies” on the Tampa Police Department (TPD).
“TPD’s policies prohibiting its police officers from sharing certain information with federal immigration authorities and limiting the immigration enforcement activities in which it participates effectively establishes a sanctuary policy,” Uthmeier wrote in a letter on Wednesday.
The attorney general went on to write that the Tampa Police Department has a policy blocking its officers from sharing information with federal immigration authorities regarding victims or witnesses to a crime.
TPD “ostensibly supports these policies because they do not want illegal aliens to be concerned with immigration consequences by cooperating with law enforcement, Uthmeier wrote. But, he added, “we want illegal aliens to fear immigration consequences to the extent that they are here unlawfully.”
Tampa does have a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That agreement delegates immigration powers to state and local law enforcement. Florida law requires all counties to have 287(g) agreements with ICE, but not municipalities.
After receiving the letter on Wednesday, Castor said in a written statement, “The 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.”
Previous threats to remove local officials from office
However, Uthmeier has threatened elected officials of several municipalities over the past year when they expressed concerns about or opposition to working with ICE, claiming those qualms amounted to sanctuary city policies, which have been banned in Florida since 2019.
In March 2025, Uthmeier warned three members of the Fort Myers City Council that the governor could remove them from office unless they allowed city police to question people about their immigration status and detain those subject to deportation.
After the Key West City Commission voided its 287(g) agreement last June, Uthmeier declared they had violated state law and threatened to remove them from office. Message received, the commission went on to approve that agreement.
And after Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and the Orange County Commission initially declined a request by ICE and the Florida Sheriffs Association to amend their agreement to include having county corrections officers transport undocumented immigrants to ICE-approved facilities upon request by the federal agency, Uthmeier threatened every one of those officials with removal from office by the governor unless they adopted the ICE amendment.
Demings ultimately signed that updated agreement with ICE, bitterly saying that he was doing so under “protest and extreme duress.”
“Yes, we signed the damn thing because we really had to. We were put in a tough spot,” Demings said in August. “I can’t let our entire board of county commissioners and myself be removed from office.”
What is a ‘sanctuary city policy’?
The lack of clarity regarding what constitutes breaking Florida’s sanctuary city law prompted South Miami Mayor Javier Fernández to file a lawsuit in state court last year. A Leon County Circuit Judge ultimately dismissed the case, but Fernandez said he had received “the clarity we need” and would not sign a 287(g) agreement.
Speaking during the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Tampa in June, Castor, who served as Tampa’s chief of police from 2009 to 2015, said the collaboration between local police and local neighborhoods was built on a “foundation of trust.” Crime rises when that trust is eroded, she continued, because when some immigrant populations become victims of crime, they aren’t comfortable reporting that crime because they don’t trust law enforcement.
“This is the fundamental reason that local law enforcement should not be engaged in immigration enforcement,” she said.
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