Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened Mayor Jane Castor and the City of Tampa revised a controversial policy.
The political back and forth between the Republican Florida Attorney General and the Democratic Tampa Mayor came after the AG threatened consequences if local policies were not changed, including removing the mayor from office.
“Mayor Castor is forcing sanctuary policies on the Tampa Police Department, which violates Florida law,” Attorney General said. “These policies must be reversed immediately, or there will be consequences.”
The Florida Attorney General said that the Tampa Police Department’s policies were prohibiting officers from sharing information with federal immigration authorities and limiting immigration enforcement activities. He blamed these policies for contributing to the mass influx of illegal aliens that Florida has experienced.
Florida AG James Uthmeier said the law in Florida is clear: “sanctuary policies are prohibited.” He said if the Tampa policies were not reversed, consequences could include removing Mayor Jane Castor from office. Here’s the Florida Attorney General’s letter to the Tampa Mayor:
The Democratic Tampa Mayor changed the local sanctuary city policies after the threat from the Florida AG.
In a response, the Tampa Mayor sent a revised policy to the Attorney General “that removes the language of concern and adds language directly from Florida Statute 908.104(7) and (9).” The Democratic Mayor said the updated policy was effective immediately.
But the Central Florida Democrat did more than that. She expressed Tampa’s support of federal immigration law which may anger Democrats.
“We will continue to use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law, as well as state law,” Mayor Jane Castor’s letter stated.
This ended up another political victory for Republicans over Democrats in Florida.
