TAMPA, Fla. — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier had a strong message for Tampa Mayor Jane Castor on Wednesday: Cooperate fully with immigration enforcement or face removal from office.

“Mayor Castor is forcing sanctuary policies on the Tampa Police Department, which violates Florida law,” Uthmeier said on X. “These policies must be reversed immediately, or there will be consequences.”

In a letter addressed to Castor and posted to X, Uthmeier said the city’s police department has enacted policies that “delimit the specific information TPD may share with ICE and restrict the immigration enforcement activities in which the department may participate.” Threatening removal from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis, he ordered Castor to reverse the policies by March 31, 2026.

In a statement, Castor said the city “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.”

Tampa’s Police Department participates in the 287(g) program, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiative that lets local officers perform limited immigration agent functions.

“Tampa is one of safest cities of our size in the nation because we built trust with our community through collaboration,” Castor said. “The Tampa Police Department signed the 287(g) and developed its immigration enforcement policy in consultation with partner agencies and law enforcement associations to ensure all immigration-related actions are carried out according to state and federal law.”

But Uthmeier said some of the department’s policies prohibit officers from sharing certain information with federal immigration agencies, “effectively (establishing) a sanctuary policy.” Local law enforcement agencies in Florida are required to use “best efforts” to assist federal immigration enforcement efforts, he said.

Uthmeier listed several policies.

Tampa police officers, he said, are not allowed to share information regarding victims or witnesses of a crime with federal immigration agencies, including “whether they have lawful status.” He said the department has “procedures in place to protect the integrity of a case when a victim or witness is here unlawfully.”

“TPD ostensibly supports these policies because they do not want illegal aliens to be concerned with immigration consequences by cooperating with law enforcement,” he said. “But we want illegal aliens to fear immigration consequences to the extent they are here unlawfully.”

Uthmeier also said the Police Department bans officers from engaging in “broad-based” immigration enforcement actions.

Ana Lamb, a longtime civil rights advocate who helps low-income families in the Tampa Bay area, said Uthmeier’s comments raise serious concerns.

“This will only bring more fear to our community. A safe community is one where people trust law enforcement,” she said. “We have had many undocumented witnesses in cases where American citizens died, and police were able to solve those cases because those witnesses spoke up.”

Lamb said programs like 287(g) were originally designed to identify and arrest serious criminals, “not to intimidate our people or victims.”

Liz Gutierrez, chief executive of Enterprising Latinas, a nonprofit that develops and manages opportunities for immigrants and Hispanic women, said Uthmeier’s letter raises questions about the balance of power between state and local leaders.

“When a mayor is threatened for protecting the values and concerns of its residents, it challenges the spirit of local governance and democratic debate,” Gutierrez said. “Oftentimes, people’s choices about where to live are based on those values. Breaking away from that constitutes a violation of our civil liberties.”

DeSantis has previously ousted local office holders for not enforcing laws around politically charged issues.

In 2022, he removed Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren for what he said was Warren’s disregard for his duty to enforce state law related to abortion bans and gender affirming care. And in 2023 he suspended Monique Worrell, the elected state attorney in Orange and Osceola counties, for what he said was her failure to impose mandatory sentences for gun and drug crimes and allowing juveniles to avoid incarceration.

In a February interview on Florida Matters Live & Local, Castor said the city has “always had (memorandums of understanding) with all federal agencies, with the FBI, Secret Service, DEA, ICE, and we have collaborated on investigations.” Working with federal immigration agencies is “not something that unheard of,” she said.

She has also spoken against recent federal immigration enforcement efforts in Minneapolis.

At a January forum with St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch and Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector, Castor called immigration agents’ actions there “un-American.”

“We agree that individuals that are here, that are committing crime, or harming our country, need to be deported, she said. ”But what’s happening now is not who we are as a country."

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(Times staff writer Juan-Carlos Chavez contributed reporting.)

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