Florida Attorney General threatens to remove Key West commissioners over voiding ICE agreement
Key West, in response, sets a second special hearing for July 8 at City Hall
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Wednesday threatened Key West city commissioners with removal from office if they refuse to reverse their decision to void the agreement their police chief signed with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] to help federal agents with patrols amid the national immigration crackdown.
“Bad policy, and illegal,” Uthmeier wrote, in the two-page letter that ordered the six commissioners and mayor to reinstate the agreement their police chief signed without their knowledge on March 4.
Uthmeier added that “illegal aliens represent a significant danger to Key West,” claiming that 19 immigrants with criminal convictions have been arrested in the Florida Keys since March.
The letter doesn’t name those arrested, nor cites court records or arrest reports.
The AG sent the letter in response to the commission’s decision two days earlier:
On Monday, commissioners held a special meeting that was called after hundreds of residents formed the Key West Immigrant Support Network to ask questions about ICE activity, amid reports that immigrants with their legal paperwork in order have been stopped and detained without due process.
The commission ultimately voted 6-1 to end the 287(g) agreement that Police Chief Sean Brandenburg signed on March 4 — a contract the chief said he was told by other law enforcement officials was mandatory.
"I think the chief of police signed that agreement with a gun to his head, threatened to do it," District 3 Commissioner Donie Lee, the former police chief, said before the vote. "It was a federal overreach then, and it's a federal and state overreach now."
Brandenburg told commissioners Monday at City Hall, before a beyond-capacity crowd of residents who booed and jeered during some of his comments, that he had been advised by fellow law enforcement officials to sign with ICE.
“I was advised that the governor had laid out exactly how he could now remove a police chief from office if we did not enter into a 287 (g) agreement,” Brandenburg said.
While emotions ran high among the residents who spoke at City Hall on Monday, what the commission approved on paper included the phrase that Key West is not a so-called “sanctuary city,” and was largely a procedural decision.
The commission’s consensus was to follow closely the lawsuit pending from South Miami which questions whether the ICE agreements are legally required for Florida cities.
“We will follow the law,” City Commissioner Sam Kaufman told me after the 6-1 vote voided the Key West police department’s 287(g) agreement with ICE.
For now, South Miami and Key West remain without a 287(g) agreement.
Uthmeier contends the Keys have been home to immigrants who are dangerous convicted felons, although he didn’t cite court records or arrest reports.
In March alone, Uthmeier said, Key West police “working with ICE, arrested seven illegal aliens, each with an extensive criminal record, including elder abuse, driving under the influence, and trafficking drugs like methamphetamine and oxycodone.”
Uthmeier said, “These brutal facts clearly show the danger criminal aliens pose to the city of Key West,” and added a dig at the hundreds of locals who attended the meeting, many who formed the Key West Immigrant Support Network within the previous three weeks.
“We think those facts are far more compelling than the nonsensical sloganeering of misinformed protesters,” Uthmeier wrote.
In closing, Uthmeier wrote the commission’s decision violated Florida law — which is exactly what the city of South Miami’s pending lawsuit questions. While the statute requires any jurisdiction that runs a county jail to have a 287(g) agreement, the suit says:
“By contrast, the Legislature chose not to include a requirement for municipalities to enter into a 287(g) agreement, despite being specifically asked to include that requirement by the Governor in advance of a 2025 special session.”
Uthmeier ordered Key West to reverse its decision or face consequences.
“Failure to take corrective action will result in the enforcement of all applicable civil and criminal penalties, including removal from office by the governor,” he wrote.
The lone holdout on the commission was District 4 Commissioner Lissette Carey.
Carey later told the Miami Herald: that she supports legal immigration.
“I believe in upholding and respecting the laws of the State of Florida,” Carey said, according to the Herald. “As a public servant, I am committed to making decisions that balance compassion, legal integrity, and the best interests of our city.”
Carey added that her mother and grandmother immigrated from Cuba to Key West in the 1950s.