Last February, nearly all of Pinellas County’s 10 local police departments signed “287(g) agreements,” which deputize local police to do some of the jobs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Records obtained by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay show that the agreements were signed within days of each other—right after Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told Pinellas chiefs of police that new laws put “legal obligations” on all of them to “do certain things” at threat of removal from office by Governor Ron DeSantis.
As previously reported, 287(g) agreements allow designated immigration officers (DIOs) to incorporate immigration enforcement into their jobs. After completing a 40-hour online training, DIOs can make arrests for civil immigration warrants that are usually only enforceable by ICE agents. They can also question civilians on their legal residency status and conduct immigration investigations according to agency-specific policies.
Following a Feb. 25 email and conference call from Gualtieri, several police chiefs in Pinellas said they believed they were required to enter into the agreement. Police departments are not required to sign on to 287(g) agreements in the first place, but now that they have, it’s not clear if they can leave them without violating Florida law. South Miami’s police department wasn’t legally required to sign an agreement, but Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier used Florida’s law against “sanctuary cities” to pressure Key West to re-enter their 287(g) agreement after they attempted to end it.
DeSantis’ liberal use of his ability to remove people from office has caused some officials to make decisions they don’t agree with, largely out of fear that they’ll be replaced with appointees friendly to the governor, according to WUSF.
Gualtieri email threatens removal, police chiefs quickly sign on
Through public record requests, CL obtained an email Gualtieri sent to all Pinellas police chiefs on Feb. 25, 2025.
“After my email last night, I have received a couple of calls with questions, including about the email you all received from (Florida Police Chiefs Association) asking you to sign the street 287(g) taskforce MOA,” the email reads.
“To say all of this immigration stuff is confusing is an understatement. It is also at the forefront of Florida politics and an absolute priority of the Governor. The new law puts legal obligations on all of us to ensure we do certain things and the consequences for not doing so include removal from office by the Governor, including his power to remove police chiefs, city managers, mayors, and commission/council members,” Gualtieri told the chiefs. He then said there was too much to explain in an email and scheduled a call for that evening.
On the call with Gualtieri was Pinellas County Schools’ then-Police Chief Luke Williams. After the call—and without asking the school board—Williams immediately signed a Memorandum of Agreement with ICE to enroll Pinellas County Schools Police in the 287(g) program. ICE rejected the agreement, saying they didn’t expect school police to participate, according to WUSF.
After public outcry, Williams told the school board that signing the agreement was a mistake, saying he signed following the phone call with Gualtieri. “As a result of that meeting, it appeared to me that there was no other alternative than to comply,” Williams said.
That same week, Gulfport Police Chief Mary Farrand wrote a statement in The Gabber, saying, “Based on the research I conducted and the local meetings I attended, it was my understanding that law enforcement leaders were required to sign the agreement.”
Nearly a year later, City Manager Jim O’Reilly told Gulfport City Council, “The governor issued a directive that all law enforcement agencies … were required to sign a 287(g) agreement.” CL did not find any such directive beyond a failed legislative proposal made by the governor, and O’Reilly has not yet responded to a request asking for more information about it.
The only police department that waited for a vote from the city to sign a 287(g) agreement was Largo. At its Mar. 18, 2025, meeting, Largo Police Chief Mike Loux told the city commission that “Florida legislature passed a law that requires us to comply with 287(g).”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far, chief,” City Attorney Alan Zimmet replied. “I don’t see anything that says you’d be in violation, that this is absolutely required.” The commission voted to enter into the agreement and Loux signed it that evening.
Within the email, Gualtieri referenced an email he had sent the previous night advising that ICE had put its own administrative warrants in a police database and detailing how officers should respond. He also referenced an email from the Florida Police Chiefs Association, in which chiefs were asked to consider signing 287(g) agreements.
“Director Keefe has provided us with a template MOA for departments to review and consider regarding participation in in 287(g) programs. Director Keefe is seeking participation from as many municipalities as possible, as soon as possible,” the email from FPCA reads. The email did not say that agencies were required to sign on to these agreements.
Protestors have been demanding an end to 287(g) agreements in Tampa Bay for months—with many arguing that they destroy trust with immigrant communities that police have worked hard to build—but municipalities are seemingly stuck in legal uncertainty. Even if ending a 287(g) agreement is possible, it could result in a costly legal battle for whichever city does it first.
Gualtieri’s push for increased local-federal collaboration
It’s not unusual for Pinellas police chiefs to meet with the sheriff to talk about enforcement. All Pinellas law enforcement agencies are a part of the Pinellas Police Standards Council, a group organized to coordinate policy among and between agencies. This time, the discussion was initiated and led by Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, a figure trusted by other law enforcement leaders for his legal knowledge, especially pertaining to local immigration enforcement.
For the better part of a decade, and with little fanfare, Gualtieri has been pushing federal and state government to allow local police to do more immigration enforcement. He’s also helped create policy to this effect.
Gualtieri has a law degree from Stetson University College of Law, and he served as a patrol deputy and general counsel for PCSO before becoming sheriff. Gualtieri is on the recently-created Florida State Immigration Enforcement Council, where he is regarded as the primary subject matter expert on the legality of local immigration enforcement.
“There is no one that I’m aware of that is better qualified to educate us than Sheriff Gualtieri,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during the first immigration enforcement council meeting last March. “He’s made this a mission for years and years.”
In the same meeting, Gualtieri touted his 2017 work with then-ICE Director, now-Border Czar Tom Homan to help create a form of 287(g) agreement that streamlines enforcement in county jails. Gualtieri also criticized the Obama administration for ending a form of 287(g) agreement which was discontinued after evidence showed it resulted in repeated racial profiling.
Gualtieri said he wanted to use his expertise to jump bureaucratic hurdles and expedite local immigration enforcement. “Let’s figure out how to make all of this happen against the constraints of law, rules, regulations,” Gualtieri said to the gathered sheriffs and police chiefs as they brainstormed ways to integrate ICE into every level of law enforcement.
Gualtieri drafted and proposed a plan that would allow sheriffs to transport anyone in jail on an ICE detainer to the local ICE office so that they wouldn’t be released after the mandatory 48-hour window is up. ICE declined the proposal.
“I thought it was a phenomenal idea,” Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prommell said at the meeting. “Unfortunately, … lawyers got involved and, like you stated before, cold feet.”
Gualtieri has repeatedly said that having local law enforcement conduct immigration enforcement results in fewer arrests of “collaterals,” or people who lack criminal charges but don’t have legal resident status.
Judd recently said that 74% of immigration arrests by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office were of people with criminal charges, but WPTV found that just 16% of those were considered violent crimes.
“You have the advocacy groups out there that are bellyaching and moaning about, ‘This guy only got arrested on a suspended driver’s license charge, this guy only got arrested on a petit theft charge,’” Gualtieri said at last March’s meeting. “Yeah, but there is an underlying reason why the person was previously deported for all kinds of other stuff, and it could be violent crime and it could be because they were removed previously.”
Gualtieri said that ICE was responsible for deciding if they wanted custody of anyone booked on state charges based on ICE’s internal database. He did not say whether ICE would avoid deporting people due to lack of violent criminal history. Gualtieri also did not address how this referral of people with nonviolent charges to ICE affects the reduced “collateral” arrest rate he touted.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to several requests for comment, and Gualtieri declined an interview request from CL without providing a reason.
Sebastián González de León y León and the San Pedro Gazette contributed to this article through editorial support.
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This article appears in Feb. 12 – 18, 2026.