As Tampa Mayor Jane Castor faces removal, she has a chance to “stand up for the people of Tampa” by refusing to get rid of an alleged policy that protects victims and witnesses from immigration enforcement, local immigration lawyers say.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to Castor last week demanding she end a policy that prohibits police from reporting crime victims and witnesses to immigration authorities. In doing so, he asked that Castor deviate from a policing standard that law enforcement leaders say is crucial for reducing crime.
Immigration attorneys and police—along with Florida Republicans who wrote the law banning sanctuary cities—often agree that victims and witnesses need to be protected from immigration enforcement so they won’t be deterred from reporting crimes. In absence of these protections, experts say criminals may walk free as witnesses are deported before prosecution, crimes may never be reported in the first place, and immigrants may be forced to endure abuse to avoid deportation.
Tampa communications director Adam Smith told CL on Monday that revisions to TPD policy are being drafted to address Uthmeier’s concerns. Rather than outright prohibiting officers from disclosing witness and victim information to ICE, Smith said it will likely mirror Florida statute and say that officers are “not required” to share information if the victim or witness is “necessary to the investigation or prosecution of a crime.”
When asked who will determine if a victim or witness is considered “necessary,” Smith said the final version had not been submitted, so he can only say that it will comply with state and federal laws.
“She needs to stand up for the people of Tampa“
Legal experts have questioned Uthmeier’s claim that Castor could be lawfully removed for the alleged policy. Local immigration attorneys told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that Castor should protect victims and witnesses and challenge any removal in court.
“You know, the threat is really not to be taken lightly by the mayor, but at the same time, she needs to stand up for the people of Tampa,” immigration attorney Daniela Carrión told CL. “She needs to denounce this letter of political bullying, because that’s all it is. There’s no legal basis to remove her from office.”
Carrión also said that the impact of Castor’s response could ripple out across Tampa Bay. If Castor acquiesces, other departments with victim and witness protection policies like the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office could follow suit.
Immigration attorney Ahmad Yakzan told CL that if Castor challenges the removal, she could help set precedent for the entire state and force courts to define ambiguous language in statute, limiting the ways in which the state can use Florida statute to threaten removal.
“(Castor) shouldn’t budge on it,” Yakzan told CL about the ambiguous Florida statute. “Someone needs to test it and unfortunately, in the United States, we can’t even test it without going to court.”
If TPD and ICE reach an agreement to share victim and witness information, Yakzan said it wouldn’t make sense for most people without legal residency status to report crimes. “I don’t think that any witnesses or victims should come forward to (report) anything, because they will be risking deportation. And that will hamper law enforcement efforts,” Yakzan told CL.
Though Carrión speculated that Castor could potentially get a preliminary injunction temporarily reversing a suspension, she said that shouldn’t be Castor’s deciding factor. “I think the legal battle here is very interesting, but at the end of the day, … it doesn’t matter. The mayor should speak for the people. The mayor’s job isn’t to ensure that she remains mayor. The mayor’s job is to make sure she does as the people ask of her.”
Police experts say victims and witnesses should be protected
Nashville Police Chief John Drake is the president of the Police Executive Research Forum, a group of police chiefs and sheriffs dedicated to determining best practices in policing. “Crime flourishes when there’s silence,” Drake told the crowd at PERF’s 2025 annual meeting. “If people have been victimized by crime and they don’t report it to local law enforcement, how do we help those people? What if people are raped or robbed, but they’re afraid to report it because they think they’re going to get deported?”
Even the Center for Immigration Studies—an anti-immigration think tank founded by self-proclaimed eugenecist John Tanton, a man the Southern Poverty Law Center called “the racist architect of the modern anti-immigrant movement”—warns against arresting victims of crimes. They also say that the U visa program is too bogged down to be useful for most crime victims and shouldn’t be relied upon.
In his letter, Uthmeier suggested that police wouldn’t have to worry about investigations being derailed by deportations because of “procedures in place” for victims. Specifically, he referenced the U visa program, which was made to help victims of certain crimes remain in the country even if they are here unlawfully.
Only 10,000 U visas may be issued per year, resulting in a notoriously slow system and a massive backlog. DHS’ website says that applications from 2017 and earlier are currently being processed. Additionally, a U visa applicant is not guaranteed protection from deportation while their application is being reviewed, a process that can take 8–10 years. Like many immigration issues, U visa woes predate either Trump administration.
Uthmeier’s office did not answer questions addressing the difficulties in existing federal victim and witness relief methods.
Criminal defense attorney and former state prosecutor Francesca de la Grana told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that even a policy of reporting arrestees to ICE can chill reporting of domestic violence.
“I can tell you that right now, every single one of my clients that gets arrested, if they do not have papers, it’s an automatic ICE hold,” she told CL. “Back in the day, if someone was arrested for a DUI, or no valid driver’s license, or really any 1st or 2nd degree misdemeanor, (they were released).”
If someone knows a partner or family member will be detained by ICE upon arrest, de la Grana said they are less likely to call the police even if that person becomes abusive. “It just creates a lot more work because ultimately we’re not able to prosecute those cases. Because everyone’s trying to protect one another, their family members.”
Immigrants are vulnerable to crimes of exploitation
As an immigration attorney, Carrión has witnessed the human cost of immigration enforcement first hand.
Rosa Patishtan-Gomez is an indigenous Mexican woman who lawfully came to Tampa Bay on a seasonal agricultural visa where she was quickly labor trafficked by her employer.
Carrión, who provided her with pro-bono legal representation, told the San Pedro Gazette last year that Patishtan-Gomez was forced to work up to 120 hours a week with no overtime. She was indebted to her employer and overstayed her visa. She had children in the U.S., one of whom was 11 months old and still breastfeeding.
Florida Highway Patrol arrested Patishtan-Gomez anyway. She then spent at least a month in ICE detention, separated from her children, before being deported. Carrión said she likely qualified for a T visa—a visa that protects trafficking victims—but she would have had to wait longer to see her children.
This is a common pattern for labor traffickers. This week, a Mexican national at federal court in Tampa pleaded guilty to human trafficking of immigrant workers who entered the U.S. on temporary agricultural visas. Once the workers arrived, their passports were confiscated to prevent them from leaving the country and they were shackled by debt. While living in unsanitary, crowded conditions, victims were forced to work long hours for criminally low pay under threat of deportation and harm to them and their families. Prosecutors relied on immigrant worker victim testimony to build their case.
Carrión told CL that language barriers and the threat of deportation often lead immigrants to fear reporting crimes. She said police bias can also play a part as many police are less likely to believe nonwhite people or people who aren’t native English speakers when they say they have been victims.
Immigrants on agricultural visas are also less likely to report human trafficking, Carrión said. They are often coerced into abuse and slavery by companies taking advantage of the threat of ICE detention and deportation. Many are coerced into overstaying their visas so they will be fearful of going to the police, where they could be sent to ICE detention facilities, she told CL.
Many immigrants detained in Florida are sent to the Everglades Detention Center or Krome Processing Center. At both of these locations, Amnesty International has reported that detainees are subjected to abuse and torture. Detainees are often not allowed to contact their lawyers, preventing them from applying for a U visa or any form of lawful relief.
How Castor’s decision could change the U visa process for victims
Speaking to CL, Carrión outlined how the process for a U visa works when police don’t question a victim’s immigration status. “A victim calls, reports a crime, the crime is investigated.”
The victim can then consult with their immigration attorney and determine if they’re eligible for a U visa before contacting the police again to certify that they were a victim. Until then, the police aren’t aware of the victim’s immigration status and “can focus on what’s important, which is investigating the alleged crime,” Carrión told CL.
If police investigate the immigration status of victims and witnesses, however, Carrión said the process could be different. “Victims of crime will likely either be placed in removal proceedings or be placed in a detention center, and there will not be any ability for the Tampa Police Department to do any kind of fair investigation,” she told CL.
U visas also only apply to victims. “Witnesses are completely deterred from speaking, because then they have no protection whatsoever,” Carrión said. “The argument goes, ‘well, you can get their statement before they get picked up.’ But at the same time, the statement is not enough to obtain a conviction.”
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This article appears in Mar. 12 – 18, 2026.