During a mayoral debate last Tuesday, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch incorrectly said that the city’s partnership with federal immigration authorities was mandatory.
This misconception was circulated by officials in Pinellas County last year after Sheriff Bob Gualtieri gave local police chiefs confusing instructions that threatened removal from office for anyone who didn’t “do certain things” to assist the feds.
The debate, hosted by St. Petersburg’s NAACP chapter, included a question submitted online about the police department’s 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agreement deputizes certain local police to conduct some ICE duties, like arresting individuals on immigration warrants at traffic stops.
The question called the agreement “voluntary,” and asked each candidate if they would direct Chief of Police Anthony Holloway to end the 287(g) agreement.
“It was an order from the governor,” Welch replied. “It was not a choice at the local level whether to comply with that or not.”
But municipal police departments were never required to sign the agreements, and those who didn’t were never penalized because there was no statutory requirement to join.
No police department provided evidence of this mandate when CL asked. Some referenced a statute that requires local police departments to support immigration enforcement with “best efforts,” which the DeSantis administration said doesn’t include entering into 287(g) agreements unless the department operates a jail.
Of all Pinellas county law enforcement agencies, only the sheriff’s office operates a jail.
Welch seemed to suggest that the person who submitted a question about the 287(g) agreement had consulted AI, saying, “If you use AI, you always have to check the results because it might not be accurate.”
Welch did not respond when Creative Loafing Tampa Bay asked if he consulted AI regarding the agreement.
All St. Pete mayoral candidates except Maria Scruggs support the agreement
During the debate, most other candidates didn’t have any more information than Welch. Kevin Batdorf said he supported the agreement, to boos from the crowd. Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he thought the chief “probably did the right thing” by signing the agreement.
St. Petersburg City Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard supported the agreement too, saying: “It is (the chief’s) job to uphold the law. And sometimes that may not look the way that we necessarily want it to.”
Maria Scruggs was the only candidate who said that she would direct the department to disband the agreement, stating that local police didn’t need to be a part of it.
Scruggs and Welch were the only candidates to receive applause for their answers.
She believes Welch should have known better
“I was in shock that he had not done his homework,” Scruggs told CL when asked about Welch’s response. “He should have had a second sense of, ‘I need to check this out myself.’”
As a jail administrator, Scruggs told CL that she closely followed the legislation surrounding police agreements with ICE. When Holloway signed the 287(g) agreement, Scruggs said she had a conversation with him where he laid out his rationale.
“I remember thinking, ‘this is political,’” she told CL.
In Tampa, Mayor Jane Castor changed immigration policy after she received an opinion letter from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier saying she would be removed from office if she attempted to inhibit collaboration with ICE.
Scruggs told CL that she would legally challenge any such threat and insist on ending the agreement with ICE: “To say that I would remain in the agreement just because I got a letter? No.”
Daniela Carrión, a Pinellas county immigration and employment attorney, said that Welch and Holloway should listen to the community and end the agreement.
“A local police chief and a mayor need to do what they were elected to do by the people of their city,” Carrión told CL. “If the community and citizens of St. Pete do not wish for the city to sign onto a 287(g) agreement, they should not do so.”
Carrión also told CL that she believed the mayor and police chief could only be removed from office by the governor if indicted for crimes, and that ending the 287(g) agreement would not be a crime.
Even if a lawsuit did occur, Carrión believes it would be beneficial. An ambiguous passage in Florida statute requiring “best efforts” has made many governments afraid to oppose these agreements for any reason, even if the reason is that their department doesn’t have the resources to support the program.
“(A lawsuit) would pave the way for clarification in the state court system, which could really benefit all local communities in Florida,” Carrión said.
Welch’s office has not responded to CL’s request for comment.
Citing the previously-referenced law enacted last February, the St. Petersburg Police Department argued that Florida law requires cooperation with federal immigration authorities. “Chief Holloway signed the 287g MOA, as required by 908.104, on February 25, 2025,” Yolanda Fernandez, SPPD Community Awareness Division Manager, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
But SPPD’s legal advisor declined to comment on what part of the statute they interpret to mean that 287(g) agreements are mandatory.
“The Police Department cannot provide a legal opinion or interpretation of the specific statutory text The Department’s position is that the text of the statute speaks for itself,” Laura Roe, SPPD Legal Advisor, wrote.
Numerous police departments initially refused to sign 287(g) agreements.
The city of South Miami even sued, with Mayor Javier Fernandez claiming that “the state does not require every municipality to team up with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under a 287 (g) agreement — as long as they don’t take a position against teaming up.”
In the preemptive lawsuit filed by South Miami, state lawyers argued that the city had not violated the law by not signing an agreement. A judge later dismissed the case, as the city had not been penalized for not signing the agreement.
Asked about those developments in other parts of Florida, SPPD said, “These articles present various legal arguments on either side of this issue with no clear or definitive court ruling either way. Our legal advisers believe the text of the statute speaks for itself.”
Misconceptions about 287(g) agreements started in early 2026
Early this year, CL found that Sheriff Gualtieri told local police chiefs they were expected to “do certain things” regarding immigration enforcement, and that “the consequences for not doing so include removal from office by the Governor.”
Within a few days, every Pinellas police chief signed the agreement—except Largo’s, who waited for city council approval. Multiple police chiefs later said they believed they were legally required to sign the agreements, some citing a mandate from the governor, like Welch cited.
Gualtieri helped design a model of 287(g) agreement that streamlines jail enforcement and is the Florida State Immigration Enforcement Council’s chief expert on local police collaboration with ICE. It is unclear why he did not communicate to Pinellas police chiefs that the agreement was not mandatory.
Legislation doesn’t explicitly state that a mayor may not end a 287(g) agreement once it’s been signed, but ending one could potentially trigger a lawsuit from the state anyway. This would force a court to, for the first time, rule on what may be considered “best efforts” to support immigration enforcement.
Still, signing the agreement in the first place was not required, despite Welch’s claim that “it was an order from the governor.”
Welch also said that St. Petersburg police do not conduct immigration arrests. Florida has a dashboard tracking encounters with people suspected of lacking legal resident status, and St. Petersburg police are listed as the contacting agency for 26 encounters.
The St. Petersburg police department also said they found no responsive records when CL requested standard operating procedures surrounding immigration enforcement.
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UPDATED 06/14/26 8:51 a.m. Updated with a response from SPPD.
This article appears in June 11 – 17, 2026.