The Tampa Police Department's revisions to its immigration enforcement policies won't have much of an influence on officers' daily workflow, according to Tampa Police Benevolent Association President Brandon Barclay.
This comes after Florida Attorney James Uthmeier accused the Tampa Police Department of having "sanctuary policies" conflicting with the state's laws on immigration enforcement.
This pertains to the police department's 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That's a federal contract allowing state and local law enforcement to carry out immigration efforts for ICE. Sheriffs for all of Florida's 67 counties, as well as city and even university police departments, have signed agreements.
The Tampa Police policies under fire included preventing officers from sharing information with federal agents, such as the immigration status of victims or witnesses of a crime. Another prohibited officers from engaging in "broad-based" immigration enforcement actions.
ALSO READ: Tampa police revise immigration policy after threats from AG James Uthmeier
Uthmeier called on Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to revise the policies by the end of March or risk penalties, including possible removal from office by the governor.
The police department posted a revised policy on Monday, removing restrictions and making it more in line with state law.
For example, it omitted the restriction on inquiring about victims and witnesses' immigration status.
But referencing state law, officers are not required to provide federal immigration agents with that information if it is necessary to the investigation and the victim or witness is cooperating in a timely fashion with law enforcement. Also, law enforcement cannot issue an immigration detainer on someone solely because they witnessed or reported a crime or were a victim of one.
ALSO READ: Compare the original policy vs. the revised policy (changes are on Page 3)
On "Florida Matters Live & Local," Tampa Police Benevolent Association President Brandon Barclay said the issue was the language of the policies and the need to ensure they matched the law.
"I think the problem with that was it ran afoul of what the federal government agreed to when you sign these documents," Barclay said.
He said that in response, Castor looked at the policy, saw where the issue was and worked to match it up.
"They literally printed the Florida statute in the new policy under two different sections," Barclay said.
He added that he feels "law enforcement is not really unified as a whole on how to solve this problem."
"I can assure you there's no Tampa Police officer showing up to a residence and calling immigration. One, we don't even ask. So, unless somehow we know that they're here illegally, it's not even a question that's asked."Brandon Barclay, Tampa Police Benevolent Association president
"Everybody has their own opinion on what you could do and what you should do," Barclay continued.
Arturo Rios, immigration lawyer and adjunct professor with Stetson College of Law, said he thought the issue was a "bit of a political overreach."
"I don't think that the mayor was refusing to follow the law. I really don't. I think it was more about how police were going to prioritize public safety and to make sure there was trust between police and the community," Rios said. "Because there's a problem when victims are afraid to call police and when victims are afraid to speak to the police, the criminals win."
When asked how these immigration enforcement policy changes could affect the department, Barclay said: "There's no uniform patrol officer that's dealing with this."
He said that no matter who calls 911, they're getting the same service.
"I think people think that we have like an immigration squad that's running around answering calls for service and going out and snatching people up, I can assure you without a doubt that's not happening," he said. "The people that we have that have another full-time job are also tasked with the immigration stuff."
By this, he said it's mainly paperwork.
"I'll double check with my people — I don't believe that immigration has actually done any operations in Tampa or required their services," Barclay told host Matthew Peddie. "So this is mostly DIOs, which are the officers that just file paperwork on people that get arrested, go to jail. It's more of a process."
Rios mentioned how there's a lot of fear in the immigrant community about interacting with law enforcement. He described hearing from people who are victims of domestic violence but may be in the country unlawfully and are afraid of contacting authorities out of fear of deportation.
Barclay said he understood there is a fear, but said there should be no victim afraid to call 911 regardless of their immigration status.
"I can assure you there's no Tampa Police officer showing up to a residence and calling immigration. One, we don't even ask. So, unless somehow we know that they're here illegally, it's not even a question that's asked," Barclay said. "But if there is a domestic violence victim, our goal is to get the defendant locked up and prosecuted and the State Attorney's Office wants that as well. So if you take away the only victim that can prosecute that person, then it's a disservice to everybody — to the whole system."
Overall, Barclay said Castor coming out and changing the policy was so that everyone could be on a unified front.
"Everybody's going to be treated equally across the board, regardless of what your immigration status is, regardless if you're a victim, if you're a suspect in the city of Tampa, we're going to treat everybody equally," Barclay said.
WUSF's Nancy Guan contributed to this report. Information used was from interviews conducted by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
