MIAMI — A Miami-Dade County city has become the first to sue Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s attorney general in a legal challenge that could determine whether local governments are required to let their police officers be trained to perform the duties of federal immigration agents in their communities.

On Thursday night, South Miami asked a state judge to weigh in on whether the city is required to enroll in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement program — known as 287(g) — that gives local police the ability to stop, question and arrest people who they suspect are in the country illegally.

In the lawsuit, the city argues the court’s intervention is needed because police departments are facing political pressure from the governor and his surrogates to join the program, even though the city believes the legal requirement to join is limited to the county agencies that oversee jails. South Miami asserts it’s already cooperating with federal immigration authorities and that joining the program could expose it to liability and force its officers to pay less attention to key police duties.

“Governor DeSantis and Attorney General Uthmeier have in fact threatened to use their enforcement powers against municipalities and municipal officers in an effort to coerce municipalities into executing 287(g) agreements,” the complaint says.

On several occasions this month, DeSantis and Uthmeier have raised the possibility of removing local elected officials from office if they choose not to join the federal immigration enforcement program, a stance that led city council members in Fort Myers to reverse a previous vote not to participate in 287(g). Uthmeier has said preventing local police from getting training under the program is a violation of Florida’s ban on so-called sanctuary cities.

“Everyone in the local government should be on notice. This is not discretionary,” Uthmeier said at a news conference this month.

Emails show state pressure campaign

The state’s pressure has worked so far.

Across Florida, dozens of police departments have rushed to join the program, including the Fort Myers Police Department— a scenario that South Miami officials mentioned in the legal complaint as an example of the type of political pressure cities are facing.

In February, the Florida Police Chiefs Association also began sending emails to police chiefs across the state, urging them to tell their city officials about a new state law ushered in by the governor and the Republican-led Legislature earlier in the month, court records show.

The new law requires all Florida sheriffs and chief correctional officers to enroll in the 287(g) jail enforcement model no later than April 1. In that program, correctional officers are trained to perform some of the functions of federal immigration agents at a detention facility.

The law — which went into effect on Feb. 14 — did not contemplate the slightly different 287(g) task force model that is meant for police officers who operate outside of detention facilities. At the time the law was enacted, the Trump administration had not yet launched that model.

“The Legislature had the opportunity, if it so intended, to require municipalities to execute 287(g) agreements,” South Miami’s complaint says. “But the Legislature chose not to require municipalities to enter into 287(g) agreements as it did for county-level agencies.”

In a Feb. 21 email, the Florida Police Chiefs Association told police officers that all municipalities needed to adopt the 287(g) task force model, the complaint says. The email noted that Larry Keefe, who was recently appointed as the executive director of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, is seeking “participation from as many municipalities as possible, as soon as possible.”

South Miami has yet to enter into a 287(g) agreement. In court records, city officials say the state’s pressure campaign has “placed South Miami in reasonable fear of enforcement action based on its failure to approve” such an agreement.

State argues otherwise

Florida’s attorney general warned cities that if they do not enroll in the program they could face penalties, including elected officials being suspended from office, because they would be violating the state’s ban on so-called sanctuary cities.

His threats came after the Fort Myers City Council voted 3-3 against joining the program, a decision it later reversed following the warnings from the state.

Florida law prohibits local governments from enacting a “sanctuary policy,” defined as a policy that prohibits a law enforcement agency from “participating in a federal immigration operation with a federal immigration agency as permitted by federal and state law.”

“South Miami contends that the Defendants’ reading is not supported by the plain language of the statute, and is contrary to an express limitation that the Legislature chose to place upon the definition of ‘sanctuary policy’ in 2022,” the lawsuit says.

City officials further argue that federal law makes clear that 287(g) agreements are voluntary partnerships and that they “are not necessary for information sharing or cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and ICE.”

And if the court decides local governments need to enter into the agreement under state law, South Miami officials say DeSantis’ powers to punish them don’t go as far as he’s saying they do.

“The governor’s enforcement powers are more limited than the governor contends,” the complaint says.

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