Reversing course, Key West commissioners agree to cooperate with ICE agreement
Key West city commissioners on Tuesday night reversed course from a vote last week to declare an agreement with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement void — instead opting to cooperate with the agency in the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort.
The decision angered the dozens of people who packed City Hall, urging commissioners to either stick with their initial vote to end the agreement with ICE or wait until a judge decides if municipalities must comply with such agreements.
The city of South Miami filed a lawsuit in Leon County court in March against the DeSantis administration seeking a judge’s opinion on whether the city is required to take part in so-called 287(g) agreements, named after a section in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
READ MORE: Key West City Commissioners vote to end police agreement with ICE. What’s next?
Key West City commissioners voted 4-2 not to wait for the judge’s decision before voting on the ICE cooperation agreement.
The vote to void the agreement with ICE last week sparked international headlines and a vow from the DeSantis administration to punish the Southernmost City if it didn’t change course.
On Tuesday, more than 100 people packed City Hall. Most urged commissioners to stick with their original decision, while wearing shirts that read, “Be Brave.”
Local musicians Jillian Todd and Jesse Wagner sang the Woody Guthrie song, “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” a protest song Guthrie wrote about a 1948 plane crash that killed almost 30 migrant farm workers on a deportation flight from California to Mexico.
Lucy Hawk read a letter on behalf of 133 residents of Bahama Village, which has a large Haitian migrant community, pleading with commissioners to reject the 287(g) agreement.
“These people are very proud of what you did last week, and we hope you honor that,” Hawk said.
Last Tuesday, the commission voted 6-1 to void the agreement, which allows police officers to stop, question and detain undocumented immigrants, arguing it was not enforceable because it was approved in March by the police chief and not the city manager by way of elected officials.
However, following pressure from Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier — including threats to remove elected and unelected officials from office — three of the six commissioners, as well as Key West Mayor Danise Henriquez, voted to stay in the agreement.
“I’m voting with my head, and not my heart,” said Commissioner Donald Lee, the former Key West Police chief who last week voted to void the agreement and switched his vote. Last week, he had said he was “voting with my heart” yet hoping that wouldn’t get the city in trouble with the state.
As people stormed out of the meeting, Commissioner Lissette Cuervo Carey, who voted last week to stay in the agreement and maintained her stance Tuesday, criticized the crowd’s reaction.
“It appears that we are ‘one human family,’ ” she said, referencing the city’s motto,” Unless we have a difference of opinion.”
Commissioners Monica Haskell and Mary Lou Hoover voted to maintain the city’s objection to entering into the 287(g) agreement. Commissioner Samuel Kaufman, who supported ending the agreement last week, wasn’t present because he was out of town, but sent a statement criticizing Henriquez for calling the special meeting without enough time for him to change his travel plans.
When the commission voted to end the agreement last week, Uthmeier sent a letter to the city the next morning threatening to take action against the city, including removing from office those who voted for the resolution.
In Florida, law enforcement agencies that operate county jails must enter partnerships with the federal government so their officers can carry out limited immigration agent functions. State statutes do not explicitly require local and municipal police departments to join these agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as the 287(g) program.
But DeSantis and his administration have pressured local officials, arguing that their police departments must join to comply with the state’s sanctuary city laws, which prohibit local governments from limiting collaboration with ICE. Uthmeier’s office has also threatened local officials in Orlando and Fort Myers with removal from office if their governments didn’t agree to have their police departments join 287(g) agreements.
During the June 30 meeting, commissioners supporting the voiding of the 287(g) agreement argued Key West is not a so-called sanctuary city, meaning that if someone is arrested and police find out he or she is undocumented, police inform federal immigration authorities.
City officials also said police regularly support and protect ICE and other federal agencies that operate in Key West, but officers have not taken part in immigration enforcement.
Police Chief Sean Brandenburg said last week that he signed the agreement with ICE in March because he was told by law enforcement colleagues in other municipalities that if he didn’t, he faced removal of office by the governor. But, he said Tuesday that his officers have never actively participated in ICE raids and don’t plan to.
“We are not conducting raids of any kind,” he told commissioners.
Berbeth Foster, senior staff attorney at the Community Justice Project, a racial justice and human rights legal nonprofit in Miami, told the commissioners Tuesday that municipalities are not required to join into 287(g) agreements in Florida.
“It is clear in the legal language in the statute,” Foster said.
Hours before the hearing, Henriquez, the Key West mayor who voted along with the majority of the City Commission to void the agreement with ICE last week, stressed she did so only because the city’s charter required the agreement to be signed by the city manager, not the police chief.
Henriquez said that she supported the majority vote because she thought a new 287(g) agreement should be written up that “could be considered and, if approved, properly executed by the City Manager in accordance with local legal requirements.”
“Let me be clear: I have no intention of breaking state law or undermining lawful immigration enforcement. My sole aim is to do things the right way — transparently, legally, and in the best interest of the City of Key West,” Henriquez said in a statement.
This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM.
