Florida tourist hotspot’s defiant lawmakers reverse vote to become sanctuary city after AG warnings

Officials in one Florida city ignited backlash after an about-face on cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

City commissioners in Key West reversed course this week after initially voting to go against an agreement for local law enforcement to work with federal immigration agents, effectively making the tourist destination a sanctuary city. But after reported pressure from state lawmakers, Key West officials voted 4-2 to reinstate the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) agreement.

“We absolutely have to support and follow the law of our state and federal government,” Commissioner, who was the only dissenter in the 5-1 vote against ending the collaboration last week, told Fox News Digital.

“I was shocked that I was the standalone vote and that my colleagues didn’t understand the severity of terminating the agreement,” she added.

Carey thought her fellow commissioners “took an interesting position” as they contended “that it was never valid to begin with.”

“I’ve wanted clarity on that,” Carey said of Tuesday’s vote to reinstate the agreement. “The city manager is supposed to sign those agreements, but he authorized the police chief to do so.”

The city’s police chief, Sean Brandenburg, reportedly signed the initial agreement instead of City Manager Brian Barroso.

“The commissioner that proposed amendments asked to change ‘reinstating’ into ‘entering into,’” Carey said. “In other words, it was never a valid contract to begin with. So it is recognized via the resolution that this is a reinstatement, which to me says it was valid to begin with and canceled.”

After the initial vote against the agreement, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier slammed the decision in a social media post.

The City of Key West violated state law when they voted to void the Key West Police Department’s 287(g) agreement with ICE.

We will not allow this unlawful sanctuary policy in Florida. They have a choice: stop impeding law enforcement from enforcing immigration law or face the… pic.twitter.com/tATKp4CNCp

— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) July 2, 2025

After the reversal, Uthmeier praised the revised vote.

Great to see the City of Key West heeding our warning and reversing course by reinstating their participation in ICE’s 287(g) program.

Florida requires cities to commit best efforts to help the Trump administration enforce immigration law, and Floridians expect nothing less!

— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) July 9, 2025

Carey surmised that the attorney general’s threats of “civil and criminal penalties, including removal from office” prompted the emergency meeting where last week’s vote was reconsidered.

“I think some of our commission members took that very seriously,” she told Fox News Digital. “So they called for the emergency meeting in order to rectify what they had done a week prior.”

Senior Staff Writer
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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