Several individuals are facing immigration questions following a traffic stop involving the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO).
The car’s driver was cited Monday morning on the Pinellas Bayway on St. Pete Beach for driving without a valid driver’s license. The driver and four passengers were detained based on “administrative warrants” related to their immigration statuses, according to PCSO Media Relations spokesperson Sgt. Amanda Sinni.
PCSO declined to provide Florida Politics with requested reports related to the traffic stop, citation and arrests, citing a “still open and active report.”
Florida Politics also inquired as to why the vehicle was stopped, but has also not received an answer by either phone or email.
PCSO referred inquiries related to “the administrative warrants” and the whether the individuals detained have been able to meet with counsel to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In its response, a Public Affairs Officer from ICE said to contact PCSO “with questions about their enforcement actions” and that the agency could not provide additional information about the cases without “biographical information, i.e. names, date of birth, country of origin, at a minimum to research.”
PCSO has so far not provided any of that information, including from a subsequent request along with the ICE response sent to Sinni Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday, a source provided cellphone video of the traffic stop on the Pinellas Bayway at Maritana Drive near the Don CeSar hotel. The video showed at least four Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office vehicles on-site with several deputies. Footage also showed four individuals, all Hispanic, seated on a bench with a deputy watching them nearby.
Initially, a PCSO spokesperson said the driver received a citation, but said no arrests were made. Sinni notified Florida Politics Tuesday morning that the information provided was incorrect, and said there were five individuals, and all were detained as a result of administrative warrants.
Administrative warrants are issued by a federal agency, such as the Department of Homeland Security. Those warrants can be signed by an immigration Judge or immigration officer, but do not have to be. They authorize arrest, but not a search, according to the National Immigration Law Center[1].
Active call logs from PCSO Monday morning showed an initial call to the location for a “traffic stop” at 6:37 a.m. and another to the location at 7:17 a.m. for a “traffic violation.”
There are several arrest records from Monday related to charges for either driving without a valid license or driving with a suspended or revoked license, but it’s impossible to tell without confirmation from the agency whether any of those records are related to this incident.
Florida Politics, in a list of questions provided to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, has also asked if any of the individuals for whom administrative warrants were issued had past criminal histories or faced criminal charges not related to their immigration status. The inquiry has not yet been answered.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri was one of several Sheriffs in Florida appointed earlier this year to the State Immigration Enforcement Council, created from legislation passed[2] earlier this year during a Special Session addressing immigration crackdowns under the Trump administration. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation in February[3].
All 67 Sheriff’s Offices in the state have since announced cooperation with ICE officials by signing onto a 287(g) agreement, which allows state and local law enforcement to carry out certain ICE functions.
Without such agreement, local and state officers’ authority on immigration issues was restricted to only county jail and detention center custody. Under the new agreements, state and local law enforcement have broader authority.
The new agreements are similar to one discontinued in 2012 after the U.S. Department of Justice found it led to racial profiling in some cases.
Polk County Grady Judd, also a member of the state immigration council, rejected the notion that the agreements would lead to racial profiling now, according to a WUSF report[4].
At the time, Judd called such claims “total BS” and “woke left, crazy talk,” adding that “if you’re here illegally, we’re going to boot your butt out of this country.”
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References
- ^ according to the National Immigration Law Center (www.nilc.org)
- ^ legislation passed (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ in February (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ according to a WUSF report (www.wusf.org)