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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office has subpoenaed the city of Jacksonville in connection with a criminal investigation into allegations that a member of Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration interfered with immigration enforcement efforts.
Uthmeier announced the subpoena in a Monday post on X, saying that if there is evidence that Deegan’s administration coordinated to impede immigration enforcement and “harbor criminal aliens,” his office would hold those responsible accountable, according to the Associated Press report.
The subpoena directs Jacksonville to turn over records related to Yanira Cardona, the city’s first Hispanic outreach coordinator, and it requires the city to provide communications and other documents—including emails, text messages, social media communications and related materials—covering Jan. 2 to Jan. 16 in both English and Spanish.
A copy of the subpoena obtained by Jacksonville Today through a public-records request gives city officials until Feb. 20 to comply, the report said. The subpoena also specifies that the compelled records include information connected to activities involving, the location of, or interactions with U.S. government or Florida law-enforcement agents, and it lists agencies such as ICE, CBP, HSI, and the Florida Highway Patrol.
The subpoena also seeks records tied to how people could avoid contact with or conceal their whereabouts from those law-enforcement agents. It further requires the production of emails (including attachments) containing certain terms, including “Nazi,” “Gestapo,” “stormtrooper,” “terrorize,” “Jennifer Cruz,” and “Gamble Scott,” the report said.
The criminal investigation comes about two weeks after Cardona returned to work at City Hall following a brief suspension after a video went viral on social media. In that video, Cardona discussed Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Jacksonville and provided advice on how to navigate interactions with immigration enforcement, emphasizing compliance with officers, the report said.
Jacksonville officials told Jacksonville Today that Cardona remains on the job as the state investigation proceeds. In an emailed statement, Phil Perry, the city’s chief communications officer, said the attorney general’s office was pursuing what he described as a hyper-partisan effort during election season and pointed to policy issues he said Floridians are more concerned about, including property insurance, housing costs, and health care.
Perry also said Jacksonville’s review would show the administration acted lawfully and he emphasized that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has “the sole responsibility for coordination and interaction” with state and federal immigration agencies under a consolidated government structure, with the mayor not holding authority over those activities. The Deegan administration said it would fully cooperate with the subpoena, according to the AP report.
Uthmeier and his staff have stepped up criticism of the Deegan administration in recent weeks, the report said. The AP said Uthmeier amplified a Deegan office social media post on Holocaust Remembrance Day that featured Deegan’s speech at the Ramallah Club’s Jacksonville chapter, and that in a post on X Uthmeier’s communications director, Jeremy Redfern, suggested the Palestinian keffiyeh worn during the event is commonly associated with Hamas terrorists.
Uthmeier also commented on Cardona’s suspension on X and, the report said, he shared news coverage of an incident involving a 40-year-old Jacksonville woman, Jennifer Cruz, being held by two ICE agents. The attorney general, during a news conference in Green Cove Springs about child social media protections, said any local interference with immigration enforcement violates a state law he said was signed last year to create a state board to coordinate immigration-enforcement activities with federal officials, including a $250 million grant program to local agencies.
The attorney general said he knows the mayor said nothing wrong happened but that his office disagrees, according to the report. He said if there was a coordinated effort by a city official working with other city employees or outside nongovernmental organizations to thwart enforcement, his office would hold wrongdoers accountable, and he also floated the possibility of “federal angles” such as the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act, though he did not confirm federal involvement.
Immigration advocates criticized the subpoena. Maria Garcia, an organizer with the Jacksonville Immigrants Rights Alliance, told Jacksonville Today that apps such as Nextdoor are widely used to share information about police activity and that information is easily available, and she called the subpoena political. Garcia said people are “allowed to tell people about the presence of law enforcement” and disputed that such sharing could be tied to impeding enforcement.