As Major ‘sanctuary cities’ Resist Threats, Miami-Dade Mayor Says City Will Comply
Mayors of cities across the nation sounded off Thursday in defiance of President Trump’s executive order aimed at punishing local governments that don’t comply with federal immigration officials. But the mayor of South Florida’s immigrant hub took an entirely different stance, ordering county jails to “fully cooperate” with the federal government in light of Trump’s vaguely worded order.
Carlos Gimenez, the Republican mayor of Miami-Dade County, sent a memo to the county’s corrections director Thursday ordering county jails to comply with federal immigration detention requests, essentially abandoning the county’s status as a “sanctuary” for undocumented immigrants. The county, recently listed as a sanctuary by the Department of Justice, is perhaps among the first municipalities to move to change its practices after Trump signed the executive order.
“In light of the provisions of the Executive Order, I direct you and your staff to honor all immigration detainer requests received from the Department of Homeland Security,” Gimenez wrote in the brief memo.
The notion of a “sanctuary” varies across the country. Some communities instruct local police not to ask about immigration status, while others, like New York City, go further — issuing identification cards to undocumented immigrants. Still, many so-called sanctuaries simply refuse to comply with the federal government when it asks the community to hold an undocumented immigrant already in custody until federal officials can start deportation proceedings. This designation is an informal one, and is not exclusive to liberal bastions aiming to appeal to immigrant communities. In fact, a number of the country’s “sanctuaries” exist in conservative areas, The Washington Post reported.
Before Thursday, Miami-Dade was considered one of these de facto “sanctuary” communities. The county’s policy was to only hold detainees if federal immigration officials agreed to reimburse the county for the detention costs — a condition set in a 2013 resolution. This practice put the county on a list of sanctuary cities in a Department of Justice report in May, prompting county officials to push back against the label.
Foreseeing Trump’s crackdown on “sanctuary” jurisdictions, the county asked the feds to review its status last year, and a decision is still pending. In a tweet Thursday, the mayor’s spokesman, Mike Hernández, said Miami-Dade County “does not consider itself a sanctuary community.”
The county’s decision to refuse detainer requests was largely a financial one, Gimenez, who attended Trump’s inauguration but voted for Hillary Clinton, told the Miami Herald. Last year, the county declined to hold some 100 inmates wanted by federal authorities. Detaining them in local jails would have cost about $52,000 — out of the county’s total annual budget of $7 billion.
The county turned over about 180 people to immigration officials in 2016 but was not reimbursed for any costs, the Associated Press reported. It costs the county about $200 to hold a person for a day.
“I want to make sure we don’t put in jeopardy the millions of funds we get from the federal government for a $52,000 issue,” Gimenez told the Miami Herald. The county expects to receive some $355 million in federal funds, according to its 2017 budget. “It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be arresting more people,” Gimenez added. “It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be enforcing any immigration laws.”
In a tweet Thursday night, Trump praised the mayor’s order, saying, “Miami-Dade Mayor drops sanctuary policy. Right decision. Strong!”
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