Liberal Group: Miami-Dade Mayor ‘Betrayed’ City

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez made a pragmatic decision to change how the local jail responds to requests by the federal government to hold illegal immigrants, and liberal activists won’t forgive him.

Giménez has explained that his decision comes down to dollars and cents — it is not worth risking millions of federal dollars in law enforcement grants that President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold from so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions.

“Mayor Giménez has betrayed Miami.”

To Color of Change, a self-described “racial justice” organization, that makes Giménez a turncoat.

“Mayor Giménez has betrayed Miami,” Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “As his peer mayors in great American cities across the country stand up to Donald Trump’s attack on sanctuary cities, Giménez has chosen to fold without a fight and abandon Miami-Dade’s sanctuary city policy. His cowardice will have disastrous consequences for the people of Miami, where about 150,000 undocumented immigrants live and work, and where about one in three black people are immigrants.”

Robinson added that Giménez should “grow a backbone and resist Trump’s racist agenda.” Representatives of Color of Change, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the New Florida Majority, and the Service Employees International Union protested outside of the mayor’s office Tuesday. Some 95,000 people have signed a petition asking mayors to support sanctuary policies.

Giménez told CNN last week that he never thought the sanctuary label should apply to Miami-Dade. He said the county jail always had honored hold requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. But in 2014, the County Commission required that the federal government guarantee in advance that the county would be reimbursed for the incarceration costs, or the jail would not detain illegal immigrants otherwise eligible for release.

Giménez ordered that policy revoked after Trump’s executive orders on immigration.

Federation for American Immigration Reform spokesman Ira Mehlman said cities and counties should not be intimidated by pro-immigration activists.

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“Their interest is in promoting illegal immigration,” he said. “It’s up to public officials to promote the greater good.”

While Miami-Dade moved swiftly to align with the new administration in Washington, the mayors of Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Boston, and other cities are digging in for a longer fight.

“Let’s see what happens when the reality begins to hit … They might soften their position then,” Mehlman said. “It isn’t up to local cities or counties to determine who ICE can deport.”