MLS commissioner Don Garber, left, David Beckham, center, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, right. (Photo: Reuters)
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Thursday ordered county jails to comply with immigration retainer requests, ending their status as a sanctuary city. The move comes after President Donald J. Trump signed two executive orders, one for the construction of a border wall and to crack down on sanctuary cities.
Executive order–Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States–aims to put an end sanctuary cities, which polling shows voters overwhelmingly support. A recent survey found 62% of likely voters wanted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to punish cities that provide sanctuary for illegal immigrants.
“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,” Mayor Gimenez wrote Daniel Junior, the interim director of the corrections and rehabilitation department, in a three-paragraph memo.
The city did not declare and was not considered a “sanctuary” for immigrants in the country illegally until 2014, when the Obama administration accumulated a $14 million bill for detainer requests.
“We will now go back to the 2014 policy and honor retainer requests,” he said Friday morning. “We are not a sanctuary city. We’ve never been a sanctuary city.”
President Trump praised Mayor Gimenez on Twitter, tweeting: “Miami-Dade Mayor drops sanctuary policy. Right decision. Strong!”
