Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, citing President Donald Trump’s intentions to crack down on illegal immigration by withdrawing federal funding for jurisdictions that ignore U.S. laws, announced his city would no longer serve as a sanctuary for those in the country illegally.
What a win for Trump.
“Miami-Dade Mayor drops sanctuary policy,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “Right decision. Strong!”
Specifically, Gimenez told the jails within his city to comply with federal immigration policy, including the issuance of detainer requests. Last year alone, the city ignored about 100 detainer requests from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department.
And between January 1, 2014, and September 30, 2015, Miami-Dade County refused to honor 771 detainer requests, a move that let 871 illegals with criminal records remain in the United States, the Center for Immigration Studies found.
Apparently, losing money to shelter criminals isn’t a risk Gimenez is willing to take. His order comes one day after Trump signed an exectuive order cutting federal funding from all sanctuary cities.
Miami-Dade received about $335 million in federal fundings.
“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 [detainer] issue,” Giménez said, the Miami Herald reported. “It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be arresting more people. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be enforcing any immigration laws.”
Still, the policy switch is a significant win for Trump, who’s been battling some of the country’s most liberal leaders on his vow to crack down on immigration policy and put an end to sanctuary cities. The mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, just released a statement saying his city would stay open to whomever wanted to come, illegal immigrant or not. And other city leaders in recent weeks have come forward to announce the same.
The amount of money that funnels from the federal coffers to states and cities might prove the final arbiter, however.
As Reuters noted, the top ten sanctuary cities in the United States face a total loss of $2.27 billion in federal funds in the coming year, should they all decide to stand strong against Trump.
