Miami-Dade mayor: Complying with Trump order a ‘no brainer’

That’s roughly the cost of detaining the 100 or so illegal immigrants the federal government wants the county to keep locked down each year. A few years ago, Miami-Dade argued that it couldn’t meet these federal requests unless the federal government reimbursed the county for those costs.

That led the federal government to see Miami-Dade as a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, one that wasn’t fully cooperating with the federal government on detention requests.

But with Trump’s order came clarity, Gimenez said. The order threatens the removal of millions of dollars of federal funding to the county and cities like it across the country.

The Republican mayor said weighing that against $52,000 was an easy choice.

“And so we now will go back to our 2014 policy that we will honor the detention request,” he said.

He also said some people are seeing a radical shift in policy, instead of a simple decision to return to the practices the county used just a few years ago.

“I think some constituents actually are over-reacting to what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re basically going back to 2014. We will honor the requests of the federal government to detain an illegal immigrant in our custody, regardless of the fact that they will pay for it or not.”