Miami-Dade’s Republican mayor has ordered all county jails to cooperate with President Trump’s executive order to detain any illegal immigrant that falls under the administration’s new deportation priorities.
Carlos Gimenez on Thursday instructed jails to comply with federal immigrant detention requests, going against the county’s unofficial classification as a “sanctuary,” policies it started following in 2013. Miami was then listed by the Justice Department as a sanctuary county in a May 2016 report.
“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 Daniel Junior, interim director of the county’s corrections and rehabilitation department.
Trump’s order on the enforcement of immigration laws calls for a dramatically more aggressive stance on removing illegal immigrants compared to the Obama administration, and will now subject virtually all illegal immigrants to deportation if they have had any run-in with the law. Trump also threatened to revoke all federal funding to any city that does not cooperate — one reason Miami-Dade said it is jumping on board with the president’s order.
Obama drew complaints from Republicans when he created the Priority Enforcement Program, or PEP, which was ordered by Obama and announced in the form of a memo from then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. PEP gave local law enforcement officers broad discretion when it came to reporting someone in custody to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and told immigration officials to stand down on deporting a criminal alien because his or her criminal history was still minimal.
Under PEP, those with multiple misdemeanors were treated as a second priority to gang members and those convicted of a felony, and the policy encouraged officials to consider “humanitarian” issues when deciding whether to deport an illegal immigrant.
Specifically, PEP created three enforcement tiers. The first priority were immigrants convicted of a felon, or those suspected of terrorism or espionage. But it said deportation of this group of aliens was “prioritized” unless officials decided there were reasons to let them stay.
Trump responded to the Miami Herald report on Twitter:
Miami-Dade Mayor drops sanctuary policy. Right decision. Strong! https://t.co/MtPvaDC4jM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017
