Our County Mayor Carlos Gimenez just became the first county executive to cave to Donald Trump's executive order, abandoning our Sanctuary County designation and choosing to IGNORE a 2013 resolution passed unanimously by the county commission.
There will be tens of thousands of families waking up tomorrow in Miami-Dade afraid about what this means for them. This reversal is a slippery slope into making our police officers an extension of Trump's deportation force.
Trump's hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric-turned-policy should be fully rejected. The Mayors of New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle have done just that. We too need to stand up and protect our friends and neighbors. Mayor Gimenez needs to hear from YOU and so does our County Commission.
Here's what you can do:
- Call the Mayor's office and our County Commissioners first thing in the morning. Their info is here.
- Copy and paste this message to your Facebook.
- Tweet @MayorGimenez and let him know how you feel. Here's an example: "Trump's anti-immigrant hate should be rejected! @MayorGimenez don't cave to @realDonaldTrump. We are a Sanctuary County."
- Immigrant Rights advocates are protesting at the Mayor's office tomorrow (Friday 1/27) at 11am. Join them!
- Send this message to 10 of your friends
The country is watching. We need your help now.
Juan Cuba, Chair
Miami-Dade Dems
More Background:
Sanctuary cities essentially refuse to cooperate with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests for undocumented citizens who are arrested and would have otherwise been released from custody, unless the individual has committed a first or second degree felony involving violence. In other words, undocumented immigrants are given sanctuary in the city and largely sheltered from deportation. More than 360 U.S. counties fall under this category, including 39 cities, according to a report from the New York Times. Miami-Dade's policy would refuse to detain these immigrants unless the federal government pays them for the cost of their detention which the feds never did, effectively having the same effect as other sanctuary cities and counties.
Many local law enforcement officials favor the policies, saying they do not want the job of enforcing federal immigration laws. They say they rely on immigrants in their communities to come forward to report crimes.
Sign up for email updates, and join us at county and local club meetings to learn how to get more involved.