Just a week into his presidency and Trump has already squashed the TPP and signed an executive order to fund his promised border wall with Texas. Now, he’s cracking down on sanctuary cities.
The city of Miami has been a magnet for immigration since the 1950s. Miami-Dade County is one of hundreds of regions across the country that has refused to cooperate with immigration enforcement in recent years.
This Thursday, Miami-Dade Mayor Carols Gimenez signed an executive order that will force his employees to honor all requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold immigrants in jail.
“Miami-Dade County complies with federal law and intends to fully cooperate with the federal government,” reads the order.
Gimenez’s decision comes just one day after Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from cities that refuse to cooperate fully with ICE. Gimenez himself was born in Cuba, fleeing the island in 1960 with his family in the wake of the Cuban Revolution.
Gimenez’s decision comes as a somewhat of a surprise considering his own background and Miami’s long history with immigration – but even he realizes that the county would lose millions without federal funding.
President Trump signed an executive order this Wednesday directing the Dept. of Homeland Security to identify all “sanctuary cities” in the nation and publish weekly summaries of all crimes committed by illegal immigrants that local law enforcement had chosen to release.
“These jurisdictions have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic,” reads Trump’s order.
The order’s purpose is to “better inform the public regarding the public safety threats associated with sanctuary jurisdictions” and is also a smart way to earn support for what many perceive as an isolationist or even racist attitude towards immigrants.
Mayors across the country have promised to fight back against Trump’s threats, and big cities like Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Chicago will likely continue to proclaim their “sanctuary status” until they run out of money.
California Governor Jerry Brown has promised to defend his state’s sanctuary policies despite the fact that nearly 80% of the state’s residents want to do away with them.
“That opposition crosses party lines,” writes Conservative Review’s Chris Pandolfo. “It is unifying. And President Trump’s national policies can be used to rally that opposition at the ballot box and kick out the bums at the state level.”