Miami has become one of the first cities to officially overturn their “sanctuary city” status – a city that protects undocumented immigrants – to comply with President Trump’s strict anti-immigration laws. The move was out of Mayor Carlos Gimenez’ fear of Mr. Trump’s threat to cut funding from sanctuary cities as well as the signing of the executive order authorizing the commencement of construction for “the wall.”
“We’re going to strip federal grant money from the sanctuary states and cities that harbor illegal immigrants,” said Sean Spicer, the current White House Press Secretary and Communications Director for President Donald Trump. “The American people are no longer going to have to be forced to subsidize this disregard for our laws.”
“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 to Daniel Junior, the interim director of the corrections and rehabilitation department.
In an interview with Miami Herald, he said, “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 issue. 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.”
Many mayors of major cities have often spoke out against President Trump and his campaign against major sanctuary cities including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, saying, “I believe in our sanctuary-city status”; New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “I don’t think that taking away city funding – our tax dollars that we should be able to determine how we spend locally – is the right approach” and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, saying, “We also feel that the ethical argument and the practical argument are on our side. In these cities that are open to more immigrants we have lower crime rates, we have more economic prosperity, lower unemployment rates, so we feel like this will hold up in court.”
The cutting of funds, exclaimed by President Trump, is said to strip up to $2 billion dollars a year from all sanctuary cities, which one might assume has the possibility of going towards the construction of the notorious “wall” throughout the border of the United States and Mexico, especially since plenty politicians, including its current President, Enrique Peña Nieto, have expressed disapproval over who’d pick up the tab. However, we all know who, truthfully speaking, that will be. (Hint: It’s neither Trump nor Mexico.)
