Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins, the city’s first Democrat mayor in nearly three decades, openly declared her intention to hamstring cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and severely limit local enforcement of federal immigration laws, a move that will turn Miami into a sanctuary city by stealth.
Higgins, who defeated Trump-endorsed candidate Emilio Gonzalez, is wasting no time pushing a dangerous, open-borders agenda.
Speaking on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on CBS News Sunday, Higgins acknowledged that Miami is currently complying with Florida’s state-mandated cooperation with ICE, but made clear she intends to furl out that cooperation to the bare minimum.
Margaret Brennan:
Mayor Higgins, nearly 7% of Florida is undocumented, according to you. In Miami, the police cooperate with ICE. But you, during your campaign, were very critical of that decision to cooperate. Can you change the policy without the governor being on board?Mayor Eileen Higgins:
The governor issued a requirement that local municipalities cooperate with ICE, and many municipalities, including the City of Miami, before I became mayor, signed that agreement. It is very difficult to unwind. It would take a vote of our city commission to do so.So obviously, as mayor, I intend to comply with the law. And so what we have done in our 1,500-person police department is we have trained three individuals—should ICE call—who are able to answer that call and work with them. Obviously, we’re going to comply with the law, but we are not going to help beyond that.
Because in my community, in South Florida, we are the most affected. ICE and its tactics have been in my community for over a year. They have been causing great fear and terror among our residents. I cannot go anywhere without meeting someone—my brother, my uncle, my sister—“Alligator Alcatraz.” No sabemos dónde está. We don’t know where they have been taken. And that has been going on for months.
It is inhumane. It is cruel. I’m a Catholic. We can barely grapple with the lack of humanity around all this. And then what we have—very differently from any other community in Miami-Dade County, which we are part of—is that approximately 15% of our population has TPS.
So you’re talking Temporary Protected Status. You’re talking about between 250,000 and 300,000 individuals who have slowly but surely, as they’ve lost status, become overnight “illegals” in the eyes of the federal government.
And this enforcement in our Nicaraguan community, our Hondureño community, our Venezuelan community, has driven many people into hiding. Children are not going to school, and obviously ICE is deporting them.
Tuesday night, we face a very dire situation. Our Haitian community loses its access to TPS at midnight. Twenty percent of TPS recipients with Haitian status are in health care. On Wednesday, we are talking about nursing homes, home health care aides, hospitals, nurses, physician assistants—all of them are going to be out of a job when they wake up on Wednesday morning.
Margaret Brennan:
Because their legal pathway and status are going to be revoked, and suddenly they become…Mayor Eileen Higgins:
—unnecessarily. Haiti is not safe. Venezuela is not safe. TPS should be extended immediately for Venezuelans. It was erased with a stroke of a pen. It could be put in place with a stroke of a pen.TPS for Haitian immigrants should absolutely, positively be extended. Our economy is at stake, and our humanity is at stake.
Hellbound and Down 
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