“Coalition calls on newly elected officials to deliver on voters’ demands for immigrant protections, local accountability, and an end to harmful immigration enforcement partnerships.”
These were the words of the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FIC), which wants several South Florida cities to end local law enforcement partnerships with federal immigration authorities through 287(g) agreements.
Under this agreement, local police groups can detain individuals to check their immigration status in the U.S. The same police organizations can detain and transfer suspects to immigration authorities for deportation.
“The recent election results are a mandate for action, and South Florida’s immigrant communities cannot afford more broken promises,” said FIC.
Some of the groups supporting the cancellation of cities partnering up with the Trump administration include Venezuelan American Caucus, Miami Freedom Project, Florida Student Power, and American Friends Service Committee.
FIC and the other groups never mention the laws that are being broken by people here illegally in the U.S. but rather focus their arguments on how families are facing the threat of detention, deportation, family separation, and increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement.
Florida LT. Gov. Jay Collins says that these same groups should take a different approach and, instead of hammering law enforcement and defending those here illegally, they would support the rule of law and report these very lawbreakers.
