Miami's new mayor is taking a hard stance against the politics of Miami's past, with promises to roll back policies on immigration enforcement and bring decorum back to city hall.
" People must treat each other with respect. The era of commissioners yelling at one another and threatening to punch one another is going to stop," Higgins said.
Following a historic runoff election, Higgins became the city's first female mayor and the first Democrat to hold the seat since 1997. She beat Republican Emilio Gonzalez by 19 percentage points, despite the latter securing an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
READ MORE: 2025 Election — Miami swings left, rejects Trump, to elect Eileen Higgins as first Democrat mayor
Speaking at a press conference in the offices of Edge Communications, her campaign consultants, Higgins decried the city's enrollment in a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which allows Miami Police Department officers to assist in immigration enforcement.
" The city should never have entered into that agreement ... There's no reason in the City of Miami that our police department should be in the job of federal immigration enforcement," she said.
Higgins added that she will review the legal framework for exiting the 287(g) agreement, and if it is not possible, she will have MPD minimize any involvement with ICE. She called immigration policies that led to the creation of the ICE detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz examples of "cruelty and inhumanity."
Higgins is the first non-hispanic mayor in the city since 1996. Her campaign consultant, progressive power broker Christian Ulvert, noted that Higgins won the city's Commission District 3, which is majority Hispanic, by eight points.
"The bottom line is that when Democrats unite around a winning candidate, a winning message, and invest in a field operation that turns out voters, voters show up, stand up, and stand with those candidates and deliver wins," Ulvert said.
Affordable housing
Turning to local issues, Higgins said her plan to address Miami's affordability crisis involves modernizing the city's permitting system so construction of affordable housing can get underway faster and cheaper.
" Right now it takes at least two years to permit a project to build, let's say a hundred affordable or workforce units. It can take less than two years to build that project. The bureaucracy cannot last longer than the construction," she said.
On President Trump, Higgins took a middle of the road stance, saying they can align on certain policies like supporting rail projects, while they diverge heavily on topics like immigration.
"In cases where I can find things we're in agreement on, we will work together," Higgins said in Spanish. " We all want a legal path to immigration so we can keep our economy strong, but what people don't want is a government that takes their family members away without due process and they have no idea what's happening."
Higgins will be sworn in as Mayor later this month, following the last City Commission meeting under the current administration on Thursday, Dec. 11.
