The Trump administration's new halt on immigration applications from countries including Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela has created alarm in South Florida — and a rare rebuke from a Miami congresswoman.
Since late last week, immigration attorneys across Miami and other cities here tell WLRN that immigration processes like citizenship ceremonies and green card (legal residence) appointments have suddenly been cancelled.
"A young Venezuelan man whose green card interview through marriage was scheduled for [this week] just got a call two hours ago cancelling the appointment, with no explanation," one Miami attorney said.
The explanation, though, is a new Trump administration directive — issued in the wake of last month's shooting in Washington D.C. of two National Guard soldiers, one fatal, by an Afghan refugee — to pause all applications for immigrants from 19 countries it calls “high-risk.”
Those include Afghanistan but also Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela — which means a big impact in South Florida.
That’s drawing criticism from even Republicans — including Miami Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar.
In a statement this week, Salazar calls the pause “unfair” and “un-American.”
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"The United States doesn’t believe in collective punishment. We don’t punish the innocent for the sins of the guilty," the Salazar statement reads.
"Freezing asylum, green card, and citizenship processes is not the answer. It punishes hardworking, law-abiding immigrants who followed every step of the legal process.
"That is unfair, un-American, and it goes against everything this country stands for."
Salazar, a Cuban-American who serves Florida's 27th congressional district, finds herself in a difficult spot ahead of next year's mid-term elections:
She needs to acknowledge that many Latinos in her Miami district are angry at President Trump's severe anti-immigration policies; but she nonetheless needs his support to pass the bipartisan immigration bill she co-sponsors, the Dignity Act, which would legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.
At a town hall last week at Florida International University, sponsored by the nonprofit grassroots advocacy group 50501, Salazar expressed confidence President Trump will support and eventually sign her legislation.
