Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon is joining immigrant rights leaders and others Monday morning to urge the Miami City Commission to end its formal agreement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities to apprehend undocumented immigrants.
At a scheduled news conference, Nixon — a state senator from Jacksonville — and the others said they want the commission to terminate its 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Nixon is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate against Alex Vindman. The primary is Aug. 18. The winner is almost certain to face Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, the state's former attorney general, in November. Moody is the leading candidate to win her party's primary.
Nixon has called "mass incarceration and mass deportation" as "moral failures" and vows to abolish ICE.
The 287(g) agreement lets Miami police ask people about their immigration status and detain individuals found to be in violation of immigration law.
Critics have said the agreement makes Miami residents hesitant to call the police for normal service calls out of fear of immigration enforcement.
Last month, dozens of demonstrators packed into City Hall when the commission discussed its involvement in the 287(g) agreement. The commission took no action to continue its discussion.
The city commission last year passed a resolution entering into the agreement at the request of former MPD Chief Manny Morales.
Chief Morales and City Attorney George Wysong said they feared retaliation from the state if the city did not voluntarily enter the agreement.
The Florida Legislature made it illegal for municipalities to be so-called "sanctuary cities" for migrants, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier took the position that refusing to enter into a 287(g) agreement constituted de-facto sanctuary status.
READ MORE: Despite public outcry, City of Miami joins immigration enforcement program for local police
Immigrant advocates have been calling on new Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins to eliminate the agreement, as she said she would do last year on the mayoral campaign trail.
Higgins told WLRN last month that she remains opposed to 287(g), but the decision to exit the agreement lies with the city commission.
"If I had been mayor at the time it was approved, I would not have signed it. I did not support it then, and I do not support it now. Because the City Commission approved the agreement, ending it requires action by the City Commission. I am glad the Commission plans to have a meaningful discussion about it this week," Higgins said.
The pressure for the city to exit the 287(g) agreement comes amid heightened fears, say immigrant rights advocates, that federal immigration authorities will increase enforcement efforts in Miami and other South Florida cities with large immigrant communities.
They say the Trump administration decision to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for certain immigrant groups, including Haitians and Venezuelans, put hundreds of thousands of people at risk of deportation.
Florida is home to an estimated 158,000 Haitian TPS holders and about 230,000 Venezuelan TPS holders.
TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife and other instability. It allows people already in the country to stay with work permits in increments of up to 18 months, but it does not provide a path to citizenship.
