The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing Miami-Dade County, Florida, and its mayor for complying with President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration detainers.
A Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report under then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch identified Miami-Dade County as not honoring immigration detainers, Breitbart Texas reported. Following President Trump’s executive order withholding federal law enforcement grants from jurisdictions not in compliance with immigration officials, Miami-Dade County reversed its sanctuary city policy and began honoring immigration detainers.
The ACLU urges, perhaps warns, “other cities large and small across the country” to “refus[e] to serve as tools of overzealous immigration enforcement policy.” The group is seeking money damages because their client spent an extra night in jail “solely for a suspected civil immigration violation.”
The ACLU of Florida issued a statement from Amien Kacou that called the county’s decision “to cave in to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant threats” “premature.”
After they filed the lawsuit, the self-described “nation’s premier defender of the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution” tweeted, “We warned the county about the dangers posed by the premature decision.”
.@ACLUFL: “We warned the county about the dangers posed by the premature decision." https://t.co/x8DaZO0E1P
— Miami New Times (@MiamiNewTimes) July 5, 2017
“The practice of treating everyone with an immigration detainer as not eligible for release has immediate and dire effects,” they pleaded in the federal complaint.
The suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, states:
The County voluntarily detained Mr. Creedle at the request of federal immigration authorities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The detention occurred pursuant to a directive from Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez that requires the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department (MDCR) to deny release for 48 hours or more to any person who is the subject of a check-the-box immigration detainer request.
ACLU’s Kacou said in the formal statement, “Miami-Dade County has long prided itself on being a place welcoming to immigrants, and should honor that legacy by joining other cities large and small across the country in refusing to serve as tools of overzealous immigration enforcement policy.”