PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and President Donald Trump’s U.S. military deployment to Los Angeles riots prompted protests and demonstrations on Saturday.
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On Sunday, during This Week In South Florida with Glenna Milberg, Rep. Carlos Giménez said he and Reps. María Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart recently talked to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the need for changes.
“We support the president and her [Noem] actions in deporting criminals, gang members, those that have active deportation orders,” Giménez told Milberg.
Trump’s policy includes ending the humanitarian parole programs that temporarily protected more than 532,000 migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Haiti nationwide from deportation.
Giménez said that with the parole programs’ work permits revoked, many employers in South Florida faced challenges with human resources that were hurting their businesses.
“Even insurance agents, calling and saying, ‘I’ve got to lay off 150 people ... and they are all licensed insurance agents, but they had a work permit and now they don’t have a work permit,’”Giménez said. “We need to change that.”
Giménez said their conversation with Noem preceded the Trump administration’s directive to pause immigration law enforcement detentions at farms, restaurants, and hotels.
“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, longtime workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial adding that “changes are coming.”
STATE PERSPECTIVE
During TWISF, Florida Rep. Kevin Chambliss, a Democrat who represents District 117, said people who are not criminals are getting detained and that is concerning.
In May, Stephen Miller, Trump’s White House chief of staff, told Fox News he was “looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day.”
Florida Rep. Alex Rizo, a Republican who represents District 112, told Milberg that Trump’s policy doesn’t focus on immigrants, but on illegality and it’s working.
“The crisis at the border has totally turned around,” Rizo said adding that his fellow state Republican lawmakers will continue to support Trump’s immigration policy.
LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been requiring local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement and accused those who don’t of violating the law related to “sanctuary” cities.
“This is an optional decision; it’s not a mandate,” South Miami Mayor Javier Fernández said during TWISF about a lawsuit claiming the policy of adopting ICE duties comes with costly liability issues for his city’s police department.
Fernández said he was waiting for a judge’s ruling on his city’s lawsuit, which Florida Attorney General James William Uthmeier wanted dismissed.