Miami-Dade County to receive $480,000 grant from DOJ for shedding 'sanctuary' policies

The Justice Department confirmed that Miami-Dade County will receive a $480,000 federal police grant after Mayor Carlos Gimenez revised the city's "sanctuary" policies in response to President Trump's crackdown, the Miami Herald reports. Gimenez's changes to the city's 2013 policy require prisons to follow immigration officers' requests to extend the detention periods of people who are being sought for deportation and held on unrelated charges.

"Miami-Dade is the only large jurisdiction known to have made that kind of change, which the County Commission endorsed in February," the Miami Herald writes. "As a result, it has been assumed Miami-Dade would be shielded from any loss of federal funds the Trump administration engineered as part of a broader effort to punish communities not cooperating on immigration detentions."

A letter to Gimenez, dated Aug. 4, confirms there is "no evidence" Miami-Dade is breaking with the Justice Department's immigration guidelines that must be met to receive the police grant. Gimenez's communications director added: "We'd like to have formal notification that we are no longer a sanctuary community. That request is being made."

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Many activists oppose the mayor's changes. At one protest, "undocumented immigrants told the crowd they feared Gimenez's order would encourage local cops and immigration officials to deport them," the Miami New Times writes. "Miami-area politicians accused Gimenez of selling out the city's gigantic immigrant and refugee population."