MIAMI (WSVN) - One day after Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez participated in a televised town hall on immigration, the mayor returned to his Downtown Miami office with his policies on immigration unchanged.
Gimenez participated in a nationally broadcast Fox News town hall on the topic of immigration, Tuesday, at a venue near Jacksonville.
During the town hall discussion, he defended his decision to a national audience.
“To people who tell me, ‘Hey, I really like what you did,’ I tell them, ‘I really did a lot less than what you thought I did,’” said Gimenez. “The people who are vocally against it, I say, ‘You know, I did a lot less than what you thought I did.’”
Back in Miami, Gimenez spoke with 7News, and explained that although he does not stand by all of President Donald Trump’s policies, he stands by his decision to comply with the President’s executive orders on immigration.
“I’m not in line with all of the policies,” he said. “Simply, all we’re doing is complying with detention requests for people that we arrest. When you’re a criminal in the United States and you may be here illegally, the majority of Americans think that, maybe, if you don’t want to comply with our laws, maybe you shouldn’t be here.”
Last month, Gimenez ordered for the county to side with the federal government’s immigration policies. Gimenez said he will not defy federal orders, which could but the county at risk to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. Trump’s executive order threatened to end federal funding of “sanctuary cities” that decline to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Although Gimenez supports comprehensive immigration reform, he told 7News that he is aware of the fact that most of the people who voted him into office this past election cycle have close ties to immigrants and refugees. “I’m a refugee myself, OK? Personally, all right?” he proclaimed.
“It’s time for the Republicans and the Democrats to get together and come forward with a plan to really solve the problem of illegal immigration here in the United States,” he concluded.
While President Trump has tweeted at Gimenez, praising him for his stance on “sanctuary cities,” Gimenez said he has not spoken directly to the president since the death of Fidel Castro.
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