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With tears in his eyes and a shaky voice, the Miami commissioner Rolando Escalona revealed on Thursday to the Miami Herald that his own family has experienced the fear felt by thousands of immigrants in the city: his wife received an immigration notice that kept them awake for a whole week.
«My wife received an immigration letter three weeks ago,» Escalona stated during a meeting of the Municipal Commission where the controversial collaboration agreement between the Miami Police Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was discussed. «For an entire week, we couldn't sleep,» he added.
The wife of the commissioner, a legal resident in the United States, had received a summons to provide her fingerprints to federal authorities, a procedure that under normal circumstances would be routine, but which in the current climate instills fear among immigrants: several have been detained during similar appointments at federal offices.
Escalona was born in Cuba and came to the United States 12 years ago. He worked as the general manager of the Sexy Fish restaurant in Brickell before being elected in 2025 to represent District 3, which encompasses historic immigrant neighborhoods such as Little Havana.
He is a U.S. citizen, speaks with an accent, and has seven-month-old twins born in the country. "Two weeks after they were born, I went to apply for their passport because I was scared," he confessed.
His testimony illustrates the extent to which the climate of migration-related fear has permeated even among those with legal status or citizenship, and highlights the consequences of the 287(g) agreement that the Municipal Commission approved on June 17, 2025, by a vote of three to two.
That agreement allows two detectives from the Miami Police Department to act as immigration agents under direct supervision of ICE.
The municipal manager James Reyes clarified before the committee that those detectives perform immigration duties only as needed, not full-time, and that the police have issued only 14 immigration detention orders, all arising from criminal investigations.
"Under no circumstances do we care about the immigration status of individuals in our community," Reyes said. "But if you commit a crime in the city of Miami—whether you are here legally or not—we will go after you."
During the meeting on Thursday, dozens of residents demanded that Miami withdraw from the agreement. Commissioners Escalona, Christine King, and Damian Pardo —the majority of the commission— expressed their desire to exit the agreement if it can be done without legal consequences. However, the city attorney, George Wysong, warned about potential retaliation from the state of Florida.
And that threat is real: Florida leads the nation with 375 active agreements between ICE and local law enforcement agencies, as reported by the Miami Herald.
Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier have threatened legal action against cities that reject these agreements.
The situation is even more serious when considering that ICE arrests of Cubans increased by 463% between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2026, and that the ICE office in Miami leads immigration arrests in the country with approximately 120 detentions daily.
As Escalona himself pointed out, the issue goes beyond the text of the agreement: it is "about the fear we see in our community," a fear that no longer distinguishes between undocumented individuals and legal residents, nor even between citizens and elected officials.
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