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The City of Doral is in crisis. Since Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, the Florida municipality has found itself in the crosshairs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with ongoing raids and targeted operations that seem to be intensifying in recent weeks.

Nearly half of Doral’s population is from Venezuela, the largest population of Venezuelans in any city in the United States. This is a diaspora that finds itself under constant attack by the Trump administration, as more than 615,000 have lost or are facing the termination of their temporary protected status (TPS) following revocations, and Venezuelans make up 59 percent of all immigrants affected by mass terminations of TPS designations. These are the same people who now find themselves in the crosshairs of enforcement operations in Doral. The recent earthquakes in Caracas that have killed thousands and destroyed critical infrastructure did nothing to stop these attacks against Venezuelan immigrants, despite the country obviously being in no condition to receive hundreds of thousands of these nationals back if they were to be deported.

Despite presiding over such a vulnerable population, Doral’s government was one of the first in the state to sign a 287(g) agreement under the second Trump administration, deputizing local police with specific federal immigration enforcement powers. The mayor and council members did this under no requirement, mandate, or obligation, as Florida statute requires only counties and sheriff’s departments operating jails or detention facilities to sign these types of agreements, and Doral operates neither.

Doral’s government was one of the first in the state to sign a 287(g) agreement deputizing local police with specific federal immigration enforcement powers.

Doral’s government was one of the first in the state to sign a 287(g) agreement deputizing local police with specific federal immigration enforcement powers.

Now that public sentiment is turning against them, amid the draconian immigration enforcement we see across the country daily, Doral politicians are trying to have it both ways. Mayor Christi Fraga continues to mischaracterize the 287(g) agreement that the city signed under her tenure, falsely claiming that it is not a direct partnership with ICE, and that the state of Florida obligated Doral to sign on. As already established, this is simply not true, and Fraga claims that the city can’t rescind the agreement because their “responsibility as elected officials is to follow the law as it exists.” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has claimed that cities like Doral can’t revoke 287(g) agreements because this would create a de facto sanctuary city jurisdiction. This is nonsense, as Doral still falls under the correctional jurisdiction of Miami-Dade County, which actively funnels people from its local jails into ICE detention.

It seems Fraga, who........

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