cooperative. you don t want to see it escalate. and certainly we don t want to see any sort of escalating of violating confrontations. and so but it is heart breaking to see the kind of anxiety that this is creating across the nation. so you don t have the list that i.c.e. agents have, but i wanted to ask you about this report from the new york times specifically talking about collateral deportations in which those who are not necessarily on the list, if in fact, they are in the vicinity can be apprehended as well. what is your reaction to that and how concerned are you if, in fact, that does take place? i m very concerned. you know, i think many people agree that if someone is here illegally and commits a serious crime, that s certainly what the federal government should be focusing on, should be targeting. i don t think there s much disagreement on that. but i think we all agree in this country and particularly in a city like miami that s a very international city, a city of
hard to believe that we would get a call at the 11th hour trying to get us to coordinate something. and frankly, we don t even know what the scale of it is. there s been talk about 2,000 people and families nationwide. we don t know if, for example, miami will get 1/10 of that. is it a couple of hundred? and so it is very, very difficult for us to be prepared. what is your message for your constituents? we ve heard from other leaders suggesting people not open their doors. what is your advice? look, it s very difficult, you know, obviously anyone who does not have legal status in this country right now is certainly living in fear and apprehension. and that s understandable. and everyone has a right to legal counsel to determine what is the best course of action they can take if they get that knock on the door. obviously, you know, as mayor, when there s any sort of law enforcement action, it s a very difficult situation to try to advise someone not to be
daily basis whether they be terrorist threats. we re obviously an urban city. and certain ly bb prepared. but our police department is not being consulted. they have not reached out to our police chief. they are not involved in any raids or collaborating in any sense. assuming that your police chief and you are notified ahead of these raids whether it s tomorrow or early sunday morning. will they be cooperating at that point? we don t typically get involved in any sort of enforcement action, immigration enforcement action. it would be very, very difficult to coordinate anything on such short notice. obviously with these things potentially happening on sunday or monday, by the way, the last time they were supposed to happen they were canceled at the last minute as well. so we just it would be very
of those cities mayon frances suarez of miami. thank you so much for joining us this morning. has the federa government notified you about any of their plan of action come sunday? not at all. we have not been notified about the scale of the operation. we haven t been notified about the time. we have not been notified about who s being targeted. so frankly it s difficult as mayor to figure out exactly what s going to happen in our city. it certainly creates a heightened sense of apprehension for people who are living in the city of miami. and we are left in the dark without knowing exactly what s going to happen here. we don t know for how long it may happen. it s certainly a concern. so you have no details and yet you are the commander in chief of this city. how do you prepare for something with no details? extremely difficult. obviously we are in a heightened sense of preparation for all kinds of different threats on a
but given the fact that he does as we know watch this show on many mornings, what is your message to him prior to these raids sunday? my message to him would be, you know, this is a country of immigrants. we should embrace that as a miamian and as you said a son of cuban exiles. but for the generosity of this country, my father would not have been the first cuban-born mayor of the city of miami. i would not be the first miami-born mayor of the city of the cimiami. if we just put aside politics and we focus on solving the problem. and that s what mayors do. mayors solve problems. we re elected on a non-partisan basis throughout the united states. we don t have the luxury of being able to max these issues partisan. we ve got to solve this problem and we ve got to solve it now. get in a room and come up with a bipartisan solution so we can move onto other pressing issues