As it joins forces with ICE, Doral risks betraying its Venezuelan roots

Miami Herald

22-04-2025

Let's just say it out loud: Doral, a largely Hispanic city, is about to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement round up Venezuelans and other migrants facing deportation. Mayor Christi Fraga can describe it in a less menacing way, but that's the reality in a nutshell.
Yes, the same Doral that this year hosted protests against the Trump administration stripping Venezuelans of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The same 'Doralzuela' where Venezuelans make up more than a third of the population. The same Doral that loves to call itself a 'city of immigrants.'
Last week, the Doral City Council authorized a partnership between its police department and ICE through a program known as 287(g), aligning with President Donald Trump's mass deportation machine. It's a move that brings the largest Venezuelan-American city in the country into a deeply controversial federal initiative — and one we suspect the city will come to regret.
Doral joins Coral Gables, Hialeah, West Miami and Miami Springs as the latest Miami-Dade municipalities to align with the state's and Trump's immigration agenda.
This agreement gives Doral police officers the authority to question, detain and process individuals based on immigration status. Until now, ICE picked up undocumented individuals primarily at the county jail. Under 287(g), Doral police can now fast-track people into deportation proceedings.
Let's not kid ourselves: this program opens the door to racial profiling and the targeting of the very residents Doral claims to support and protect. The irony is glaring.
This is not a legal requirement. It's not essential to public safety. It's a choice by Doral — driven by political pressure from Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier, and, implicitly, Trump.
The city is home to one of Trump's highest-profile properties — the Trump National Doral Golf Resort. So, yes, it's hard not to see this move as political theater. The Trump family has weighed in on Doral's controversial issues, including efforts to rebuild a waste incinerator in the city. Eric Trump even contacted county leaders to halt the plans.
This decision also feels like a betrayal. Venezuelans have felt plenty of that lately.
Many supported Trump, hoping he would back their fight against Nicolás Maduro. Instead, he made prisoner-swap deals with the dictator and sought to end legal status for Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans. Most of these protections came under the Biden administration, and Trump is trying to reverse them.
He has also smeared Venezuelan exiles, implying they are criminals, even linking them to the Tren de Aragua, a notorious gang.
The Trump administration removed work permits and deportation protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. Some were even flown to a mega-prison in El Salvador under wartime powers — without due process.
And now, Doral is volunteering to help.
City officials told the Miami Herald the partnership isn't about criminalizing immigrants. But the facts suggest otherwise. The 287(g) program was reduced under the Obama administration because of civil rights violations and racial profiling. Trump revived it. And now, Doral is handing that same flawed tool to its police.
Yes, Doral supported the Venezuelan Adjustment Act, which aims to offer permanent legal status to Venezuelan nationals. And yes, Councilman Rafael Pineyro — a Venezuelan-American — recently urged Trump to protect law-abiding Venezuelans.
But that same council just voted to detain them.
Fraga called the decision 'morally challenging.' She says Doral police won't be stopping people to ask about their immigration status — only those who run into trouble with the law.
But let's be clear: Florida law only requires counties to cooperate with ICE — not cities. Doral didn't have to do this. It chose to — likely under pressure. This is about politics, and the consequences will be real.
People may stop calling 911. They'll fear reporting crimes or showing up in court. Trust between the police and residents — especially undocumented individuals or those who lost TPS — will fray. The damage won't stop with those targeted. It will ripple across the entire community.
Doral may come close to forfeiting the right to proudly call itself a city of immigrants.
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