Can Democrats Win Back Miami-Dade? Or Is The Florida Democratic Party Just Too Dysfunctional Now?

A Xenophobic Trump Moves Against Cuban Refugees

Miami Dade, until decently a Democratic stronghold, has swung decisively towards the GOP. Trump won 55.2% of the votes in the last election. In 2020 Biden won 53.3%. Hillary won the county with 63.2%, Obama with 57.9% and then 61.6%.

2004- John Kerry- 52.9%

2000- Al Gore- 52.6%

1996- Bill Clinton- 57.3%

About a quarter of the county’s population was born in Cuba and something like 40% of Miami-Dade voters are Cuban-Americans. All 3 Miami-Dade members of Congress— Mario Diaz-Balart, Maria Salazar and Carlos Giménez— are not just Cuban Americans, but Republican Cuban Americans. It wasn’t that long ago that Miami-Dade’s congressional delegation was mostly blue. The Florida Democratic Party still exists on paper and party officials still scurry around pretending to be relevant, but, in reality, there is no Democratic Party in Florida; it’s like Ohio. Republicans don’t have to worry that the Democrats will take any actions to counter whatever Trump, DeSantis or the GOP-dominated legislature do. And Trump just did something that would have once been a third rail for Florida Republicans: he ordered that programs that allow Cuban refugees to settle in the U.S. be paused. Haitians and Venezuelans are in the same boat.

Hamid Aleaziz reported that “The decision also indicates that the Trump administration plans to conduct an extensive crackdown on a wide range of programs that allowed people to enter temporarily… Trump administration officials have been particularly critical of programs like the one that allowed more than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua to enter the country under parole if they had financial sponsors. On Monday, the Trump administration quickly shut down one program that allowed migrants to enter at a port of entry using a government app known as CBP One… The directive also halts decisions on applications for a program that allowed certain families to reunify in the United States, and another initiative for Central American minors who have family members in the United States.”

The Miami Herald reported that “More than a million migrants who were allowed to enter the United States during the Biden administration may have their temporary stays revoked and be rapidly deported, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement document that became public Friday. That includes hundreds of thousands of nationals from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti who came under a temporary humanitarian parole program set up by the Biden administration that allowed them to legally live and work in the U.S. for two years… Mark Prada, a Miami-based immigration lawyer, emphasized that the scope of the executive order is much broader than just Biden program recipients. ‘This is a tool for mass deportation,’ said Prada, adding that the memo could lead to ICE agents showing up at immigration courts to scoop up people and detain them. The ICE memo says that officers can prioritize for rapid deportation migrants who arrived under the program and who did not apply for asylum within their first year in the country. While the memo does not tell officers how to exercise their discretion on deportation priorities, it requires them to review cases of people who are in the country on a parole, on a temporary permit to be in the country on humanitarian or public-interest grounds, in current immigration-court proceedings, as well as recent arrivals.’”

There’s some nervousness among Miami-Dade Republicans. Again, the Miami Herald: “‘Cubans currently with applications for the Cuban Adjustment Act should be protected until their cases are fully resolved. Venezuelans and Nicaraguans who have no criminal record and have applied for asylum through the proper and legal channels should also be protected until their cases are fully resolved. They were enrolled under programs offered to them and they should have the ability to see their applications out to rectify their legal status,’ said U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Miami told the Miami Herald. Cubans who entered through the Biden-era parole program but who have yet to meet the one-year stay requirement to apply for a green card under the Cuban Adjustment Act ‘should have the opportunity’ to do so, Salazar said. In a letter Friday, Salazar urged Acting Secretary Huffman to ensure that all Cubans paroled in under the Biden-era program ‘eligible for or with pending applications for the Cuban Adjustment Act are protected from deportation until their cases are fully resolved.’”

Florida Democrats put up weak candidates for Congress in 2024— and, predictably, they all lost. Miami-Dade even voted for Rick Scott over pathetic former congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who only managed 44% in Miami-Dade. Mario Diaz-Balart won the Miami-Dade part of his district with 71% against Joey Atkins. Salazar’s entire district is within Miami Dade and she won convincingly with 60.4% against Lucia Baez-Geller. The Miami-Dade portion of Giménez’s district gave him 65% of its vote against conservative Democrat Phil Ehr. If Florida had an actual living, breathing Democratic Party, an effort turn this Trump decision on refugees against Republicans would be deafening right now. Instead… crickets.