‘Black Democrats matter, too.’ Moss ties 2017 ‘sanctuary’ vote to immigration groups

In the early days of Donald Trump’s presidency, the Miami-Dade County Commission voted to end “sanctuary” policies at county jails, citing funding threats from the new administration.

This month, one of the three Democrats who voted for the 2017 policy change said he did so because immigration groups hadn’t shown enough support to issues of importance to Black residents.

“If you want me to support immigration issues that are important to you, I want you to support issues that are important to the African-American community as well,” Commissioner Dennis Moss, the senior Black member of the 13-member board, said during a Friday endorsement meeting with local Democrats for his fall run for the county school board.

When a member of the endorsement committee objected to Moss’ position, he replied: “I hope you can appreciate my position as well as a lifelong Democrat who’s been watching what has been going on in this community for many, many years. Black Democrats matter, too.”

The comments brought criticism from committee members, including county party chair Steve Simeonidis, according to a video recording of the online session. “Was it retribution against those groups?” Simeonidis asked Moss. “I’m very confused.”

Moss said he didn’t use his 2017 vote as retribution, but did not object to a committee member’s comment that his remarks made it sound like his vote was transactional. “To a certain degree, it is transactional,” Moss said. “If groups want the support of the Black community, then the Black communities have to be supported as well.”

The committee later voted to endorse the other Democrat in the race for a southern Miami-Dade school board seat: Luisa Santos, a one-time undocumented immigrant who went on to become a citizen, graduate from Georgetown University and open an ice cream store. The full party organization voted to endorse Santos on Tuesday, the party said in a press release.

Though nonpartisan, the race for an open seat in school board District 9 will likely be decided by Democrats, which make up 45% of the registered voters in the district, compared to 30% for independents and 24% for Republicans.

Moss, in office since 1993, finished first in the August primary with 28% of the vote. Santos finished narrowly ahead of three other candidates with 21% to win the second slot in the fall runoff election, which is required if nobody gets more than 50% of the vote in a nonpartisan primary.

Moss and Santos are vying for Larry Feldman’s seat, which stretches from Pinecrest south to Florida City. After 12 years on the board, Feldman opted not to seek reelection in 2020.

In a statement posted on Twitter after this article was published, Santos said: “Immigrant’s rights are not transactional. Black rights are not transactional. Our students’ rights are not transactional, and they never will be under my term as a School Board member.”

For Democrats, the 2017 commission vote represented an early, sharp and bipartisan setback before a county commission that at the time was divided equally between the two parties. Even with six Democrats on the board, only two voted against ratifying the new jail policy that the county’s Republican mayor, Carlos Gimenez, issued six days into Trump’s presidency.

The vote formally reversed a 2013 policy that, at the time, ended Miami-Dade’s previous practice of accepting “detainer” requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The ICE requests ask local jails to hold alleged immigration offenders for an extra 48 hours, plus holidays and weekends, when they’re booked on unrelated local charges.

The detainers give immigration officers more time to apprehend someone who is being sought for possible deportation, and honoring them prevents someone from leaving custody when they’d otherwise be free to go.

Miami-Dade’s policy landed the county on the Obama administration’s list of “sanctuary” jurisdictions in 2016. The 2013 policy did not ban Miami-Dade from accepting detainers, but limited them to people charged with serious crimes. Even then, Miami-Dade would not accept detainers unless ICE agreed to pay for the extra time in jail — expenses the Obama administration declined to cover.

The 2017 Gimenez order instructed jails to accept the detainers, no matter what. The policy change won instant praise from Trump, who called it “Strong!” in a Twitter post. On Feb. 17, 2017, commissioners endorsed Gimenez’s policy change in a 9-3 vote, prompting a packed chambers to empty with immigration advocates shouting “Shame!”

Moss joined fellow Democrats Audrey Edmonson and Sally Heyman to vote with the board’s six Republicans in backing Gimenez. Two Democrats, Daniella Levine Cava (now running to succeed a term-limited Gimenez as mayor) and Jean Monestime voted against, as did independent Xavier Suarez. Barbara Jordan, another Democrat on the commission, missed the vote.

The change prompted Miami-Dade jails to accept hundreds of detainer requests a year, while the Trump administration cleared the county of being considered a “sanctuary” jurisdiction in 2017.

In his interview with Democrats, Moss did not elaborate on what issues he felt immigration advocates weren’t supporting. He described himself as a longtime ally of immigration groups and their legislative causes. His Miami-Dade commission district includes the southern end of the county, home to a substantial number of undocumented residents working in farming.

“I am pro immigration. I am pro immigrant,” he said. “I want to make sure in our community, that when issues come up involving other segments and portions of our community, that the same support I see immigration groups giving to their issues is the same kind of support I expect to see when there are issues involving Black Lives Matter.”

Cheryl Little, executive director of Miami’s Americans for Immigrant Justice, was part of the failed 2017 campaign to have commissioners vote down the Gimenez order. Little said the groups knew the order would probably survive the commission vote but said she didn’t recall Moss linking his pro-detainer vote to any concerns about issues of importance to Black residents.

“That’s an unfortunate comment,” she said of Moss’ remarks to Democrats. “I certainly agree that Black lives matter.”

Little pointed to overlap with the groups advocating against the detainers and recent organizing efforts in Miami-Dade for racial-justice protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death during a Minneapolis arrest.

“The majority of the immigrants in our community are brown and black. I know so many immigrants who were protesting on behalf of Black Americans,” she said. “Calling for changes, supporting Black Lives Matter. In a very serious way. “

Miami Herald staff writer Colleen Wright contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 11:43 AM.