A candidate for Governor from Southwest Florida is accusing Fort Myers officials of “dereliction of duty” for failing to ratify an agreement between their local police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on handling illegal immigration.
And U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is arguing that local officials should be removed from office if they don’t change their stance.
“These officials that don’t understand their role, which is to implement a federal and state law, not circumvent and create sanctuary cities. They simply need to be removed from office. They’re not going to follow the law. It’s that simple,” Donalds said on Newsmax.
The measure failed on a 3-3 tied vote of the City Council Monday night, amid worries that the enforcement agreement would lead to racial profiling.
Donalds thinks the legislators need to flip their positions sooner than later.
“These Council members need to understand they have a responsibility to execute and implement state and federal law not to run against it, not to create a sanctuary,” Donalds added. “In my view, that’s a dereliction of their duty and their oath of office, and if they don’t reverse course, they should be removed.”
State law passed earlier this year bans local officials from not cooperating with federal and state efforts to cooperate with attempts to fight illegal immigration.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has removed local officials before for not following his interpretation of the law, and Donalds noted during his interview Tuesday that the Governor is “not going to let this go,” suggesting that he expects potential gubernatorial suspensions of the wayward Council members.
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