Thread: County considers special tax for Trump's Mar-a-Lago visits

West Palm Beach Declares Itself 'Welcoming City' For Immigrants

By PETER HADEN • MAR 28, 2017

• West Palm Beach City Commission hears comments from citizens on a proposal to declare West Palm Beach a "Welcoming City" for immigrants.
  
• PETER HADEN / WLRN
  

West Palm Beach is officially a “Welcoming City” for immigrants.

The city commission passed a resolution Monday that bars city employees – including police – from inquiring into a person’s immigration status, or disclosing it to others.

The resolution is an attempt by the commission to reduce the fears of undocumented immigrants in the community and it was approved the same day that the Justice Department announced it is following through with an executive order to withhold as much as $4.1 billion in federal grants from so-called "sanctuary cities."

Read more: Attorney General orders Crackdown On 'Sanctuary Cities,' Threatens Holding Funds

“We want to make sure people know that they are safe here in West Palm Beach, and that this is a place where we want them to be,” said Mayor Jeri Muoio.

West Palm Beach attorney Victoria Mesa-Estrada says President Trump’s executive order to step up deportations has local immigrant communities wary of working with the justice system.

“Last week I had a client who was talking to me about her daughter being sexually molested,” said Mesa-Estrada. “Because the mother is undocumented, she had a real fear of going to the police.”

Read more: Six Federal Grants To South Florida That Trump Could Threaten Under Sanctuary Cities Order

But West Palm Beach resident Brett Borders says this resolution will encourage more illegal immigration.

“What you’re doing is not welcoming,” said Borders. “I know it feels good…but what you’re proposing is not sustainable. I think of it as a huge sellout to the citizens of West Palm Beach.”

Commissioner Sylvia Moffett hopes other South Florida cities will follow their lead and pass similar resolutions.

The School District of Palm Beach has already taken steps to ensure that schools are considered "safe harbors" from immigration raids.

"We don’t ask people about their immigration status—it’s actually against the law to ask that. We don’t know, and neither will we share information with any individual department unless we are required by law, and the school board stands with me on that here in Palm Beach County," said school superintendent Robert Avossa in an interview with WLRN.

http://wlrn.org/post/west-palm-beach...ity-immigrants

Oh sickening. If they've got money for "immigrants", then they can pay their police to secure the damn area around Mar-A-Lago and shut up. Trump flies in his helicopter to save them from having to block roads for the motorcade. Plus I really don't understand about all this "over-time" they whine about. Don't they have police on the beat 24 hours a day? I would sure think so. Maybe they need to double-up during the visits and have more people around Mar-A-Lago? I thought we were paying Secret Service to do that.

I'm beginning to think some of the "cost reports" are fake news. I was thinking about Trump's 80 some days in office and he's made a few trips out into the country for plant expansion announcements. He's been to New York a couple of times right after inauguration since the transition team was operating out of there, but hasn't even been to his home in New York for weeks. He's been out to some rallies but the campaign paid for that. He's been to Florida many times but working the whole time, entertaining foreign guests and other important VIPS to push his agenda forward for US and I understand why he chooses Mar-A-Lago for those, it's more private, more comfortable, and so beautiful. It's one of his real homes and very nice for the people he's visiting with, much safer and easier to get in and out of as well. I mean the White House has been breached twice. Mar-A-Lago also has better security and more privacy, no White House "leakers".

Trump hasn't made any foreign trips has he? I don't think so. So I really don't understand how the costs could be so much more than other Presidents who traveled all over the world for weeks at a time. It's nothing for a 757 to fly from DC to Florida. It's a 2.5 hour flight. So where is all the expense coming from?