Emergency fund launches for Doral families hit by immigration arrests

Families in Doral targeted under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown will now be able to apply for emergency funds that cover necessities such as food and rent.

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Content creator Carlos Eduardo Espina has teamed up with the national and Florida chapters of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Hispanic civic rights group in the country, and the Venezuelan American Caucus, a Miami-based nonprofit group that helps Venezuelans, to create a $50,000 fund for Doral families.

The fund has been created at a time officials, business owners and citizens of the small city in northwestern Miami-Dade County report a ramp up in immigration enforcement, including masked and armed men wearing stopping cars in busy main roads.

The ongoing crackdown has caused anxiety in concern in Doral, home to the largest population of Venezuelans in the United States, as the Trump administration targets people from the South American country stripped from deportation protections under Temporary Protected Status.

“In Doral, that fear has become a reality for people who followed all the rules,” said Espina, who is also an immigration activist and created the fund with his own money. “A donation won’t stop a deportation, but it can keep a family in their home while they fight.”

The purpose of the fund is to help families whose breadwinners have been detained by immigration authorities, leaving them without essential income, according to a LULAC press release.

Doral households can apply for up to $1,000 to get help with rent, food, childcare, utilities. It also covers necessities like diapers, medications and baby formula.

LULAC will be reviewing applications within five days to deploy the help as quickly as possible, according to the press release.

“When a father is taken away from a gas station in Doral, the whole block feels it… We will ensure that no one who qualifies is denied support because they don’t know where to turn,” said Gustavo Rivera, the president of LULAC Florida.

And while the fund does not cover legal representation, the groups say that they will offer workshops to teach people in Doral about their rights and help them connect with local service providers and legal groups. They will also work with community leaders to find more funding.

In recent weeks, local authorities have told news outlets that they cannot stop federal immigration authorities from carrying out enforcement operations, but raised concerns about its impact.

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“This is federal law. We cannot impede the federal ICE agents from coming into the cities and doing their enforcement, whether we agree or not,” Mayor Christi Fraga told CBS Miami, a Miami Herald News partner.

However, Doral’s city council unanimously voted last year to enter a partnership known as 287(g) with Immigration and Customs Authority that grants local cops limited powers of immigration agents. It was signed this year. City officials say the Doral Police Department has not yet received immigration training to make those kinds of arrests.

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Rafael Pineyro, the only Venezuelan-American member of the Doral council and a Republican who supports Trump, has become increasingly vocal about the targeting of Venezuelans and other Hispanic immigrants in South Florida.

The Trump administration has rolled back deportation protections under TPS for nearly a million Haitians and Venezuelans, many of them South Florida residents. It has also tried to freeze immigration applications for Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti. These measures have had a significant impact on residents of the region.

“There has to be a differentiation between criminals, who have to be deported, and families with pending processes,” Pineyro said during a livestreamed conversation with immigration attorney John De La Vega. “We have never had experienced detention of families in our community,”

READ MORE: ‘A tragic moment’: Immigration crackdown intensifies in Doral, home to thousands of Venezuelans

Business owners say the presence of immigration agents is affecting the economy in Doral, leaving businesses without customers.

“People are scared to come out. It’s affecting us,” said Katia Rios, of Pipo Burgers. She said her business sales have dropped 70%.

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