Coral Gables, Florida, is a swell place to live, and I mean that in the old-fashioned sense of the term 'swell.'
An old term for someone dressed in very fancy clothes.
It's quite an exclusive, affluent, and much-desired city to live in, a few miles southwest of downtown Miami and still considered part of that city's metropolitan area.
It's also home to 'The U' - the University of Miami.
A year ago, in March, like most Florida cities, regardless of their political demographics (Coral Gables went for Trump by a whisker over Harris, 50-49 percent), the city signed the requisite agreements to work with the incoming Trump administration's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in spite of heavy pushback from immigration advocates in the community.
Two South Florida cities, Hialeah and Coral Gables, entered into agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the controversial 287(g) program on Tuesday.
All 67 counties in the state, including Broward and Miami-Dade, have already entered this agreement, which allows trained officers to enforce certain federal immigration laws. Florida is the only state where all counties are cooperating.
At both council meetings, NBC6 heard from pastors, business owners and residents who are concerned with what this means moving forward.
In Coral Gables, community leaders and advocates called on the city to end the agreement.
"City police should have no role in civil immigration enforcement," said an advocate. "It breaks the trust between our residents, it diverts our resources and tax-payer dollars and harms our neighbors, our friends and our community."
This comes as the state rushes to assist President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts.
"I wanna make one thing very clear, that state and federal law does not mandate that you enter into these agreements," resident Juan Cuba said. "This is a voluntary choice by the police department and that is why we are here speaking up about it."
Now, it's not like the city didn't have an illegal alien problem, as one pretty major bust a year ago in January proved.
🚨BREAKING: MIAMI — two vans packed with 40 illegal Chinese nationals were apprehended and taken into custody about an hour ago in Coral Gables, FL - about 5 miles west of the Port of Miami. #ICE pic.twitter.com/Sqt7GMu9iD
— The Rubber Duck ™ (@TheRubberDuck79) January 28, 2025
[Beege NOTES: I pulled a video I had here with the wrong 'Coral' in it and thank YOU to the comments!]
In most cases, I would guess a lot of the illegal aliens in Coral Gables originate through the Port of Miami or the area around it, and find themselves stopped on a highway as they try to make their way north, but there are most assuredly jobs for them in the city, too, as we all know. Oftentimes, affluent areas are the worst affected by immigration enforcement activities. Simply witness how many actresses and well-to-do entrepreneurs defend these people by saying, 'Who will do our laundry/yards/watch our kids if you sweep these people up?' as if that excused their own complicity in the cycle.
But the protests that are held are smallish, and those who attend are, for the most part, well-mannered, only want to speak their piece and make their point known. In October, a smallish group of eight or so gathered to protest ICE informing World Cup match attendees that they would need documentation.
Protesters are calling on FIFA to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents off the field and away from upcoming games.
Several protesters gathered in front of FIFA offices in Coral Gables to urge protection for those attending next year’s World Cup.
They claim ICE’s presence outside stadiums could scare away the community and tourists.
Civilized, no?
But holy moly, what a difference under the surface. The South Florida subversive activist base is not on the street throwing bricks or jumping in front of a van pulling out of a holding facility. They're in the holding tank carrying ICE credentials and badges.
I leave you with this image. Local Miami woman was posing as an ICE agent to stop or delay deportations. When police arrested her at home, they found ICE paraphernalia, like badges & other identifiers.
— vbspurs (@vbspurs) August 11, 2026
Coral Gables is the toniest suburb of Miami, usually split 50/50 politically. pic.twitter.com/exy1IZFARo
I saw this this morning and was like, how fiendishly clever. I'm not so sure that the criminal in this story is so much a crusader as she is an opportunist.
This chica was working both sides of the aisle. Stomping into ICE cases in court, posing as an ICE employee to spring detainees, and then financially raking the hell out of the illegal alien she just got released with her fees.
FIENDISH
Ana Caridad Linares is not an attorney, nor does she work for one. The Coral Gables woman has never been an employee of the U.S. government or worked as an immigration officer for the Department of Homeland Security.
Yet on four occasions in 2024, Linares pretended to be a Legal Administrative Specialist for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and attempted to dismiss deportation proceedings for non-U.S. citizens while charging them hundreds of dollars in fees, according to a factual statement filed with her plea agreement in Miami federal court.
Most true believers in the cause go to the mat penniless and shrieking their ideals to the heavens. That didn't happen here.
What's worse is that a judge smoked her out, but she still kept doing it! How does that happen?
...An immigration judge caught her in the act early on, but she still continued to impersonate an ICE officer in court, the filing shows.
Linares, 45, pleaded guilty this summer to falsely impersonating a federal immigration officer and faces up to three years in prison at her sentencing on Aug. 20 before U.S. District Judge Michael Moore. Linares, represented by attorney Michael Mirer, is likely to receive less time because she accepted responsibility for her crime.
On top of it all, because she's fessed up, she'll do very little time.
Now for the absolute killer sentence in this whole Miami Herald story, which is just a bomb dropped in there amongst what's already pretty incendiary.
Stew on this for a moment.
...Everyday people impersonating federal agents is fairly common in South Florida, but it’s rare when someone pretends to be an ICE legal officer trying to fix problems in immigration court. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Linares posed as a Legal Administrative Specialist, an ICE employee who provides clerical assistance to government attorneys and does not have the authority to stop removal proceedings or take another other legal action.
People fake being feds so often in SoFl it's no big deal, but faking being ICE is a shocker?
VURT DA ACTUAL FURK?
That was probably one of the most amazing things I've read in a long while.
And just think - because she's sorry, this enterprising entrepreneur will be back on the street in no time after she changes out of her prison uniform.
Can't wait to hear how she reinvents herself as she reemerges and rejoins the South Florida hothouse of flowering impersonators they have going down there.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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