MIAMI — When she was a Miami-Dade commissioner, Daniella Levine Cava passed legislation that created a county office to help permanent visa holders in the Miami area become U.S. citizens. Now in her second term as mayor, Levine Cava has proposed eliminating the county’s Office of New Americans, according to budget documents.

This year, Miami-Dade faces a $402 million deficit in the $3.6 billion budget for police, jails, parks and other core services that rely on property taxes for the bulk of their funding.

To close that gap, Levine Cava is preparing a package of spending cuts, layoffs and fee increases in the 2026 budget proposal she’s expected to unveil Tuesday, according to planning documents the Miami Herald obtained through a public-records request.

Documents show Levine Cava planning to defund some of her signature initiatives since taking office in 2020, when the one-time social worker became the county’s first Democratic mayor in 16 years under the campaign slogan “A Mayor Who Cares.”

The Office of New Americans loses funding under a broader downsizing of the county’s social-services arm. Community Action and Human Services is merging with Juvenile Services, which helps rehabilitate youthful offenders. The budget documents show the two departments are set to lose a combined 62 positions once they meld into the new Community Services Department, out of the roughly 770 positions in the agencies’ current budgets.

While the New Americans initiative got its start before she became mayor, Levine Cava made it a separate agency within Community Action. Her 2022 budget funded four positions in the office, and that’s the staff in the 2025 budget, too. The office’s website says its mission is to help legal immigrants with permanent visas complete their path to citizenship, and county records show that staff are expected to process roughly 2,400 requests for assistance this year. The help includes legal assistance and referrals to immigration lawyers, including support for immigrants holding legal visas but who aren’t on the path to citizenship.

The budget documents obtained by the Herald do not show how much money Miami-Dade would save by closing the New Americans office or if Levine Cava has a plan to merge some of the functions into existing county operations. It also shows only a glimpse into the overall plan for the county budget, which is around $13 billion and includes spending plans for Miami International Airport and the water and trash systems.

A Levine Cava spokesperson declined to clarify information in the documents the Herald obtained through the Board of County Commissioners, which has been attending budget briefings with the mayor and leaving with summaries of her proposals.

In a statement this week, Levine Cava said she’s not happy about the cuts she’s getting ready to propose ahead of final budget votes by the commission in September.

“We have made difficult choices,” she said. “We’ve looked across departments to maximize the value of every taxpayer dollar. … Next week we will propose a budget that continues to deliver on the core services that residents need and deserve.”

Among the cuts in the budget planning documents the mayor’s staff circulated this week:

—Eliminating the Office of Innovation and Economic Development, a 17-person office dedicated to growing businesses in Miami-Dade. It’s home to the county film office and a Levine Cava initiative aimed at green jobs.

—Cutting 37 Parks jobs that are currently staffed. The agency has a staff of roughly 2,300 people.

—Closing the Office of Neighborhood Safety, a Levine Cava initiative aimed at addressing gun violence with community outreach and other approaches aimed at reducing crime.

—Halting funding for small business “Mom and Pop” grants, which cost about $1 million a year.

Eliminating a county office for immigrants comes as Levine Cava faces criticism from the left for her response to Gov. Ron DeSantis seizing a county airport in the Everglades for construction of a detention camp for federal immigration offenders.

Environmental groups are suing Miami-Dade for not trying to use zoning rules to shutter the temporary facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” An immigrant-rights group has been buying billboard space demanding that Levine Cava file suit against DeSantis, who used emergency powers he granted himself in 2023 to mitigate what he maintains is an ongoing crisis related to illegal immigration.

On Friday, Levine Cava convened a closed-door meeting with immigrant advocates to try and quell criticism of her. That includes a muted response to officers dragging a woman out of a County Commission meeting before she could speak against a cooperation agreement that Levine Cava authorized between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Miami-Dade jails. Levine Cava maintains that Florida law required her to sign the agreement.

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