Members of Kalamazoo’s city commission say the city needs to think now about how to protect its undocumented residents. They worry that the Trump administration will pursue mass deportations of people without papers; the president sometimes called for such action on the campaign trail.
Kalamazoo City Attorney Clyde Robinson says the federal government cannot necessarily force Kalamazoo to participate in deportations. But it could try to make resistance painful for so-called sanctuary cities for the undocumented.
“If Congress wanted to come up with a definition of a “sanctuary city” and say, ‘if you’re a sanctuary city you’re ineligible for certain funds,’ they could probably do that,” he says.
Commissioner Shannon Sykes says the city should prepare now, rather than waiting to see what happens.
“I want to have the conversation about, what do we do if, you know an order comes down that says you have to do x y and z and if you don’t you lose funding,” she says.
Commissioners noted on Monday that the city passed a resolution last spring that says all are welcome regardless of nationality. They also said the public should know that city police do not check immigration status unless they need it for a criminal investigation.
