Last Wednesday, the mayor of Bay City vetoed a resolution, that would have declared the city a "welcoming community" for immigrants and banned the ability to deputize local cops for federal immigration enforcement.
Cities and counties across Michigan are debating whether to cooperate with federal immigration officials with tax funding on the line.
Mayor Chris Girard said he's afraid Bay City will lose state and federal funding.
The Republican-led Michigan House passed House Resolution 19 in February to block earmarks for cities that implement laws that block potential federal immigration enforcement agreements. It passed on a party line vote.
“This resolution put a target on our community's backs to cut significant funding,” Girard said of his decision. “Given the current political climate, changes in both state house and in the federal level, this has caused some alarm.”
The resolution would have banned city officials and police officers from inquiring about a person’s immigration status unless they were required by law or court order, or if an arrest was explicitly about immigration law violations.
It also would have blocked officers and officials from any “agreements, formal or informal, that deputize city personnel for immigration enforcement.” The resolution passed on a 5-4 vote.
Girard made clear that the welcoming community resolution would have codified existing public safety practices.
“We currently do not ask about immigration status," he said. “If we get somebody, for particular issues, say they're speeding, they get pulled over with that's not a typical question, ‘are you legal or illegal?’”
He also said local Bay City officials do not often interact with federal immigration enforcement.
“I understand over the last 23 years, there may be once or twice where there was a situation where immigration was involved but it's a rarity here,” he said.
Girard added that the lack of a state Senator in the 35th District would have made any potential cuts to local programs and nonprofits hard to overcome.
“We still don't have representation there, and obviously that's problematic,” he said. “They're not advocating on the Senate side to put forward various support bills for our community."
Some communities in the state have adopted similar welcoming community guidelines as the one approved by the Bay City Commission. They formally limit the extent that local cops can collaborate with federal officials.
In 2022, Detroit passed a resolution declaring itself a "welcoming city." According to the city code, city officials, including police, are banned from inquiring about immigration status. East Lansing, in 2023, became the only city in the state to declare itself a sanctuary city.
The Saginaw City Council voted 7-1 to block a resolution to declare the city a welcoming community last month.
The resolution said city officials “shall not actively collaborate with federal agents solely for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration law.”
Immigration lawyer Andrew Free said many local officials across the country must cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement because of state law.
"It's the state legislature, not the local government that is forcing the local law enforcement agencies and the local government to comply with these requests and to cooperate with ICE to whatever extent it wants," Free said.
Free said that collaboration between ICE and local police forces dissuades undocumented immigrants, and people who know them, from reporting crimes for fear of potential detention and deportation.
“We have multiple studies that demonstrate calls about domestic violence, calls about extortion and crimes where the victim is an undocumented person, don't come in,” he said. “That allows people who are engaged in those crimes to do is to do so with functional impunity.”
Lawmakers argue that collaboration with federal immigration is a matter of public safety.
“The feds are trying to keep our communities safe, and these rogue cities are doing whatever they can to protect these violent criminals and let them right back out onto our streets,” said state House Rep. John Roth (R-Traverse City) in a statement supporting Resolution 19.
The Bay City Commission can pass the resolution by overriding the veto at its meeting on April 7. The resolution would need another vote to pass and become law.
