Traverse City is well known as a vacation and retirement destination. Now, officials say they are also considering designating it as a “sanctuary city.”
Traverse City’s Human Rights Commission has been looking into what exactly “sanctuary city” status would mean for the community. In other communities around the country, the designation generally means that a person’s immigration status is not actively investigated by law enforcement.
Taylor Nash is the chairman for the Traverse City Human Rights Commission. He said since the proposal was first introduced in February, there has been a lot of public input.
“There has been significant opposition to the proposal,” he said. “We’ve gotten many phone calls and emails to that effect. We also had two Ad Hoc committee meetings and those were primarily dominated by public comment and majority wasn’t in support.”
Nash says it’s important to have these conversations, although they can be controversial.
“These are conversations that are being had on a national and international level and we’re going to start having to have them in our cities and in our communities. And we got to find a way to have these conversations without them becoming explosive,” he said.
Nash said the commission plans to continue its research on the topic. He says the commission has another meeting scheduled in July and hopes the reach a consensus before then.