Local advocates say legislation banning ‘sanctuary cities’ could end ongoing efforts to protect immigrants

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Mariel Ferreiro, a Sanctuary Alliance organizer, speaks to the Lawrence City Commission at its meeting Oct. 8, 2019, regarding the group's request to make Lawrence a sanctuary city.

Local advocates are concerned that a new state measure could prevent ongoing efforts to protect immigrants from being arrested or held by local law enforcement solely for noncriminal immigration violations. Local leaders have also spoken out in opposition to the bill.

Kansas legislators recently voted in favor of a measure prohibiting local governments from creating “sanctuary cities.” House Bill 2717 makes it unlawful for municipalities to create ordinances or policies that limit or restrict law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents.

Beginning in the summer of 2019, the local immigrant advocacy group Sanctuary Alliance pushed for the City of Lawrence to adopt an ordinance providing certain protections to undocumented immigrants. The group worked with city legal staff for about a year on a draft ordinance and the codification of a police administrative policy regarding cooperation with federal immigration agents. Ultimately, in the fall of 2020, the Lawrence City Commission adopted a nondiscrimination ordinance that also referenced the police policy.

The ordinance includes provisions that prohibit the city from considering immigration status or collecting immigration-related information when providing city services, among other provisions. The ordinance also requires public notification when the police department is aware of civil immigration enforcement activity in Lawrence — which would not include criminal matters — as well as notification should the police department make changes to its cooperation policy. That policy generally limits police cooperation with federal immigration agents for noncriminal matters.

City legal staff worked with the Sanctuary Alliance to create the ordinance and related policies, and city attorneys specifically drafted the language to ensure it did not violate the law. Assistant City Attorney Maria Garcia, who was involved with the effort, told the Journal-World this week that given the efforts to comply with all applicable state and federal law, the city’s position at this time was that the ordinance and related policies would remain valid if HB 2717 becomes law. However, Garcia said the matter continues to be under review and the city will conduct a thorough review and analysis should that occur.

Mariel Ferreiro, co-founder of the Sanctuary Alliance, told the Journal-World this week that she also thought the overall nondiscrimination ordinance would remain valid should the law be adopted. However, she said she did have concerns that the police department’s cooperation policy could be challenged under the bill, and that the bill could deter the group’s ongoing efforts to create a similar policy at the county level.

“For us that is the most important part of this,” Ferreiro said. “The section pertaining to law enforcement’s interaction with federal enforcement and with the community is the full reason that we went for this ordinance in the first place, to protect against interactions with (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) specifically.”

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office operates the local jail, and a Journal-World review in 2020 found that the jail followed a system — which used fingerprint files that are sent to federal immigration officials — that could result in immigrants being held in the jail for up to two days, even after their local cases have been resolved, to give federal officials time to take the person into custody. At that time, Ferreiro said the push to create local cooperation policies was sparked in part by local law enforcement assisting with immigration warrants, and that the group decided to start at the city level, but planned to start the conversation at the county level once the city policies were adopted.

Ferreiro said this week that those plans were delayed following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, as the Sanctuary Alliance shifted its efforts to providing support and aid. However, she said the group has again turned its attention to the effort, and that the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office have been supportive of its interests to create a policy at the county level. She said the bill could preempt those efforts and take away local control regarding such policies.

Representatives of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office were among those that provided testimony against the bill. Mayor Courtney Shipley and Douglas County commissioners Shannon Portillo and Shannon Reid also submitted testimony opposing the bill.

Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister wrote in part that if an undocumented immigrant or someone who has undocumented family members is the victim of a crime, the bill could prevent them from contacting their local law enforcement to report the crime for fear of deportation or detainment. He said that could lead to a predator remaining in the community and reoffending, and that situation alone he could not abide by, but he also questioned the motives for the bill.

“Is it your intention to wield local law enforcement as your ‘club’ to strike down ‘illegal immigration’ in our state?” Armbrister wrote. “Or, does this scenario I described above not bother you because the fear of this one scenario does not overcome your fear of our communities being overrun by persons who look and speak differently from you?”

Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez expressed similar concerns about the bill discouraging victims of crimes from contacting law enforcement, and also spoke to issues of local control. Valdez said the bill was another example of the continued overreach of Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who initiated the effort.

“(Schmidt) purports to support local control but cannot stop himself from meddling when local governments disagree with his anti-humanitarian views and pandering to racists,” Valdez wrote.

Ferreiro also said that the bill sends a bad message to immigrant populations, both documented and undocumented, telling them that the state wants them “to go back to the shadows,” and instills fear in mixed-status families that they could be separated via deportation. In addition to that community impact, Ferreiro said those fears could impact the state as a whole.

“We’re discouraging folks from moving to Kansas and being in our communities because we are not inviting and welcoming; we’re saying we will not protect you here,” Ferreiro said. “And so I can see the growth of our population and the wealth of culture and community that immigrants bring to us diminishing and many people leaving because they don’t feel safe here.”

Kansas senators voted on Wednesday to back the measure, rejecting concerns about the speed the measure was moving through the Legislature, according to Kansas Reflector. House Bill 2717 is a response to action taken by the Unified Government of Kansas City/Wyandotte County to authorize municipal identification cards for undocumented people. The community’s Safe and Welcoming Act is intended to improve access to public services and allow undocumented immigrants to report crimes without the risk of deportation for them or their families.

Sanctuary Alliance and other advocates are encouraging community members to write letters to Gov. Laura Kelly asking her to veto the bill.

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