photo by: City of Lawrence

Mariel Ferreiro, co-founder of the Sanctuary Alliance, addresses the Lawrence City Commission at its meeting June 14, 2022.

City of Lawrence attorneys are calling for city leaders to strike certain protections for immigrants from the city’s books out of concern they run afoul of a new state law banning sanctuary cities. But immigration advocates say the city’s proposed changes are too sweeping, and successfully asked for a more thorough review.

City attorneys called for completely striking five provisions from the city’s ordinance and making significant changes to related police department policies that generally prohibit police from cooperating with federal immigration agencies on noncriminal immigration matters. The changes were included on the City Commission’s consent agenda on Tuesday evening, but pulled for discussion by the Sanctuary Alliance, the community group that worked with the city to create the ordinance and related police department policies.

Mariel Ferreiro, co-founder of the alliance, told commissioners that as it stands, the group could not condone the proposed changes. Ferreiro urged city leaders to make the least restrictive changes and take a stand against the harmful rhetoric surrounding the state law.

“Without an intentional review of our current ordinance and the opportunity to craft language that is upholding the protections of our community, we put ourselves in a position to adhering to the fear mongering and oftentimes xenophobic and racist rhetoric of some of our state legislators,” Ferreiro said.

Specifically, Ferreiro called for the city to work with the Sanctuary Alliance to consult with an immigration expert and continue to collaborate with the alliance on changes that only amend what is absolutely necessary from the ordinance and police policy. She said changes should not result in police inquiring about citizenship status or responding to civil immigration matters not in their purview.

The state law in question was initiated by Attorney General Derek Schmidt, and was criticized by the law’s opponents for being rushed through the Legislature. House Bill 2717, which was passed in late May, was 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 was meant to improve access to public services and allow undocumented immigrants to report crimes without risk of deportation.

As the Journal-World reported April 1, several local law enforcement and government leaders came out in opposition to the bill, with concerns including that it discouraged immigrants from seeking help and serving as witnesses. Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez, Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister, Mayor Courtney Shipley and Douglas County Commissioners Shannon Portillo and Shannon Reid submitted testimony against the bill.

The Sanctuary Alliance worked with the city for about a year on the ordinance, which was approved in fall 2020. Key issues in the discussion were ensuring that police do not assist immigration agents in taking people into custody or holding them in custody based solely on their immigration status, as well as limiting police notifications to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to only serious criminal offenses. Ferreiro said in April that protecting immigrants against interactions with ICE had been the most important part of the ordinance and related police policy.

However, city legal staff told commissioners Tuesday that if certain provisions of the ordinance and police policy were not repealed, the city would be in violation of the new state law once it goes into effect on July 1.

The five provisions that the city proposed completely striking from the ordinance include prohibitions against police and other city staff requesting or documenting immigration status in various circumstances. Those include when someone is the victim, witness or suspect in a crime, and in the provision of city services. The city also proposed striking provisions that prohibit Municipal Court from inquiring about immigration status or reporting a person’s immigration status to ICE if the court otherwise becomes aware. All the provisions had a caveat stating the prohibitions were in place unless otherwise required by law.

The police department policies that the city proposed striking explicitly state that police shall not “stop, question, arrest, or detain any individual based solely upon actual or suspected citizenship or immigration status.” Current policy states police will not generally notify ICE when booking arrestees into the jail, and while that statement remains, the city proposed striking sections that speak to circumstances when notification may be appropriate, such as with some felony investigations. A proposed addition states instead that notification will be handled according to jail operation procedures, but that no individual who is otherwise ready to be released should continue to be detained solely for the purpose of the notification.

Several Lawrence residents spoke to the need for protections Tuesday or submitted written comments to the commission. Alex Kimball Williams, who worked with the alliance on the ordinance, said that discrimination based on perceived or actual immigration or citizenship status absolutely happens, and it affects all people of color in the community.

“This is not something that could happen or might happen; it’s something that does happen,” Kimball Williams said. “And so we need to act with that knowledge that this is not a theoretical thing that could be happening, but that it is happening and that it does result in harm. People in my own family have been negatively impacted.”

Lawrence resident Jo Taylor said that police pulled over her husband, who was born in Puerto Rico and therefore a U.S. citizen, a few years ago on 23rd Street for supposedly taking a curve too quickly, and that after her husband provided his ID the officer asked for another form of ID “to show (he) was a citizen.”

The commission agreed that it wanted a more thorough review by an attorney who specialized in immigration, which the Sanctuary Alliance offered to coordinate. The debate centered on how long commissioners were willing to allow for that review, and specifically whether they were willing to leave the current ordinance in place beyond July 1, when the city could be subject to a compliance review.

Shipley, who said she was for “the most amount of time,” and Commissioner Amber Sellers were willing to postpone making changes to July 5 as long as the city was actively working on the issue, but other commissioners expressed concern about potentially being in violation of state law for any amount of time. Commissioner Brad Finkeldei said he wanted the city to bring its ordinance into compliance in the least restrictive way by July 1, but work on the ordinance could continue after that.

Ultimately, the commission voted 4-1, with Finkeldei opposing, to direct city staff to work with the Sanctuary Alliance on the issue and call a special meeting on June 28 to consider changes to the ordinance.