1 week Ago By Lance Reynolds
The Somerville City Council is set to reaffirm its commitment as a sanctuary city, with a resolution touting concerns around an “increasingly hostile” political climate and President-elect Trump’s return to the White House. Somerville has been a sanctuary city since 1987, meaning it refuses to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. Councilors are slated to vote and uphold the status Thursday night.
“The City of Somerville has a proud, longstanding history of welcoming and supporting generations of immigrants,” the resolution states, “and has continually upheld values of equity, inclusion, and support for all community members.” “The national political climate remains increasingly hostile toward immigrants and refugees,” it adds, “and the recent return of the former President to the White House brings heightened risks for immigrant communities across the country.” Somerville’s sanctuary designation vote will follow Gov.
Maura Healey’s pledge that Massachusetts State Police won’t be used to assist in Trump’s mass deportation efforts . The state’s top law enforcement agency declared that kind of support goes against its mission . Seven other municipalities scattered across the Bay State are sanctuary cities: Amherst, Boston, Cambridge, Concord, Lawrence, Newton and Northhampton.
Cambridge became the first sanctuary city in 1985. Somerville followed two years later, and the others have adopted sanctuary provisions within the past decade. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu told GBH on Tuesday that her administration is preparing for whatever scenario unfolds when Trump regains office in January with his deportation plans.
Wu cited the city’s “Trust Act,” signed into law in 2014 under Mayor Marty Walsh, which puts “strict prohibitions on local law enforcement from being pulled into becoming the enforcement arm for the whims of whatever the sort of approach of the federal immigration law might be.” The resolution the Somerville City Council will discuss and vote on Thursday pledges that the city will continue to maintain a legal services stabilization fund that provides legal representation to residents facing deportation or removal. It directs city departments, including police and schools, not to apply for or accept federal funds that require gathering or sharing information regarding national origin, immigration, or citizenship status for “the purpose of targeting or deportation.
” Under the sanctuary designation, the resolution states that the city will “strongly advocate for schools, hospitals, places of worship, and courthouses to be recognized as ‘sensitive locations,’ safe from federal immigration enforcement actions, to ensure the fair and compassionate administration of justice.” The resolution “also invites neighboring cities in Massachusetts to reaffirm their commitment to serving and protecting their immigrant communities, joining in solidarity to safeguard residents’ rights and safety.” Somerville’s population of roughly 80,500 includes nearly 24% of residents born outside of the country, census figures show.
Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, in her second term, expressed sadness over Donald Trump being tapped as the 47th president in last week’s election. In a letter to the community , she called the result “hard” and “deeply troubling.” “I promise, as your Mayor, to do everything within my power to protect Somerville’s core values of diversity, equality, and inclusion.
Today will pass,” Ballantyne wrote last Wednesday. “We will organize, advocate, and protest. We will find ways to protect our vulnerable neighbors, ourselves.
But today is hard.” “Check in on yourself, check in on your neighbors, find unity, get through this deeply troubling time together,” she added. “That is our way forward.
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