Earlier this week, I spoke at an Easthampton City Council Ordinance Subcommittee meeting, as did dozens of my neighbors. It was an emotional, contentious few hours of discussion of whether our city will formalize its existing policy of not participating in voluntary federal immigration enforcement requests.
People expressed a range of opinions, passionately. The statements that troubled me most weren’t the outright hostile ones, though they were certainly disturbing. The views that really distressed me were those offered by people who argued that the city should do nothing.
Speakers argued that Easthampton should make no formal designation about our current policy, so as not to call attention to ourselves, especially with rumored threats that municipalities that don’t step into line with the incoming administration may somehow be penalized once our country’s new president takes office.
The idea that the best course for us as individuals or communities is to keep quiet and not draw attention to what we do or who we are – despite feeling that our actions are proper and our identities are true reflections of our values — in order not to attract attention from bullies or the powerful, I can’t abide that.
At this week’s meeting I applauded the council members who brought this measure forward and I voiced my support for it. I want my city to stand up and be heard on this important issue, and to formalize what I understood our police chief and mayor to confirm is already our practice: Easthampton municipal employees currently do not explore the immigration
status of people with whom they interact, except in cases where those individuals are suspected of criminal activity.
Our local tax dollars and resources should be spent on local matters; our federal tax dollars will and do fund federal services and programs. As a city, we should resist coercion by the federal government to take on enforcement of federal laws or policies that we aren’t legally mandated to address — especially those that are not in accordance with our values or in our best interest as a community.
Rather than leave this approach as an informal practice (which could change at any time) we should make it our formal policy in the case of immigration enforcement. I’d like to see a new city ordinance or mayoral executive order directing that Easthampton municipal employees will not explore the immigration status of individuals with whom they interact, except as required by law.
Instead of seeing a downside to enshrining our current practice into formal policy, I view doing so as an important and positive step for our community. I hadn’t planned to speak at this week’s meeting. But I did so because I think that if we believe in things, we need to stand up and be heard about them, sometimes literally. Now, especially.
As individuals and as communities, there is strength in acting with integrity, and in having the courage to resist any person or any entity who would try to scare or coerce us to do otherwise.
Amber Black, of Easthampton, is the communications director at the Rosenberg Fund for Children.