EASTHAMPTON — A local group is urging city officials to prohibit the use of the city’s resources for federal immigration enforcement, a topic that city officials took off the table after extensive discussion last winter.
On Wednesday, a petition with 757 signatures was presented to the City Council by the Easthampton Community Coalition, a group working to make the community a safe and welcoming place for all people, the group’s spokesperson Kae Collins said.
“We wanted to make sure this remained a conversation in the community,” Collins said.
The idea of becoming a so-called sanctuary city became a heated discussion among residents last winter who voiced strong opinions on both sides of the topic.
Similar petitions were presented to the City Council and Mayor Karen Cadieux last winter. Cadieux said in February that she did not support issuing an executive order.
City councilors on the Ordinance Subcommittee looked into a measure last year, but withdrew the idea in February after City Solicitor John H. Fitz-Gibbon wrote an opinion stating the city’s charter “does not permit the Council to intervene in the policymaking authority reserved to the executive branch without contravening the prohibition against the Council from exercising executive powers.”
But Fitz-Gibbon’s opinion was rebutted by Bill Newman, director of the western regional office of the ACLU of Massachusetts. Newman argued that a city council ordinance would be allowed, and cited ordinances that “specifically address and direct and control the day-to-day operations of the police department,” which include an ordinance on mutual aid.
Fitz-Gibbon said some ordinances cited were adopted when Easthampton was still a town where a Select Board was the executive branch.
He said the mutual aid ordinance does not dictate how policing activities are to be performed, but allows police departments to work together when the city’s resources are insufficient to address a public safety situation.
Collins said city officials need to discuss both attorneys’ opinions, but she would also like to see clear policies in place at the police department.
“It is our understanding that current police practice is already in alignment with this goal, and we seek to enshrine this practice into policy,” Collins wrote to city officials.
Police Chief Robert Alberti has said in the past that the department would not use its limited resources on federal immigration enforcement, and that Easthampton police do not ask about people’s immigration status. Those who commit a crime will go through the legal system, he said.
The police department already has a policy in place for undocumented immigrants who are victims or witnesses of crimes. Those who come forward to law enforcement are eligible for a U visa, which confers up to four years of legal U.S. residency.
City Council President Joseph McCoy said the council will discuss the petition at a future meeting. The city charter states a petition needs to be signed by 100 voters before a public hearing is held.
City Clerk Barbara LaBombard said some of the signatures given to the City Council have been photocopied and she needs the original document. Also, some signed the petition online and those signatures cannot be officially counted.
Collins said she intends to submit the original documents.
Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.