By: Kaylene Wright
While advocates push to make Frederick a sanctuary city, city officials are unable to decide what actions the city should take around this issue.
In February, Safe Haven Frederick, a group of citizens dedicated to making sure that the city is inclusive and safe for all, started a petition to make Frederick a sanctuary city. The petition got more than 500 signatures in its first week.
Defining “Sanctuary City”
“The idea of a sanctuary city is kind of an elusive thing,” said Frederick Alderman Phil Dacey. “I think it’s a largely political term and there’s no real set amount of policies that you can point to and say ‘these policies make this a sanctuary city.”
Generally speaking, a sanctuary city is a city that limits its cooperation with federal authorities in order to protect undocumented immigrants in their jurisdiction. This definition, however, is vague and a lot of people have different definitions.
Alderman Michael O’Connor spoke similarly when it came to defining the term. “One of the things that we’ve recognized is that the phrase ‘sanctuary city’ is a lightning rod. It’s largely undefined and largely misunderstood. Depending on who you talk to, you get a lot of different definitions,” O’Connor said. He said that the board has tried to stay away from using that terminology.
President Trump has made sanctuary cities a focal point of his campaign, signing an executive order to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions. This order was soon temporarily blocked by a federal judge in California because it was deemed to represent an overstep of power.
“From what I understand, sanctuary cities prevent the singling out of immigrants from the rest of society. In doing so, they help foster an environment that is inclusive to those who have come here seeking a good life,” Sam Kebede, president of the Hood College Democrats, said.
Dr. Janis Judson, a professor and director of the Hood College Law and Society program, said that the term sanctuary city was undefined especially in the legal sphere. “There is actually no such legal concept as a sanctuary campus or even city, legally speaking. Now, cities can provide categories of protection for undocumented people, immigrants, but it’s more of a philosophical notion of protection,” Judson said.
Actions
The petition has caught the attention of both the mayor and the aldermen.
Alderman O’Connor says that because the term “sanctuary city” is so undefined, it has been a challenge figuring out how to act on this issue in regard to city policy.
“[The board has] taken a somewhat cautious approach in terms of moving forward at this point,” O’Connor said. “We have a majority of the Board of Aldermen, there’s five of us, so we have a majority who’s in favor of moving something forward. What we’ve not been able to quite pin down is exactly what that something should look like.”
Mayor Randy McClement said his support of such policies would depend on actual legislation passed by the board. “All I can say is I’m not really sure what’s going to happen, I’m not really sure how I’m going to process this,” he said. “If it’s that important and it’s something that I think breaches above and beyond what the city’s normal chartered responsibilities are, I would request maybe the aldermen think about making it a referendum to the people.”
The aldermen have discussed having a workshop around the concept of sanctuary city policies, but the mayor has been more hesitant.
“The mayor’s office has been less inclined, despite the majority support for having that kind of conversation. He’s been less inclined to go that route, wanting instead for us to give him some specific piece of legislation we can bring to the workshop,” O’Connor said. “There’s a bit of an impasse on that because we don’t really know exactly what we would want the legislation to say until we actually sit down and have that conversation, and hear from the public about what they want.”
Who Decides?
Among the confusion around the definition of sanctuary cities is the question of who makes decisions on immigration policy. Most people feel that it is the job of the federal government, not local or state governments, to make these decisions.
This past session, the Maryland General Assembly considered the Maryland Trust Act, which would prohibit a specified government agent from taking specified actions for immigration enforcement purposes. Among these actions would be stopping, arresting, searching, or detaining an individual for purposes of investigating a suspected immigration violation. The bill failed.
“Immigration is primarily a federal issue, so local enforcement officials should not be eager or encouraged to attempt to round up ‘illegals,’” Kebede said.
“This is a federal concern,” McClement said. “We have taken the stance that we’re not out there enforcing federal law. I mean, that’s not what we really do. The police department enforces our city code and city laws, and that’s what their job is to do.”
Judson views a lot of the complication around this issue as being centered on who has the authority to create immigration policy.
“I’m teaching immigration law, like I’ve done before, and we talk about the general overall picture of who should have authority over immigration matters, and that’s problematic. Therein lies a lot of the problem,” Judson said.
“A Message of Welcoming”
Something that the board agrees on is the need to issue a proclamation for human rights. Frederick has done this in the past, but it has been a couple of years since one was issued.
“The International Declaration of Human Rights is one of the foundational documents that Safe Haven and some of the other groups are using as the basis for a lot of these conversations,” O’Connor said. “So, one of the things we want to do is reissue that proclamation. I think something like that helps to keep us on the record, and it helps supporters of this kind of movement see that we really are committed to moving something forward.”
Alderman Dacey emphasized that he doesn’t think anything in Frederick necessarily needs to change in regard to these immigration concerns, but that the city should make it known that it is an inclusive place. “I’m all for Frederick being an inclusive community and I think Frederick city is an inclusive community. I really feel that we’re there as far as messaging the idea that we are inclusive,” Dacey said.
Judson, on the other hand, feels that Frederick is not as welcoming as it should be. She referred to Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins being “hard going” on undocumented immigrants, and his recent visit in Arizona with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, deemed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” for his strong views against undocumented immigrants.
“Frederick, to say the very least, is pretty hardline on not providing a safe haven. I’m not saying there aren’t pockets of people in Frederick like Safe Haven, like certain aldermen, like certain members of the church,” Judson said. “But the legal institutions here in Frederick like the police are not as supportive. So that’s what is a concern for me.”