Longmont’s City Council on Tuesday night is to get a request that it take steps toward officially designating Longmont a sanctuary city that offers the same protections to its undocumented and documented immigrant residents that it provides to the community’s U.S. citizens.
Several organizations, including the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, has been inviting those organizations’ members and supporters to show up at Tuesday’s meeting to argue for the designation.
The Immigrant Rights Coalition’s Sonia Marquez said on Friday that while those groups do not expect formal council action on Tuesday, “We’re going to see if we can get a conversation going” about the need for an official city policy of noncooperation with federal authorities seeking the identities — and possible deportation — of undocumented immigrants living in Longmont.
“I feel like Longmont is a safe place for immigrants,” said Marquez, a Longmont resident who is the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition’s northern regional membership director.
However, she said that many people in the local immigrant community continue to feel unsafe about potential crackdowns by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Marquez said a written — possibly through council adoption of an ordinance or resolution — would help ensure those residents and their friends and family members that Longmont police and other city employees “are not going to collaborate” with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition has posted a Facebook invitation for people to attend Tuesday’s council meeting and wear red in support of the effort.
“We are all proud to live in a city that is inclusive, welcoming and caring,” the Immigrant Rights Coalition’s posting says, under a headline that states that “Becoming a Sanctuary City Makes Longmont a Safer Community.”
Marquez said the appeal for sanctuary-city status is being pushed by — or has the support of — a collaborative of organizations such as her own, as well as Out Boulder County, Longmont’s El Comite and several faith-based groups.
The Boulder City Council adopted a sanctuary-city policy measure on Jan. 3 declaring Boulder to be a sanctuary city, vowing that “no city employee shall inquire into a person’s immigration status” and stating that Boulder city funds will not be used to assist with immigration investigations or the detention of any immigrants.
Longmont’s City Council, in a 4-3 vote on Dec. 13, adopted a resolution declaring that Longmont is not “a city ruled by fear” and “will not stand for bullying, threats, violence or bigotry.”
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