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Jan. 31, 2026 17:07-18:14 - CSPAN
01:06:54
Mayors Discuss Immigration Policy
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jacob frey
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Speaker Time Text
Hold Democracy Rock Solid 00:01:53
jacob frey ▲ ● ▼
More important than being a Democrat or Republican.
This has to do with our day-to-day lives, who we are as a people, who we are as a democracy, and who we can be as American citizens.
Mayors have that important role.
I know that you will carry it out, and I cannot be prouder to be part of this tremendous team.
And so, on behalf of all of these incredible Minneapolis residents that are going through a very difficult time right now, to say the least, thank you.
On behalf of the next city and the city after that that may experience this kind of invasion, thank you.
We got to hold rock solid.
We cannot back down.
Our cities, our mayors, are what will hold this democracy together.
Thank you so much.
unidentified
Good afternoon.
Thank you all so much.
All right, that is a very live microphone.
Thank you all so much for joining.
We are grateful for you being here.
My name is Mike Johnson, the Mayor of Denver, one of the hosts of today's event.
We're going to welcome you all.
Please come up and grab a seat.
We'll do a handful of opening comments from myself and Mayor Cohen, who's the Mayor of Brownsville and our co-chair.
If We Help, What Happens? 00:02:48
unidentified
And then we will turn it over to get some updates on issues that are happening around the country as well as some legal counsel and things that are moving.
And so hopefully it will be an informative and helpful session for you.
Thank you for spending the time.
I'll just, for opening thoughts, share one idea, which is our city, like many, have been addressing the needs of newcomers who've been arriving in Denver.
We were, over the last several years, one of the largest recipients per capita of newcomers that arrive primarily from Venezuela.
And I think our city, like many, had to answer the question, what do you do in that context when folks arrive without resources, without support, without infrastructure?
And I'm reminded, we just last week celebrated Dr. King's birthday, and we have a huge marade in our city.
And one of my favorite stories about Dr. King is if you remember the last speech he ever gave, it was the speech in Memphis he gave on April 3rd, the night before he was assassinated.
He was there actually on the garbage workers strike.
And it's the famous speech where he says, I may not get there with you, but I've been to the mountaintop.
The mountaintop speech is very famous.
But in the middle of this speech, he tells a separate story.
And he talks about the time that he and Coretta together went and traveled the road to Jericho.
And he says, when I visited there, I thought about the Good Samaritan story all over again because I never quite understood that story until I traveled that road.
And when I traveled it, I realized just how dangerous it was, even today.
You never know if you might get stopped, you might get robbed, your car might go off the edge.
There are plenty of reasons to be afraid.
And so he says, this is the reason why, if you remember the story of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite are both walking the road to Jericho and they see a man fallen over in the ground who is injured and needs help.
And the priest walks by and doesn't help.
And the Levite walks by and doesn't help.
And Dr. King says, the problem with the priest and the Levite is that they ask themselves the wrong question.
They ask themselves, if I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?
What will happen to me?
And that's a question that many of us are asking a lot right now because there is a question: if I as a city stop to help this man, what could happen to my city?
Well, yes, you could lose federal funds.
You could be targeted for prosecution by the Department of Justice.
You could see ICE agents deployed to the streets of your city.
All of those are possible if you make the decision to stop and help this man.
King says the power of the Good Samaritan is that he reverses the question.
He says, if I don't stop to help this man, what will happen to him?
Sanctuary Cities Under Pressure 00:15:12
unidentified
And when you ask that question, the answer is always easy.
When you have 200 folks that show up in front of your city hall at 10 o'clock at night in 10-degree weather in sandals and a t-shirt with a five-year-old, it is not a policy question.
It's a human question.
And so I think for us as mayors, we stand in the forefront of answering this question of what will we as cities do to stop to help the folks in need, even in moments when that decision is very unpopular.
My belief, and I think our belief, is that our job still is to protect and to serve every resident of our city, no matter if they came from Caracas or from Cleveland.
That commitment has helped us deliver a place where both our city is safer than it was two years ago.
Those folks are in housing and are back to work.
We've seen decreases in homelessness, decreases in crime, decreases in the cost of housing, all in the moment of welcoming 40,000 people we didn't know were coming.
And so I think this is a moment for us to believe that it is actually possible to say you can both hold our values and serve our city at the same time.
That, I think, is the question that the country is asking right now.
So I am so grateful for you all being here.
Thanks for your service to your city.
Thanks for being a part of this panel.
And I would love to turn it over to my friend from Brownsville, Mayor Cohen, to take over next.
Thank you, Mary Johnson, and thank you to everyone here for joining us for this important conversation.
As mayor for the city of Brownsville, which is a city of about 200,000 residents in the most southern point of Texas, in a region of about 1.5 million in the Rio Grande Valley, I represent a city that lives every day at the intersection of border policy, economic growth, and community trust.
Brownsville is a hub for international trade, aerospace, manufacturing, higher ed, and innovation.
And our future depends on stability, collaboration, and trust of our government institutions.
As a municipality, we are proud to serve our residents in their interest.
We equally assist and partner with state and federal agencies like ICE.
But at the local level, the RPD have a separate but equally important responsibility.
We have a responsibility to ensure public safety and maintain the trust of our community.
As a result, we are proud to be ranked the eighth safest city in the United States.
Over the last month, ICE has dramatically increased enforcement operations in our region, primarily inspecting construction sites, hotels, restaurants, and low-income neighborhoods.
As a result, these actions have delayed or stopped many construction projects, and there are businesses that cannot find workers for their daily operations.
This creates a ripple effect through our economy and will ultimately impact our city finances and service levels.
There are many children that are not going to school due to fear that their loved ones may be targeted.
These enforcement operations have had a chilling impact through our regional communities.
More importantly, as Mayor, I am concerned that our members may not call the police or fire departments for emergencies out of fear, which fundamentally makes our community less safe.
It's important to stress that our police officers do not work alongside ICE in executing immigration arrests on a day-to-day basis.
That is not our role.
However, as we would work with any federal, state, or local agency, The Brownsville PD does and will respond to requests for aid or assistance when public safety is involved.
That is what we do and would do for any other call for service.
Brownsville is a city that prides itself on being an advocate for the well-being, safety, and growth of our community members.
When needed, the city has partnered with local non-governmental organizations such as our local churches and shelters to offer assistance to anyone in need, including immigrants who travel through our city in search of the American dream.
As the discussion on immigration persists, we encourage individuals to follow the law, find the resources they need to be able to go through proper legal process to obtain legal citizenship in the U.S., and we encourage Congress and this administration to pass comprehensive immigration reform and expand pathways and work authorizations for those that contribute positively to our communities and our country.
Federal border and immigration policies shape how people move across borders and how cities like Brownsville plan for and protect public safety while allowing local government to efficiently, legally, and compassionately manage situations that arise.
As these policies evolve, our responsibility as a city remains constant to keep our residents safe while ensuring our economy continues to grow and our community remains united.
This balance matters.
Trust between residents and local law enforcement is essential, not just for safety, but for economic growth and community stability.
Brownsville's future is built on that trust, and we will continue to uphold it while working professionally with our federal partners.
Thank you, Mayor Johnson.
Thank you so much, Mayor.
I want to welcome Jonathan Miller, who is here from the Public Rights Project, who's one of the allies who's been working on litigation around the country to protect and support cities in their effort to be able to provide services and to be able to not lose access to federal resources along the way.
And so, Jonathan, I'd love to turn it over to you to talk a little about efforts underway, and then we'll have time for some QA if you have questions from Jonathan about what he's working on or what other cities might be facing.
Go ahead, John.
Thanks so much, Mayor Johnston, and thank you for the invitation to join Mayor Cowan as well.
I also want to thank the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Laura Waxman for all your partnership and coordination on this important conversation.
So, as you heard, my name is Jonathan Miller.
I'm the Chief Program Officer at Public Rights Project.
We are a national nonpartisan nonprofit that is committed to helping cities advance the civil rights of their communities.
We work with cities across the country, representing them in litigation, providing technical assistance, confidential legal advice, training to your lawyers on case development advocacy, and convening to build best practices and collective strategies.
We've had the privilege of working closely with the teams in Denver and Portland, and so grateful for the opportunity to work with many of you in this room.
And if your city doesn't already work with us, please feel free to reach out after the panel.
Happy to chat more about it.
So, moving to the topic at hand, I think it's just really crucial to engage deeply in this discussion.
Our team has been spending a lot of time over the last several weeks working with our colleagues in the Twin Cities and around the country in response to Operation Metro surge.
What we are seeing is what we've known for a long time.
Immigration is central to this administration's agenda and its identity.
It's been the source of pressure and challenges to cities.
when it comes to funding, when it comes to your policies, when it comes to your interactions with your community and public safety.
It's also been a place where we've seen cities innovate.
We've seen cities demonstrate leadership when it comes to their policies of engaging their community, showing what community rights can be, and how to use a sort of whole of government approach to combating government.
One area that's a particular focus has been efforts to coerce cities into complying with the policy demands of the federal government.
And that has meant that for us, we're involved in litigation that is trying to save $22 billion in federal funding because the federal government is trying to force cities to change their policies and to participate how the federal government wants in immigration enforcement.
But cities are fighting back.
Many cities have refused to comply.
They have challenged and litigated these unconstitutional threats.
They've fought to preserve this funding, which has been crucial for health care, transportation, housing, and more.
And what we're seeing is that when cities stand together and they leave their communities, they can prevail.
They can win.
They can push back.
They can be effective.
We know there's a lot of pressure.
We know it's not easy.
But more and more we are seeing cities band together with our partnership to fight for their values and to fight for their communities.
So let me go into a few key developments.
So on the non-cooperation policies, this has been a particular focus of emphasis for the administration.
There have been executive orders, there have been memos from DOJ and DHS about attacking so-called sanctuary or welcoming policies.
They've actually never been defined.
I think that in general, what we're talking about are state and local policies that prohibit police involvement in immigration enforcement or that don't honor ICE detainers.
These are the requests from ICE that a local jail or state prison hold somebody after their release date so that ICE can come pick them up.
And so I think those are sort of the two main focuses when you look at sort of all the enforcement actions that DOJ has brought and the so-called sort of sanctuary list that they put together.
In terms of what we've seen from action, there was a publication of a list by DHS, but it was later pulled down, had a lot of errors in it, included, I think, some Second Amendment sanctuary jurisdictions, among other things.
There's also an injunction right now that covers more than 50 jurisdictions across the country to protect across the board funding cuts for those jurisdictions because of their welcoming ordinances, because of their sanctuary policies.
We've also seen numerous enforcement actions against cities and states for their ordinances, for their laws on this issue.
They have all been unsuccessful.
All of them.
They are cookie-cutter cases, and they all have lost.
What we're also seeing increasingly is the use of federal funding as a mechanism to coerce local governments to participate in immigration enforcement.
So, as I mentioned, DOT, HHS funding, DHS funding, many programs that are crucial to your ability to support your communities to help your communities thrive, there are efforts to tie them to immigration enforcement.
And we've been a part of a case that's called King County versus Turner that includes 75 jurisdictions.
And as I said, billions of federal dollars have been preserved with those conditions wiped out of them as a result of the court intervention.
We're also closely following a potential threat or potential freeze of federal funding to 14 states in DC relating to sanctuary policies.
That, in spite of the fact that there's an injunction against that type of cross-the-board threat.
Obviously, with the activities in Minneapolis have brought to the fore the enforcement surges and the ways in which DHS has been going to cities around the country to increase its enforcement activities and to terrorize communities.
And we've seen challenges by cities and states against those deployments, as well as challenges to the tactics of those deployments.
And both have had some successes.
Cities and states have been involved in trying to stave off to stop those deployments.
We've seen that with the National Guard.
Portland was involved in the case to push off the National Guard in Oregon.
We also saw the Illinois-Chicago case go all the way up to the Supreme Court, and there was a victory for local and state governments to push back the ability of the federal government to unnecessarily deploy the National Guard against local governments and their communities.
We're also now seeing state and local governments get in the game of pushing back against these surges.
There's a case in Illinois that's sort of in its very early stages, and then the Minnesota versus Nome case, which includes Minneapolis and St. Paul.
And I just want to lift up for you, we've got that highlighted on the slide here.
We organize an amicus brief that many of the mayors here joined, and there will definitely be opportunity for other cities to join when that case proceeds further into the court.
So if you're interested in that, please do reach out afterwards.
Advocacy groups have been involved in pushing back against the tactics of DHS.
This has involved racial profiling, harassment of observers, stopping of protests.
What we've seen is district courts issuing narrow, tailored injunctions based on factual findings and information that's developed in those cases that have been, I think, strong and sound, but appellate courts that have been less receptive, including the Supreme Court.
And so that's often limited the effect of some of these injunctions.
I want to just also move quickly to sort of efforts unilaterally by this administration to change immigration policy.
I'll talk about birthright citizenship in a minute, but I think the administration has taken numerous actions to significantly impact groups that have lawful presidents and their ability to adjust their status.
It's ended several programs, including temporary protected status for many communities.
And this is having devastating impacts on local economies with TPS being eliminated, people lose their work authorization, businesses lose their workforce, and that has a particular impact.
Speaking with one mayor last night, it has a particular impact on the healthcare industry.
But it's not just in the immigration space.
For example, DOT amended an issue, issued a rule that was trying to take away the licenses for commercial drivers solely because they lacked certain status.
And that was going to affect public transit in many cities because that license is required to drive a bus or engage in sort of other activities relating to public transit.
Voter Rolls and Beyond 00:02:49
unidentified
So we're seeing an across-the-board effort to change immigration policy at the executive level.
And I think birthright citizenship, which is an example I just want to lift up quickly, is probably the sort of best known.
That's a day one executive order to change the definition of birthright citizenship, which the 14th Amendment and the Supreme Court have long understood to be for anybody who is in the United States when they are born, irrespective of the lawful presence of their parents.
But the Trump administration is trying through executive order to change that meaning.
That case has gone up to the Supreme Court now twice.
It didn't decide the issue last term.
The CASA case was a case in which a nationwide injunction was cut down.
But it's hearing the case again after a nationwide class action was certified.
And that's another opportunity for your voices to be heard to join an amicus brief that we will prepare for the court about why this is so important to honor the rule of law and to protect your immigrant communities.
Okay, and I know I need to wrap up.
I just want to make one more point.
The immigration policy changes connect to so many other issues, including elections.
There have been executive orders relating to demonstrated proof of citizenship.
There have been lawsuits against local governments, state governments seeking voter rolls.
And we saw last week A.G. Bondi's letter demanding the voter rolls as a condition to end Operation Metro Search.
So it's really crucial to connect those dots.
Thus far, courts have enjoyed the executive order provision about proof of citizenship, and the cases seeking the voter rolls have been unsuccessful to date.
But I do think that this is an important connection for you all to continue to see because using immigration as a wedge on democracy, on racial justice, on public safety will continue to be efforts to undermine the ability of local governments to deliver for their communities.
Thank you for the time.
You can clap for that.
Thank you so much, Jonathan, for doing that.
We have a number of other mayors we're going to ask to present a little bit of an update on what they're seeing in their cities and what lessons they've learned.
And so I think what Mayor Cowen are going to do is actually go through all of our other presenters and then we can do open QA to any of the panelists you want to ask to at the end.
And so we'll go ahead and roll through.
I'll give it over to Mayor Town to take our next measures.
Thanks, Mayor.
As we shift this conversation to what cities are experiencing on the ground, it's important to recognize that while our context may differ, the challenges we face are shared.
Mayors Share Lessons Learned 00:15:09
unidentified
Across the country, cities are navigating how federal immigration actions intersect with local public safety, service delivery, and community trust.
Local governments are often the first point of contact for residents seeking clarity, reassurance, and support during moments of uncertainty.
To help ground this discussion in lived experience, I'm pleased to invite Mayor Jiv Hovelin from Edina to share what's happening in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region and how cities and local agencies there are supporting immigrant communities.
Mayor Hovelin?
Yes.
Thanks.
Thanks, Mr. Mayor.
Well, many of you were probably at the press conference yesterday where Elizabeth Collins, Mayor Burnsville, past chair of the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, reported out generally on immigration enforcement.
And then one of the reporters asked, are there any cities in Minnesota that are working together?
And then I went up to respond on behalf of 13 cities that have formed a coalition.
A couple of weeks ago when Laura and I were visiting, we were hoping that Mayor Frank would be here.
He was able to be with us all at noon, for those of you that saw him speak at noon.
But as a backup, the next-door neighbor, Mayor from Edina, is bringing the message from Minnesota for all of you.
I've thought about this.
Language is important.
I think the language is important yesterday at our press conference.
It is again today.
And so here are my panel remarks as I talk to my fellow mayors.
And I tell you that I come to report plainly on what we have seen and felt in our towns and our cities in Minnesota.
The work of federal enforcement over the past few weeks in the Twin Cities brought them into our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our schools, our churches, and our medical facilities.
The effects have not been abstract or theoretical.
They have been very human, immediate, and consequential, and it has carried out, reshaped our cities in ways none of us who were elected to lead our communities could ignore.
We were told the actions would be precise.
They were not.
We were told their effects would be contained.
They were not.
Fear has not confined itself to a single household or status.
Citizens have withdrawn alongside non-citizens.
Law-abiding residents learned that invisibility felt safer than participation.
Here's what we have observed.
First, a deep chill of uncertainty settled over many lawful, hardworking residents, citizens and non-citizens alike.
We saw enforcement as visible, sudden, physical, and it did not stop neatly at the door of those that it sought.
It spread outward, touching mixed-status families, lawful permanent residents, and even long-standing citizens who shared a name, an accent, a color, or a fear.
Attendance fell at schools, putting kids behind in their education.
Patients delayed care at medical facilities and risked adverse outcomes.
And faith and worship became a very, very private matter.
Trust, we have learned, once shaken, is slow to return.
Second, there has been an economic reckoning.
In Minnesota, our restaurants, food processing plants, construction sites, elder care facilities, and hospitals rely upon immigrant labor.
When enforcement actions are abrupt, entire workforces can vanish overnight.
Not only undocumented workers, but legal employees who choose silence or absence over risk.
Third, we have the paradox of public safety.
Local law enforcement, sworn to protect all residents, has found its work harder when communities fear that any interaction with law enforcement may carry federal consequence.
And finally, there's been a burden placed upon local government.
Mayors and city council members are left to explain federal actions we do not control, to calm fears we did not create, and to mend relationships strained by forces beyond our municipal boundaries.
We have been asked in effect to hold the fabric of community together while others pulled hard upon its threads.
In just a few short weeks, this is what we have learned in Minnesota.
No city can thrive without the rule of law and no nation can govern without borders.
But enforcement, as practiced, did not merely remove individuals.
It hollowed out civic life, undermined public safety, and left local leaders to pick up to pieces.
We have also learned democracy cannot prosper when enforcement is divorced from proportionality, clarity, and humanity.
The strength of our country has never rested solely in the vigor and rigor of its laws, but in the confidence of its people that those laws are carried out with fairness and wisdom.
I talked yesterday a little bit about the character of Minnesotans.
And these Minnesotans that I am a part of have long understood that order is preserved not by fear, but by legitimacy.
That rules endure not because they are imposed, but because they are believed to be fair.
That when authority overreaches, as it has been doing in our state, Minnesotans do not only shout, they reason, they document, they challenge, and they persist.
They insist relentlessly that power explain itself.
They demand that force justify its use.
They appeal not to impulse, but to principle, and they persevere in seeking to right injustice.
In doing so, they have kept faith with the Constitution, not as an abstraction, but as a living discipline that defines moral and legal conduct.
In these trouble-filled days, the nation should know that Minnesota has not resisted legal immigration enforcement.
It has resisted excess.
It does not reject law.
It rejects lawlessness, clothing, and authority.
It does not deny the nation's right to govern its borders, but it insists that such governance be worthy of and deferential to a free people.
Whether the federal government will now recognize that cities are not collateral terrain, that trust once broken is far harder to restore than it is to shatter, and that enforcement should be carried out with wisdom and respect for human dignity, regardless of immigration status, remains a very, very open question.
So, this then is the message from Minnesota.
Immigration enforcement, when conducted without close coordination with local realities and respect, does not merely remove individuals, it reshapes communities.
It alters behavior, weakens trust, and imposes costs that towns and cities will long carry out after the headlines fade.
If enforcement continues in other cities as it has in Minnesota and Minneapolis in particular, we will not be debating immigration alone.
We will be confronting the long-term damage done to the relationship between government and the government.
And that is a reckoning no republic should take lightly.
In time when this chapter in Minnesota history is read, not in the headlines, but in history, I hope it may be said that when the nation faltered between fear and fairness regarding who deserves to live in our country, that Minnesota chose the harder path, not really to oppose what was wrong, but to help build what was right.
That will be no small service to a very troubled country.
Thank you.
Thank you Mayor Hovland for your insights.
Our next perspective comes from the West Coast.
Mayor Keith Wilson leads the city of Portland, Oregon, which has been at the center of national conversations about immigration enforcement, public safety, and community response.
Today, he'll speak about the situation in Portland, Oregon, and how local agencies are supporting immigrant communities in the wake of recent ICE raids.
Mayor Wilson, thank you for joining us.
Thank you, Mayors.
I appreciate it.
John, the administration has a habit of mentioning Portland, Oregon alongside Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis.
I'll take the compliment to be included in that company.
That's what makes events like this so important and our gathering so valuable.
I've been in close contact with many of you throughout the nation, and your guidance over this short year in office has been invaluable to me, and I look forward to really leaning on you in the years ahead.
We're the 28th largest city in the nation.
We're a true mid-size American city.
That said, we're punching above our weight class and pushing back against the current administration, and we're winning.
We've been at such a high level of vigilance, and the problem with that is we're always looking around the corner wondering when the shoe is going to drop.
When is that enforcement going to come?
Portland has been winning because we've done the work and we've built a coalition.
And I really do owe Mr. Miller a debt of gratitude.
He's been working with our city attorney, Robert Taylor, and we've been pushing back on the administration through lawsuits, a constant vigilance of making sure that we're dotting our I's and we're crossing our T's, gaining temporary restraining orders, working with the governor, our attorney general, and each step of the way we've been able to really rely on the law.
And the law is what truly is going to allow us to build strength in our unity, to build strength in our republic, to continue to move forward.
Every time we respond to the administration, we don't wait in alone.
Our press conferences include political leaders, faith leaders, and community leaders, a lot of them.
I looked at Mayor Kebler right there from Bend.
As a new mayor, I saw my predecessor, Mayor Wheeler, go toe-to-toe with President Trump in 2020, 21, and 22.
He could not compete on the national stage with a man who oftentimes wouldn't be truthful.
It was a clarion call for me to say that upon entering office, if I were going to be presented with that behavior, I wasn't going to stand alone.
And I built a coalition with the mayors in Oregon to come stand with me at press conferences, and so I owe you a debt of gratitude, Mayor Beatty from Beaverton, Mayor Stoffel from Gresham, and dozens others, because I knew that I didn't have the experience that many of you have to get Portland through this very important moment.
And I'm deeply grateful.
Our press conferences are extraordinary because they include religious figures, activists, those on the left and those on the right.
Every member of the public watching is able to look at our lineup and see at least one person they feel represented by.
We keep that coalition intact by concentrating our efforts on our values and our politics, pardon me, on our values over the politics.
I'll give you a caveat.
When building this coalition, engage with the builders, not the records.
If you're here to do the right thing and help people, you have a seat at our table.
However, if you're using tensions with the federal government to act out, we'll starve you of the attention you so clearly crave.
These press conferences have my police chief, who's so well regarded in my community, and the leader of the ACLU.
In my time as mayor, I never thought I'd see that.
But that's what this event has done to us.
It's created relationships with people we never thought we'd have bedfellows because this isn't a political issue.
This is an American issue.
We didn't choose this fight, but we can choose where it takes place.
My approach has been not to do national cable news because that's the administration's hunting ground.
Anything you say will be run against a B-roll and the worst incidents that have happened in your city, even on the friendly networks.
Offer to take the interviews, but only if the network sends a correspondent to see the situation for themselves.
You all saw the true social, that Portland was on fire, that we were crime-ridden, we were being overrun, and a lot of people began to believe that.
I discounted that and had 50 networks calling me, and I didn't take one of those interviews, but I insisted they came and visited me at the city.
So CBS came, The Daily Show, a host of others, the New York Times, and I would put them in my car and I drove them by the ICE facility one block in a city 145 square miles with 650,000 residents.
And all they could do when they saw the frog or the banana boy was laugh.
And that's what you did just with that.
Because that was the farce and the absurdity of what we're dealing with.
But it's deadly serious when you think about it.
Lazy reporters will move on and just do a quick drive-by hit piece.
Nobody will remember.
Ask them to engage.
The ones who come and see for themselves will see and will change the narrative.
And I hope you have seen that narrative changed.
Portland is in the midst of a reputational renaissance because the hard work we've done.
A lot of you have pointed fingers at us two, three, four years ago.
I invite you to come and visit.
And you will see the hard work that we've done that we should be celebrating with the administration, not being highlighted as a failed government.
Make sure you give the public something to do.
Encourage peaceful protests, calm, nonviolent protests.
My city is a tinder keg.
It's just ready to go.
I can feel it with each one of the events.
Renee Goods' event.
We had two people shot in our community the day after.
I was on with Jacob Fry asking him, what advice do you have?
Give your individuals, your residents, something to do.
Come out and protest loud and proud.
We had a 50,000-person gathering in Portland, and it was the most peaceful event we've ever had.
I would also say that.
Also, work with your police.
They are tired because they had oftentimes been at the crosshair.
But now our police are our agents of peaceful, calm de-escalation, and their stature has been raised up.
But they're tired because they're frightened.
They don't know when they're going to have to get in the middle of an event that they frankly don't want to be a part of.
Help them have the important conversations and keep people safe.
Portland has recently had the largest protests, and we're very proud about that.
So bring your team out, bring your crowd out, and encourage that.
Hypocrisy is a dead concept.
Politically speaking, nobody cares that the administration says one thing and does another or holds different groups of people to different standards.
Pointing it out makes you look like the least one to notice what everybody else knew all along.
Talk about your values and your priorities in your community.
Grants and Retribution 00:09:57
unidentified
Focus on your progress and then talk about your actions.
What are you going to do for our citizens, for our residents today?
Final thought, keep your heads above water.
Don't respond to everything.
Don't worry about the daily news cycle.
Don't sprint.
This is going to be a marathon.
I truly believe we have three years left.
And the tone and tenor that we take out of this room right now, I think, will set the course for our cooperation and our ability to really chart a path for our cities that is caring for our residents, which is what they're looking to us for right now.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor Wilson.
So at this time, I'd like to open up for questions from the mayors around the table.
I'd like to add a comment, if I may.
So my name is Dina Ishii.
I'm Mayor of the City of Berkeley, California.
I want to say that we joined or were in the process of joining the amicus brief.
So I just messaged our city attorney.
We've actually given our city attorney the authority to join any brief that is going to be in benefit of this effort.
So, I want to just let the mayors know that we're with you.
When we had our protests, we had people dressed as frogs and a nod to Portland.
We have put out a resolution in support of the mayors of Minnesota.
And I wanted to share with you all as a Japanese American whose family was incarcerated by the United States government during World War II as U.S. citizens.
I take this very seriously.
And I think it's really important right now that we're looking to make sure that we do not repeat history.
This is our opportunity to stand up.
And I really hope that, Mayors, that you will continue to bring this courage that we see here in this room back to your cities so that we make sure that we stop what's going on right now and we protect our people because that is what really matters most right now.
So I want to say thank you all for your bravery and for the work that you're doing to protect your communities.
Yeah, my name is Adrian Mapp, and I am the mayor of the city of Plainview, New Jersey.
And as you can probably tell from my accent, I am an immigrant.
My mother came here in the late 1960s as an undocumented individual.
Because of her sacrifices, I have never been undocumented, but she sacrificed.
And we are all immigrants.
And we've been told that this is about getting rid of the worst of the worst.
And there's no evidence that that is what this is all about.
We seem to be living in a dystopian society today.
And I wonder from you, the panelists, what do you see as the end game?
Because it doesn't appear to me that this is really about immigration enforcement, that there's some other agenda at work here.
What might that be?
I appreciate your story, and I believe that what's at stake here is telling a very different version of what we think America is, which is, I think, the actual story is this is a land of immigrants.
Our state of Colorado is made up of a third of the state that never crossed the border, the border crossed them.
Southern Colorado was Mexico until we took it over, and those folks stayed, became citizens, wrote our state constitution, made this state and this country their own.
And I think what people believe was that this issue could divide us, that by immigrants arising or arriving to our communities, that would pit the cities against each other and they would push to evict those immigrants.
And what we've seen in Denver is the opposite.
Actually, that experience has bound us together, where you had folks who came out of their homes at 7 in the morning to flip pancakes for people to damn places to live.
You'll see every new immigrant in the city wearing an East High School or a North High School sweatshirt because some kid found a sweatshirt in her closet that she wanted to make sure someone else could have.
I think this is about saying that actually, when you welcome immigrants and you support them, your cities are safer, they're more vibrant, their economy thrives, and the country thrives.
That's, I think, the story we're fighting to win on, because I think the other one is a much darker version of a smaller, narrower, more exclusive version of America that I think we never signed up for.
Go ahead.
So I have questions relating to kind of the fear that cities are having when it comes down to speaking out.
So certainly sensitive to immigrants within our community that say, you know, be loud and be out there.
And then those that are saying not to because of the fear that ICE will come into our community.
Also, side note, maybe less important, but very but has a huge impact is the funding that our cities get and the grants and all this other stuff that is pending, where there is a fear that if we speak out, that we'll be, you know, the retribution will be real and will be made an example of.
So, just wondering if there's some conversations surrounding that that you all can speak to.
As a side note, like our transit grant that we received, there's language in there that talks about DEI, DEI, transit, nothing to do with each other.
But if you don't, if you're against it, then your transit grant could be, you know, kind of in trouble.
And so, just wanted to know if anyone is dealing with that and if you can speak to that.
Yes.
I know many of us are.
Anyone else want to jump in on this?
I'm happy to say a word and welcome anyone else.
We face this same challenge.
Transportation grants you'll lose if you support DEI policies.
Health grants will use if we support care for LGBTQ individuals.
Transit grants will lose if we continue to be a welcoming city.
And at each stage, our belief has been we're not going to be bullied or blackmailed out of our values.
And so we've stood clearly on those.
We've sued to fight that that's unconstitutional.
And I think the more of us that raise our voices collectively, the more powerful that voice is, and the less you can be singled out.
I will say, our activist community, I think similar to Portland, they've also been very thoughtful about this, which is we've had protests probably every week of the last year and a half, but every one of them has been peaceful.
And they know it's in their best interest and ours to send a signal that we are upset, we are resisting, and we are peaceful because it gives them no excuse to say we better send the National Guard into Denver because there's chaos there.
No, there's dissent, but there is not chaos.
If I could, Mayor, just I'm Tim Bussy, Mayor of Bloomington, Minnesota.
And in answer to your question, we have seen in Minnesota, in our communities beyond Minneapolis, and I think it's important to note that this is happening beyond the city of Minneapolis.
This is throughout the state of Minnesota and into our suburbs, including Edina and Burnsville and Bloomington.
And quite simply, retribution is real.
And that's in the words of the President of the United States: that retribution was coming to Minneapolis for standing up.
And we have seen that in a number of different ways.
Every federal agency or government program in the state of Minnesota has been impacted, from agriculture on down.
We have seen personal retribution.
We've heard stories from the police chief of Brooklyn Park who had an off-duty police officer, she's Hispanic in heritage, who was literally forced off the road by four unmarked cars and questioned as she tried to record.
Her phone was slapped out of her hand.
And it was only when she said, I'm a police officer.
And if you know off-duty cops, you're never supposed to say, I'm a cop, because that's just, you're not supposed to do that as a way to avoid trouble.
Only then did they back off.
The police chief in Brooklyn Park held a press conference explaining that.
And within the next couple of days, there were hundreds of ICE agents in the city of Brooklyn Park.
And the one that especially chilled me, and I heard this from my staff: Ramsey County is the county in which St. Paul is in.
And Ramsey County, like many counties, has a library system.
And They had spoken out in a certain way in Ramsey County, and within days, a librarian in the Ramsey County library system was subpoenaed only because she's, I believe, Vietnamese in heritage.
Retribution is real.
So this whole notion of, I agree completely to stand up and so on, but to understand that Anything, any reaction, any response by cities at a level of two is going to get punched back at a level of eight.
And I firmly believe that.
And if, and I've told my residents this, if I speak out, if I slam the table, if I go after somebody, notwithstanding my story from yesterday, by the way, folks, if I step up in my mayor's role like this, the folks who are going to be impacted are the black and brown people in my community, not me.
Mayor Bussey On Community Rights 00:15:23
unidentified
I'm not the one who's getting thrown into the back of an unmarked van.
So it's a balancing act, and it's one that's, frankly, weighing heavy on me in a lot of ways.
Because I know there is a call for more city, for the city to stand up more forcefully, but I also know that we will not be the ones to pay the price.
Go ahead.
Cyril Jefferson from High Point, North Carolina, Mike and John, appreciate you both leading on this.
The Gray Eight new mayor's program both being represented.
I appreciate you guys.
In our city, we have like nonprofit organizations who we sometimes collaborate with, and they're offering Fourth Amendment trainings and so on and so forth.
Can you all just talk about in some of your scenarios, and if I missed some of this earlier, forgive me, but where you are leaning on collaboration with those non-governmental organizations who may be offering everything from trainings to other resources and supports so that way it's a more collaborative effort across the community.
You know, that coalition building was intentional.
I felt rudderless at the beginning of this, like I didn't know what to do and was really able to rely on the mayors.
But we have a group called the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition.
And with that coalition of mayors I put together, they asked to come in and present to us.
And so we really went and welcomed it.
We did a live stream with 12 mayors in the short region that's right around Portland.
And we brought that group in to present live stream to our entire community.
So we had auditoriums with individuals at 12 different cities because we needed to educate what are we doing.
Now, as the mayor of Portland, my colleague from Indiana or from Minneapolis, I'm sorry, is right.
You don't want to provoke, but it doesn't mean you can't communicate and coordinate, collaborate, and care for your community.
And so what we've done is in the mayor's office, I'm hiring an immigrant liaison officer.
I want those community members to know that I'm listening, I'm caring, and we have weekly meetings with them.
So I think my advice is be proactive.
I know we're all reacting right now.
Be proactive.
Bring your community in.
Fear and chaos is what is allowing this administration to win.
The division is allowing them to win.
The way we really win is we bring information to the community.
And we have, like I said, the ACOU and the police are working together.
Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition doing training, live stream trainings with all the mayors.
We're just really communicating well.
And when the city and the residents see the mayor doing that, I think that's one of the reasons the city hasn't blown up on me is because we've been really communicating and building that relationship with the community members, letting them know we've got your back.
We're doing the best we can.
We're trying.
And so I would say try and put that plan together.
I could answer that a little bit too on behalf of the, I think, the nonprofits in the cities and the Twin Cities area.
There's a long history of collaboration.
I think many of you heard me mention yesterday that when storms arrive in Minnesota in the wintertime, as they always do, it's not panic that sets in, but what prevails among all Minnesotans is purpose.
And so that purpose of collaborating together to make sure that neighbors are fed, that kids are getting to school, that we can do all the things that we need to do.
It's a common Minnesota trait.
And so for Mayor Bussey, who has in his town next to mine the largest food shelf in the state of Minnesota, all of our cities are trying to make sure that we support the financial needs that they have.
Nonprofits are helping support them.
Neighbors are forming up long lines of cars to pick up groceries to take to people that don't dare leave their homes.
Kids are getting taken to schools and daycare.
As somebody mentioned, I think even some folks are standing guard at daycare to make sure that families don't get separated.
So this is what goes on in Minnesota, and all those wonderful nonprofits that we have are collaborating together, whether they have a school affiliation or a more general public affiliation or are built around food security or rental security.
They're all working together.
I would also ask, as I look around this room, each and every one of us have a lot of great faith communities in our cities.
Mayors are the great conveners, and I convene our faith leaders to come together to identify what the issues are and what we can do together to make sure that our people are taken care of.
I have two big mosques in my city.
They show up in these convening.
I have Christians, Jews, Hindis, and they show up and working together and not being afraid.
But let me tell you, as Mayor Bussey has said, retribution is real.
And because of my statements, what Mayor Bussey talked about, ICE agents have doubled up in my city.
We have a fragile democracy.
And it is our responsibility as mayors to ensure that each and every day we fight to make sure that we don't lose this wonderful experiment called American Democracy.
And each and every one of us took an oath to say that we will support and uphold the Constitution of these United States.
Please remember that each and every day, that that is our prime directive.
And there are times there is a balance, as Mayor Bussey spoke to, about what are you going to say and how is it going to hurt your residents and your businesses.
Too many of our businesses are closed.
I just had more reports this morning.
And one of the things that's happening, one of the reports that I received that this morning Mr. Holman made a speech and he's now going after our observers who are paying witness And recording the experience that they are seeing.
So, more retribution.
And the people of Minnesota are not going to back down.
We're going to stay strong.
We're going to protect our democracy.
We're going to protect the Constitution that we uphold and support.
So, mayors, as I sit here and I look around this table, my heart is heavy for all of us.
You asked the question, what's the end game?
It's us, the collective voice of the citizens of this country to stand together and to protect our democracy.
It may be messy, but it's worth fighting for.
So, I have a question.
If I could, please.
Sharon Tucker, Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
And today, we convened a meeting with my leadership team at one to discuss our plans and our options because Fort Wayne is the second largest city of the state of Indiana, but we have the largest Burmese population.
And for all those who have been watching the news, our department has released the protection for the Myanmar community and members living in Burma.
So, my community is now living on the edge of their seat of fear that ICE will be moving into our community.
And so, there was a question posed to me today that I was unable to answer.
I'm hoping that those of you who have experienced ICE in your community could assist us with this.
And the question was: if a firefighter or a police officer witnesses a member of ICE harming a community individual that needs care, what would be the appropriate way for them to intervene to give that care?
Should they identify themselves and then ask if they should give care?
Should they wait till ICE moves on?
What can we do to make sure that we are keeping our members safe and providing them the vital services of public safety that is our responsibility?
I'll jump in on this one.
Thank you for the question.
I think what we've seen from cities across the country is it's really important to give clear direction to public safety about interactions with Homeland Security.
So, I think your question gets to that.
There are obviously different approaches across the country.
I think encouraging your public safety to engage directly with your residents to ensure their safety is really crucial.
Obviously, if somebody from DHS blocks them from getting involved, that's one thing.
But giving them direction that you want them to provide care and support to a community member as they always would in the public, I think is something that is an appropriate direction to give them and to clarify for them.
And I think in a moment where there's uncertainty about the community, I think that also creates opportunity, like you heard from some of these mayors, to engage partners in the community, to support know-your-rights trainings, and other ways to partner with the local community so that immigrants feel connected and supported.
I'll just say, Mayor, because I asked the same question to our city attorney and our chief of police, and our answer is clearly yes.
Our officers have a duty to intervene if someone is injured or in need of aid, and if someone is in the way of that intervention, we have the opportunity to remove them.
And so, I think we do believe that is the law in our city.
If that instance happens, I would encourage you to look into your own.
But I think our officers would feel like they were derelict in their own duty if they couldn't do that.
That's what they took the oath for, and they plan to keep it.
I have a question.
Angelo Castillo, Pedro Pines, Florida.
I'm not clear about where the lines get drawn on jurisdictional questions in terms of enforcement, Fourth Amendment questions, 10th Amendment questions, the basic constitutional issues that the mayor was referring to.
There seems to be a complete blur, even though we have an era right now where the federal courts are essentially leaning in a strict constructionist sort of way.
I just heard a Minneapolis mayor say that he feels he's being invaded.
Those are strong words in a constitutional sense.
Where is the law on this and how is that evolving?
Because there are Fourth Amendment questions that I see.
There are 10th Amendment questions there, I see.
There are local jurisdiction prosecutorial issues.
How does that all sort of lay out?
Where's the toolbox?
So let me unpack that real quick.
On the federalism issue, the 10th Amendment issue that you're raising.
The law is very clear that the federal government can't coerce, can't force local governments to engage in immigration enforcement.
Well, in my city, that's exactly what they did.
Well, I was forced, I was, my city was forced to sign an enforcement agreement.
287G, right?
That's correct.
Yeah, under statement.
Under threat of removal from office.
That's a state law in Florida that's mandating.
That's right.
Yeah.
So that's different than the federal government mandating.
Okay.
But I mean, still, I mean, this does theoretically apply to.
For instance, we have the opposite state law in Colorado that we do not comply with 287Gs, and so we don't do that under our state law.
So I think that is a state law distinction.
But we just joined the Minneapolis suit over this very 10th Amendment question, which is it's the commandeering clause.
You cannot commandeer the role of local law enforcement by federal law enforcement, whether you're either forcing local law enforcement to do your bidding or you're just overwhelming local law enforcement such that you are the de facto law enforcement because your troops outnumber the local police department two or three or five to one.
We would argue that is commandeering local law enforcement and that's a violation of the 10th Amendment.
So that's what Minneapolis is suing under and we've joined.
Yeah, those issues are the subject of litigation in Minnesota right now.
Because anecdotally, I think by affidavit, they're getting testimony from people regarding the issues of racial profiling, entering people's homes through coercion, trying to enter somebody's house with an administrative warrant instead of a judicial warrant.
All these issues are, and behavioral conduct is in front of the federal court, federal district court in Minnesota right now.
Well, I'm a law and order guy, but no wonder their faces are covered.
Well said.
Go ahead.
So thank you.
Thank you, Mayor.
So unfortunately, I think we're out of time for this session.
I know that there's a lot more to talk about, and I encourage everyone to stay engaged.
At this time, I'll pass it over to Mayor Johnson for final remarks.
A 60-second closing.
I mean, we talked about this, and Jonathan mentioned it.
You know, the president has announced that as of February 1, which will be Monday, they will cut all federal funds to any city or state that they deem to be supporting or welcoming migrants.
That means we could all wake up on Monday morning with different cities with different policies and different populations, and all of us at risk at losing access to core federal dollars.
Imagine if you passed a policy to say you're going to stop picking up trash for folks who didn't vote for you or stop providing police services to folks in certain neighborhoods of the city.
It would be unconscionable.
And so I would just say we're going to have the chance, hopefully, to either stand together if that happens or to be able to hope that it doesn't.
But in the event that we wake up with that eventuality, I think the key is mayors are going to have to hold together in that moment to say, how do we stand up for the basic notion that you're entitled to services as a taxpayer in this country when you pay taxes?
Because I think that will be what's at stake.
And I'll just close with the mayor of Berkeley's comments.
Mayors United 00:02:58
unidentified
You know, the Justice Center in the center of Denver, which is our state justice center, is named after Ralph Carr, who was the Republican governor of Colorado in the 1940s when the U.S. government started interning Japanese Americans.
And he resisted and refused and said this is un-American and unconstitutional.
And I was unpopular and he lost re-election.
He never won a second term.
But at the end of 2001, the Denver Post said, who is the single most important citizen of the 20th century in Colorado?
It was Ralph Carr.
Because in a moment when those things were unpopular, he stood up for the values that were most enduring.
I think that's going to be our challenge in this moment, and I hope we will stand together when it comes.
Sorry.
If you do...
If you do want to reach out for help, support, contact, let me give you an email address.
It's lwaxman at usmayors.org.
Laura is the organizes this committee.
So if you want to get in touch with a fellow mayor, you need support, you have questions about what collective action we can take, that would be the best contact.
Thank you all so much for being here.
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Senate Passes Spending Bills 00:00:39
unidentified
The Senate has passed the remaining spending bills and temporary funding for the Homeland Security Department and ICE to reopen the government.
The deal came together after negotiations between Senate Democrats and the White House.
Prior to the votes, one senator, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, objected, bringing the floor to a standstill because the House had repealed a law allowing senators, but not House members, to sue the government if their phones had been searched without their consent.
He eventually lifted his hold after being promised a vote in the future on his issue.
Prior to that, he explained his reasoning to place the hold.
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