Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza and mayors from across the nation spent part of Wednesday in Washington D.C. meeting with Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. The group gathered to discuss illegal immigration, and the role of local law enforcement.
Mayors across America have been in the hot seat for their vocal opposition to federal orders to use local law enforcement to carry out immigration policy. Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza says the order has already caused residents to shy away from the police, despite his repeated insistence that city police will not hold undocumented residents, nor ask about immigration status.
Elorza said the mayors were able to voice their concerns over directly to Secretary Kelly.
“I think it was a good initial conversation,” said Elorza. “Now remember he’s a military man, and he comes at this from a very apolitical, as far as I can tell, point of view. And it’s very different from the rhetoric and anti-immigrant agenda that we heard from Attorney General Sessions.”
Earlier this week Attorney General Sessions threatened to cut some federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities,” – a term which has no formal definition.
Elorza said Secretary Kelly seemed responsive to the mayors’ concerns.
“He made it a point to emphasize that folks who haven’t committed any crimes they’re simply not an enforcement priority,” said Elorza. “So we need to get more details and more clarity on exactly what it is that they mean.”
The meeting was closed to press, but Kelly’s remarks would appear to be a departure from the executive order which includes undocumented immigrants suspected of committing a crime. The mayors will now draft questions for the administration, including requesting a formal definition of the term “sanctuary city.”
