The city council in Somerville, Massachusetts, voted Tuesday to reconfirm its decades-old status as a sanctuary city.
The decision comes ahead of the second term of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised mass deportations.
Somerville has been a sanctuary city since 1987. City councilors planned to vote on remaining one earlier this month, but held off until after revisiting the wording of the resolution.
Councilors did not reveal specific changes to the language, but said the new ordinance was nearly identical to the previous one.
It ensures a fund for legal services and directs Somerville police and other city departments not to accept any federal funds that come with conditions that could be used to deport residents.
Leaders also reconfirmed Somerville as a sanctuary city after Trump’s first election in 2016.
Leaders of sanctuary cities are wondering what a second Trump term will bring. Somerville, Massachusetts, was poised to sign a resolution reconfirming its status as a sanctuary city. Plus, NBC10 Boston political commentator Sue O’Connell shares her thoughts on what the Trump administration may mean for Republican governors’ policy of busing migrants to sanctuary cities.
City Councilor Judy Pineda Neufeld said earlier this month that the city had been flooded with concerned calls since the election.
“We are not going to turn our back on our immigrant neighbors and families and we are going to do everything we can,” she said at the time.
Many are calling the unexpected arrival of migrants from Venezuela in Martha’s Vineyard a humanitarian crisis.
“We are trying to send a message because, at the end of the day, people deserve to live in peace and harmony and also in dignity,” said Will Mbah, a city councilor at large who brought the resolution with Pineda Neufeld.
City councilors and members of the community spoke emotionally about the uncertainty the future holds as power shifts in Washington.
“In these increasingly hard times … we will have to put our politics aside and really work together, united, and support our constituents as much as we can,” City Councilor at Large Kristen Strezo said.
