A panicked Somerville City Council, that’s it reaffirms its status as a sanctuary cityare already strategizing on how to circumvent President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to deport migrants.

A city councilman who says he has experience helping immigrants evade federal authorities has prompted the city’s director of immigrant affairs to warn councilors to “tread very lightly in these times.”

The council sent a resolution Thursday declaring its reaffirmation to the legislative affairs committee, with approval scheduled for later this month. Somerville, a sanctuary city since 1987, refused to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement over the decades since then.

Councilman Jesse Clingan, speaking on the resolution Thursday night, recounted protecting immigrant residents during Trump’s previous presidency through what he called “back-channel activism.”

Clingan said the effort included working with the Welcome Project, an immigrant advocacy organization in the city, in 2017 to provide alerts when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers might be in the area.

He specifically talked about seeing ICE waiting outside the courthouse in Somerville, waiting to take people during “those scary times.”

“Beyond what we can do legally,” Clingan said, “I encourage members of the community to come together and unite against this type of hate and these actions that are being taken against our community.”

Maria Teresa Nagel, director of SomerViva, the city’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said the reaffirmation of sanctuary status “sends a very strong message” that the city will block fear tactics that seek to disrupt its commitment to immigrant residents.

However, Clingan’s comments prompted Nagel to warn advisers to be “very careful with the strategies we might want to share publicly.”

“We want to show support,” she said, “we want to be very strategic about what we communicate, but we also want to make sure that the things we put out there aren’t used against our community.”

The resolution promises that Somerville will continue to maintain a legal services stabilization fund that provides legal representation to residents facing deportation or removal.

It orders city departments, including police and schools, not to apply for or accept federal funds that require the collection or sharing of information on national origin, immigration or citizenship status “for purposes of targeting or deportation.”

Somerville, of about 80,500 residents, nearly 24 percent of whom were born outside the country, has been a sanctuary city since 1987, two years after neighboring Cambridge became the first Bay State municipality to adopt the designation.

Six other municipalities scattered across the Bay State have adopted sanctuary provisions in the past decade: Amherst, Boston, Concord, Lawrence, Newton and Northampton.

Somerville City Councilman Lance Davis said he supports the resolution addressed Thursday, but asked for amendments to amend its language with minor changes, such as acknowledging how the council reaffirmed the sanctuary status in 2019.

The director of immigration affairs and aides talked about how they feel the city and county are headed for “very dark times” and “trouble” ahead of Trump’s return to the White House.

“The City of Somerville has a proud and long-standing history of welcoming and supporting generations of immigrants,” the resolution states, “and has continually upheld the values ​​of equity, inclusion and support for all members of the community.”

“The national political climate remains increasingly hostile to immigrants and refugees,” it adds, “and the former president’s recent return to the White House brings heightened risks to immigrant communities across the country.”

Council Vice President Judy Pineda Neufeld, the daughter of two immigrant parents, said she told her grandchildren in 2016 that they would not be deported and that they were safe because they were born in the United States.

“The rhetoric that came out of the campaign in 2016 was just as hateful and hostile as we see it today,” Pineda Neufeld said. “It really hit me that young people would go to bed in fear of what would happen to them and their families.”

Somerville’s conversation about his sanctuary designation follows Governor Maura Healey’s commitment that The Massachusetts State Police will not be used to help Trump mass deportation efforts. It also declared the state’s top law enforcement agency this kind of support is against its mission.

Under the sanctuary designation, the resolution states that Somerville “will strongly advocate that schools, hospitals, places of worship and courthouses be recognized as “sensitive locations,” shielded from federal immigration enforcement actions, to ensure an administration fair and compassionate justice. “

The resolution “also calls on neighboring Massachusetts cities to reaffirm their commitment to serving and protecting their immigrant communities by joining in solidarity to protect the rights and safety of residents.”

Councilwoman Naima Sait, an Algerian immigrant, said she felt “overwhelmed” after the election results, that she would have to deal with an administration that “has historically shaken our community.”

In 2016, when he was teaching at Somerville High School, Sait said he worked mostly with first-generation immigrant families, and some parents were forced to leave the country.

“I saw the fear in my students’ eyes every day,” she said. “I’ve seen them behind their school work as they’ve moved on to take on bigger roles in their families, becoming the primary provider, being the one who seeks legal services.”

Originally published: November 15, 2024 at 6:56 PM EST