PORT TOWNSEND — The city council will consider a resolution Monday that would make Port Townsend a sanctuary city.
The action is proposed because of a high volume of calls and emails from the public, officials said.
“This is generated out of community concern,” said City Clerk Joanna Sanders. “We got calls and a lot of emails. Enough of those came in so the council felt it would disrupt the rest of their meetings if they didn’t address it.”
The special meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday in council chambers at historic City Hall, 540 Water St.
If passed, the resolution would make Port Townsend the only sanctuary city on the North Olympic Peninsula, putting it at risk of losing federal funding due to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 25.
The order threatens cities and counties that don’t comply with 8 U.S.C 1373, which states that state and local governments cannot restrict Immigration and Naturalization Services from information regarding a person’s immigration status.
Public comment
The council isn’t likely to make a decision during Monday’s meeting, Sanders said, but members will take public comment and plan how to move forward.
“The decisions would be the council instructing staff what to do next and scheduling when the issue will come back, or if it does come back, before the council,” Sanders said.
The draft resolution at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-PTsanctuary says the president’s orders “target immigrants and refugees based on their religion and national origin which is contrary to federal and state law, the Constitution of the United States, the City of Port Townsend municipal code, and the widely shared values of members of our community.”
It says that, as a sanctuary city, Port Townsend “will have policies that instruct employees to refuse the application of any request from a state or federal agency that requires the identification of a resident’s immigration status, leaving that determination to federal authorities, except police officers where police officers have a reasonable suspicion that a person is committing or has committed a felony criminal-law offense.”
It also says the city of Port Townsend “shall refuse any requests that are an extension of any federal immigration policy enforcement actions to federal authorities and shall not enter into any agreements to carry out such federal enforcement actions, but leave such actions to federal authorities.”
It adds that Port Townsend “will defend itself against any action by the federal government and any of its agencies that seeks to penalize, constrain, defund, or otherwise bully the city or any state, county, city or organization because of its status as a sanctuary.”
The draft mirrors a city of Seattle resolution reaffirming that city’s sanctuary city status, which was approved Jan. 30.
Forbes magazine said $26.741 billion in annual federal grants and direct payments flowed into America’s 106 sanctuary cities in 2016.
No estimate was available Friday on how much federal funding Port Townsend could lose.
Aside from the sanctuary city decision, the city council also will consider a resolution that reaffirms the city’s commitment to upholding human and civil rights.
The original resolution was adopted in December and outlines that the city will honor state and federal laws against housing discrimination; uphold city personnel equal opportunity and anti-harassment policies; continue having the chief of police and city manager as safe points of contact for LGBTQ issues; continue enforcing malicious harassment laws; continuing police training on how to deal with hate crimes; and upholding resolution 09-025 and Port Townsend police policies 409.7 and 412, which limit the detention or investigation of anyone based solely on their immigration status.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@peninsuladailynews.com.