MINNEAPOLIS—Three dozen residents denounced federal immigration-enforcement actions and urged the City Council to approve a strengthened “sanctuary city” ordinance at a Dec. 9 public hearing.
Although the federal government has already sued the city over its existing immigration-related policies, several residents said updating the 2003 ordinance is necessary to protect illegal immigrants from what they said was overzealous enforcement and to maintain Minneapolis’s standing as “a progressive beacon” nationwide.
“We have seen our relatives, our neighbors, our friends, our loved ones stopped and put into deportation proceedings by this cruel immigration system that is just tearing families apart,” said Councilman Jason Chavez as he launched an explanation of “the separation ordinance.”…