PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — District 2 City Councilor Sameer Kanal says a proposed ordinance he has filed is an effort to codify a city resolution that was passed in March 2017. That resolution declared the city of Portland a “sanctuary city,” i.e., it cemented the idea that city employees would not assist the federal government with immigration enforcement actions.
“The resolution is great, but it is non-binding, and it’s narrow in scope. It has a lot of focus on PPB but doesn’t focus as much on the rest of the city and how we can support our employees in case they’re interacting with ICE or having, you know, work that might interact with what’s going on. So this would take that non-binding resolution, make it binding and incorporate some of the feedback we’ve been hearing from employees as well some clarify clarifications basically,” said Kanal. “It’s important that nobody in the city government … assists ICE. It’s not just PPB that has to follow that standard.”
When it comes to implementation, here’s what the councilor had to say during our one-on-one conversation with him…