The Pine Bluff City Council will consider a resolution sponsored by Alderman Steven Mays today at 5:30 p.m. which will attempt to declare Pine Bluff as a “Secure and and Friendly Environs (Safe) City”
The resolution states “all residents of the community should be free of the fear of being ripped from their homes and returned to hostile and potentially deadly environments.”
Additionally, the resolution state “city law enforcement and regulatory resources are limited and are more appropriately used for matters expressly reserved for municipal governments by Arkansas law, rather than determining residency status of individuals and municipal employment, service and benefits should not be contingent on the resident status of an individual.”
It also notes that municipal services will not be denied on account of a person’s residency status “unless the denial is mandated by Arkansas or Federal law,” and calls for the Mayor to designate someone “to serve as a liaison to members of the immigrant community in the city to foster better relations between the organs of municipal government and that community.”
There is a lot of debate going on regarding the resolution, specifically because the State of Arkansas has banned sanctuary or “safe” cities within the state.
Senate Bill 411 presented by Senator Gary Stubblefield, a Republican from Branch, was signed into law by Governor Asa Hutchinson in April of 2019.
The law bans Arkansas municipalities from adopting sanctuary city policies from receiving state discretionary funds or grants. Cities could not limit municipal employees and officials from cooperating with federal immigration agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They also could not grant to illegal immigrants the right to a lawful presence.
The attorney general would decide if a municipality has violated the law. No Arkansas cities have enacted sanctuary policies.
Hutchinson did note that he was concerned about a section declaring that municipalities cannot enact a policy that “prevents law enforcement officers from asking a person about his or her citizenship or immigration status.” Without probable cause, it could lead to racial profiling, he said.
“I have indicated that this is problematic that it is not included because it could lead to policing without any guidelines and police using their own judgments that could be based on what a person looks like versus good law enforcement policy,” he said.
However, he said he was signing the bill after receiving assurances from Stubblefield that the senator will support adding a probable cause requirement in the next available session – either in two years during the next General Assembly, or in a special session if one occurs before that.
“I think it’s important as I said out there to assure the public that we’re going to continue to enforce our law,” he told reporters. “We’re going to continue cooperation with our federal immigration authorities, but there should not be a climate of fear because I see municipalities continuing to make sure that they do this in a fair manner and that it will not be applied in a racially discriminatory manner, and we’ll get this corrected as soon as the Legislature can meet again.”
DeltaplexNews.com will be on hand for tonight’s city council meeting, and will report on the results once the meeting is adjourned.
