The Democratic members of the city council in Portland, Maine, lamented with the mayor that their sanctuary city policies were powerless to actually stop federal agents.
Democratic Portland Mayor Mark Dion touted the city for its previous efforts to protect illegal immigrants before admitting that they were limited legally from stopping Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations completely.
‘They don’t have any sense of what they’re supposed to do; they just go out and do things impulsively and destructively.’
Video of the meeting from May 4 resurfaced on social media and went viral.
Dion opposed a new proposal that would put the obligation of opposing ICE on city employees, but he said his opposition had nothing to do with partisan politics.
“Where I do have a fundamental disagreement is the nature of our employees,” the mayor said. “My sense of it [is] if they want to come, they’re coming.”
He went on to call the new policy “magical” thinking that would stop ICE.
“There’s a supposition that if we have this as an ordinance, that somehow ICE is gonna move on. That’s silly,” the mayor said.
“In my mind, that’s an interesting magical thought. My conclusion is they don’t have any sense of what they’re supposed to do; they just go out and do things impulsively and destructively,” he added. “The existence of this particular couple of sentences is not gonna change their equation. I’m confident of that.”
Dion was pressured by City Councilman Pious Ali, the Democratic author of the motion, that they had not done enough to protect staff as well as immigrants from ICE.
“If we don’t have a very strong protection for our staff and our community, nobody can predict what they can do,” Ali said.
The mayor disagreed.
“If that’s the case, if in your heart you understand that ICE is gonna do what ICE is gonna do, then why do we have to have our staff controlled under the guise of an order and an ordinance, other than for political purposes?” Dion continued. “As a pragmatic purpose, it’s not gonna deter ICE.”
Despite the mayor’s exhortations, the order passed 7-1.
“There you go,” the mayor said.
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While Portland City Council members don’t have to designate their political affiliation, none are registered Republicans. All council members that have a political affiliation are either Democrats or democratic socialists.
Portland officials previously expressed their outrage at ICE operations in the city, and Councilman Wes Pelletier went so far as to call it a “war of terror” on immigrants. Pelletier is a member and leader of the Democratic Socialists of America.
The full video of the city council meeting from May 4 can be viewed on the Portland city website.
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