By Lisa Carolin
At its April 5 meeting, Chelsea’s Human Rights Commission discussed becoming part of the ACLU’s Freedom Cities Campaign. The campaign aims to ensure that local law enforcement officials defend rather than threaten people in the community, in particular immigrants.
The Freedom Cities Campaign is a challenge to President Donald Trump’s travel ban on refugees and his administration’s immigration enforcement in the country.
Chelsea Police Chief Ed Toth attended the meeting and said that the local police do not knock on people’s doors or look in the phone book for foreign names.
“When we go to a car accident for example, if a person involved is not here legally, we’re obligated to do something,” said Toth. “In this town, the police are not out hunting people. It’s if we find about it in the course of our normal duty.”
Toth said that the Chelsea Police Department will be meeting with members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on April 12 to learn more about their policies.
HRC member Susan Morel-Samuels, who was attending her first meeting with the HRC after being approved by the City Council March 20, suggested spending some time understanding exactly what the Freedom Cities Campaign procedures mean before going forward.
Also at the meeting, the HRC unanimously approved making a budget request of $5,000 to the City of Chelsea. Morel-Samuels suggested adding One World One Family to the Commission’s list of collaborative partners.
HRC member Tammy Stiles Beechey announced that she will have to step down from the HRC effective June 1 because she is moving to Sylvan Township so will no longer be eligible to be a member of the commission.
The commission meets next on Wednesday, April 19 in the City Council Chambers.
Editor,
While I understand the concern the HRC exhibits concerning immigrants, legal immigrants have absolutely nothing to fear from the President’s ban. It affects illegal immigrants and people from six countries and according to the US Constitution and Federal Law, the President and Congress have the legal power to limit and control legal and illegal immigration as they see fit. It is a shame that the ACLU uses fear tactics to sway the uninformed. I should hope that the HRC looks at what the actual laws say, rather than what they are told they say. Sincerely, Thomas in Freedom Twp.
Couple of questions:
1. Is this “freedom city” thing similar to the sanctuary city movement?
2. In what manner is action of this sort within the charter of the HRC, which in my understanding was to process allegations of discrimination in Chelsea?
Rod Anderson