Schor standing by Lansing’s ‘sanctuary city’ executive order

As President-elect Donald Trump promises to mobilize mass deportation efforts “on day one,” Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said he supports the city’s existing executive order providing protections for the city’s immigrant population.

The executive order, established in 2017 by Schor’s predecessor, Virg Bernero, states that Lansing police “will not, independently or in assisting other law enforcement agencies, stop, pursue, interrogate, arrest or otherwise detain a person based solely on their immigration status or suspected violations of immigration law.”

“Mayor Schor fully supports the executive order,” city spokesperson Scott Bean said.

Early in Trump’s first term, his administration threatened to withhold federal funding from “sanctuary cities,” although there weren’t any in Michigan at the time. In 2023, East Lansing’s City Council passed a resolution declaring East Lansing a sanctuary city. While Bernero’s 2017 order stopped short of using the term, its effect appears to many to be the same. Thus, Lansing and East Lansing are widely considered the state’s only sanctuary cities.

Could Trump look to punish either? To answer that question, it’s important to first understand what a “sanctuary city” designation means.

“There’s no true legal definition,” Christine Sauve of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center explained. “Generally, though, the term is used colloquially to refer to a community that has written or unwritten policies that limit cooperation with ICE.”

In other words, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers come knocking, police in Lansing and East Lansing will not assist them unless the person they are seeking committed another “serious” crime unrelated to their immigration status, or if they are otherwise directed to do so via federal or state statute or a specific court order.

Both Lansing and East Lansing took steps to combat Trump’s first-term immigration policies when he took office in 2017, but both avoided adopting a lasting sanctuary city tag at the time.

Lansing’s City Council voted 6-0 in 2017 to designate Lansing a “sanctuary city,” but members faced swift community pushback because of feared federal retribution threatened by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Nine days later, the Council — in an embarrassing turn-around that received national attention — voted 5-2 to rescind its action.

Around the same time, East Lansing’s City Council passed a “safe haven” resolution, in part, to avoid the title.

While then-mayor Bernero opposed Lansing’s sanctuary city vote because he thought it was “a political term,” his executive order provided protections. Under Lansing’s charter, the mayor has the power to direct LPD policy, unlike the Council.

“I saw it as a divisive political matter on both sides that didn’t necessarily get us anywhere,” Bernero recalled last week. “Still, I tried to dig into it a little bit, which included having a well-known immigration lawyer from Washington come in to meet with us. I wanted to understand the issue and ask what we should do differently.”

From there, Bernero worked with then LPD Chief Mike Yankowski to find out what the city’s existing immigration enforcement policy was.

 “We were clearly not closing the door to immigrants and agreed we didn’t want to see people targeted or profiled. Yet, we do want violent people captured and moved out. That was basically my position then and now, but it just wasn’t in writing,” Bernero said. “I said, ‘Well, let’s codify it.’ That’s what we did, and a lot of thought went into that executive order. It wasn’t just something we pulled quickly out of our lapel pocket. I guess it stood the test of time.”

While Bernero maintained that Lansing was “never a sanctuary city,” activists say the executive order does fall in line with what a sanctuary city typically provides.

“Under my mayorship, I was not interested in becoming an extension of ICE. We don’t have the resources for it, and that’s not what we’re cut out to do or anything I would want to do. Lansing sort of positioned itself in the middle, but the bottom line is we’re never going to do profiling here,” Bernero said.

Trini Lopez Pehlivanoglu, Lansing’s first Latina City Council member, said she remembers the executive order rollout and continues to support it today.

“I do believe our executive order does hold strength in protecting our populations,” she said. “I see it as a safeguard for our community members who may have family members who are undocumented, or who themselves may be undocumented. For me, it really comes down to the concept of racial profiling.”

Lansing’s executive order also prevents the LPD from detaining someone “beyond their initial release time pursuant to an immigration detainer request without a valid judicial warrant.”

Sauve cited it as “the most effective” type of provision a city can take to combat Trump’s deportation plans.

“The courts have looked at this and said that these requests from ICE are completely voluntary for local law enforcement. They can decide whether they want to honor them or not, because keeping someone in jail without a warrant is a violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Sauve said.  “Being undocumented is not a criminal violation,” Sauve added.

“There’s no basis for holding someone just because they’re undocumented. The civil penalty is deportation or removal, but being undocumented isn’t, in and of itself, a crime.”

East Lansing’s Human Rights Commission plans to reexamine the city’s resolution Dec. 9 with an eye toward strengthening its language, which is similar to Lansing’s executive order.

“We want to ensure it’s strong and, if we can, add further protections” as recommendations to the City Council, Commissioner Rebecca Kasen said.

Sauve expects Trump to rescind the Biden and Obama-era policy of “targeted” or “priority enforcement,” in which ICE agents are instructed to only pursue undocumented immigrants with criminal histories. As “mass deportation” again becomes the objective, she anticipates a return to “workplace raids” and a halt on refugee resettlement programs. 

Time will tell if Trump can muster the resources and manpower needed to achieve his goals, but immigration activists, including attorneys, are preparing for a lengthy battle over the next four years.

“Folks are very frightened. We’ve heard a lot of staff say that there’s been tears in their meetings with clients. If Trump’s promises are carried through, it truly will be devastating for many families,” Sauve said.