U.P. lawmaker blasts Lansing about Sanctuary City designation

LANSING — An Upper Peninsula lawmaker who introduced legislation last month that would outlaw local governments from enacting ordinances from communicating with federal officials regarding a person’s immigration status, is concerned with the City of Lansing’s decision to become a Sanctuary City.

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City officials are not to ask for, or record, information about immigration status except as required by state or federal law.

Lansing Police will not arrest anyone based on violations of immigration law and won’t ask victims, or witnesses, of a crime about their immigration status. And that’s not sitting well with Representative Beau LeFave, who introduced the Sanctuary City Prohibition Act.

“I know that the majority of the people in the Upper Peninsula agree with me that if you’ve got a violent felon that has entered the country illegally, that person should go back to their country of origin and Lansing is siding with the career criminals,” said LeFave. “It’s unbelievable that they would put their political affiliations above the safety of the people that put them in office.”

The White House has threatened to withhold funding from Sanctuary Cities, but the council determined that their status wouldn’t actually threaten their funding.

Opponents of Representative LaFave’s legislation say his bill would put unnecessary burden on local law enforcement to carry out the duties of I.C.E. Lansing city council voted unanimously to declare themselves a ‘Welcoming City.’