Brooklyn Park city officials are clarifying how the city and its police department works with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as President Donald Trump continues his promise to crackdown on illegal immigration across the country.
WCCO Radio's Vineeta Sawkar spoke to Brooklyn Park mayor Hollies Winston and police chief Mark Bruley on Thursday about the city's approach to working with ICE.
"We do work with ICE," Bruley told Sawkar. "That's kind of a misnomer that I know a lot of jurisdictions are talking about and people are left with the impression that local law enforcement does not work with ICE."
That work with ICE, according to Bruley, does not mean the Brooklyn Park Police Department enforces immigration laws.
"That's not the role of local government," he said. "The truth is, criminal investigations do overlap with those that are here with undocumented status. In those cases, especially when we're talking about human trafficking or major drug struggling, especially with the fentanyl epidemic, it is smart for us to partner with ICE and use those resources to be able to recover victims who are being trafficked or remove large amounts of narcotics that are being smuggled by those who are here illegally."
The City of Brooklyn Park City Council and Human Rights Commission are hosting a community discussion with Immigration Attorney Ernest Wiafe on February 19th to discuss President Trump's immigration policies.
"Federal policy does not necessarily mean that compels a city to actually enforce the policy," Winston said. "Immigration is something that sits at a federal level. When you think of a city, we already have limited resources and we've been doing a good job pushing down crime, but that takes all of the resources we have in the city."
Winston added if the city undertook immigration enforcement or other federal policies, it would take away from their already limited resources.
"The President is compelling the city to do anything," Winston said.
Brooklyn Park's policy around immigration enforcement moving forward hopes to keep residents confident that they can engage 911 and other services.
"We don't want someone to be scared of calling 911," added Winston. "For us we realize that as a city, everybody is interacting with everybody. We're going to have policies in place that protect residents, but we're also going to make sure people are safe from crime and we're going to obey what need to obey with the federal laws. I believe that should people at ease that city is doing what's in the best interest of all of our residents."