(CBS DETROIT) – A resolution recently passed unanimously by the Livingston County Courts, Public Safety and Infrastructure Development Committee calls on law enforcement to keep records of all interactions with illegal immigrants.
County commissioners said they see it as a way to better track illegal immigrants in the area.
“I would describe it as cautious, and one of the jobs of the county board of commissioners is to look to the future and anticipate or look for future needs,” said Wes Nakagiri, Livingston County Commissioner for District 4. “I personally don’t want to be in a situation where we don’t know what’s going on and then all of a sudden we have a crisis.”
Judy Daubenmier, chair of Livingston County Democrats, said she believes the resolution is an attempt to scare the community.
“I’m afraid this is scaremongering without any evidence to back it up,” Daubenmier said. “Our sheriff has said he sees evidence that there are illegal workers here all the time, ‘every day,’ ‘every day.’ And when we asked to see the evidence, there was none.”
Daubenmier accuses Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy of lying after an anonymous local resident recently filed a Freedom of Information Act request that found there was insufficient data to substantiate his claims.
Murphy declined to comment for this story by CBS News Detroit.
“Immigration law is incredibly complex, and when you have local law enforcement trying to enforce this complex area of the law, what happens is that they often rely on racial profiling, religious profiling, national origin profiling, all of which are illegal,” said Miriam Aukerman, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan. “And so that means they’re exposing Livingston County and the taxpayers to tremendous potential legal liability.”
When asked how many illegal immigrants there are in Livingston County, Nakagiri said he didn’t know.
“I don’t really know,” he said. “I don’t have any specific data on that. People say yes.”
“Their strategy of talking about the southern border doesn’t work here in the Midwest,” Daubenmier added. “So they have to scare people into thinking they’re in danger here — when they’re not.”
According to Aukerman, the resolution itself could lead to a less safe community.
“Communities depend on trust between the community and the police,” Aukerman said. “When people are afraid to report crimes, afraid to witness crimes, afraid to report the information that they know because of immigration enforcement, that means we’re all going to be less safe.”
The resolution will be submitted to the full board of directors on Monday.
Meredith Bruckner
