Helena City Commission grapples with immigration resolution

Jordan Hansen

HELENA (Daily Montanan) — Hundreds of people packed a Helena City Commission meeting this week to ask the city to protect them from aggressive immigration tactics by federal law enforcement agents.

The Helena City Commission voted 4-1 on Monday on a resolution reiterating its support for immigrant communities and a reminder of its policy and procedures surrounding interaction with federal law enforcement. Additionally, the resolution stipulates city police officers can ask federal agents to unmask and identify themselves at their discretion and in situations that officers believe it isn’t interfering with federal work.

The city took up the resolution in the midst of two recent killings of citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents and increasing dissatisfaction with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. It comes six months after a Helena resident was caught up in enforcement.

But some city officials expressed concerns such actions laid out in the resolution would potentially lead to being charged with obstruction of justice.

“I would be concerned with compelling that action of an officer, because it could be seen as obstructing justice,” Helena City Attorney Rebecca Dockter told the commission on Monday.

The resolution comes six months after Christopher Martinez was arrested by law enforcement after a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stop him, believing him to be someone else they were investigating. A Helena Police Officer joked he was being kidnapped and Martinez, who was trying to stay in the country legally, faced deportation and eventually left to return to Mexico.

The case sparked outrage in Helena and beyond, with Martinez’s lawyers arguing in court he was racially profiled.

Since then, Helena has pulled out of a regional drug task force, city officials said on Monday night, and commenters on the resolution heavily praised steps the police force has taken, saying they’ve taken the concerns seriously.

“(Martinez) was arrested because he was mistaken for a different brown man. That is embarrassing, and I do think that the city recognizes that with how swift the response was, this resolution came out very quickly after the initial arrest,” Emilia Hitchcock, a Helena attorney, told the commission, adding “the Helena Police Department has clearly tried to make some changes.”

Many in attendance viewed the resolution as a first step as city officials were asked to protect their citizens from federal agents. Federal officers have killed two people in Minneapolis, including Alex Pretti, a 37-year old nurse at a VA Hospital who was shot Saturday. Some in attendance on Monday were openly wondering if similar events could play out in Helena.

“We’ve seen it happen elsewhere,” said Shani Henry, a Helena resident. “We should not kid ourselves that it won’t happen here.”

There was unfiltered disgust by those in attendance with violent immigration tactics and a deep anger that fundamental liberties Americans enjoy were being taken away.

“This is not public safety. This is not justice,” said Valerie Hellermann, executive director of the Helena Area Refugee Resettlement Team. “We don’t want this in Helena, our local law enforcement should not be obligated to cooperate with practices that undermine trust, due process, and human dignity.”

Overflow rooms were full at the City-County building, and 62 people gave comments to the City Commission in person, while another 11 spoke via Zoom. Additional written comments were also collected during the meeting. The meeting lasted about four hours, with around three of those dedicated to the resolution.

All but about five of the comments were in support of the resolution. Speakers included two Montana State senators — Laura Smith and Mary Ann Dunwell, both Democrats representing Helena — as well as community leaders at advocacy organizations, religious groups and a wave of concerned citizens.

“(The resolution) requests that the city take steps to ensure that the residents here know that the city is on our side and not on the side of a federal agency that is terrorizing black and brown people as a pretext for harassing cities that vote for Democrats,” said SK Rossi, who spoke on the resolution as a local business owner. “That’s the reality of what is happening here, and we should be opposing it with every fiber of our beings.”

One long-time Helena resident, an immigrant, spoke about the fear she has driving to Target with her daughter, and how they now have photos of their passports on their phones.

“You never know,” said Linda Cleatus, describing that fear.

Multiple members of the Helena LGBTQ+ community also spoke, relaying fears about how the persecution they’ve faced is now expanding to other groups.

“As a politically targeted community that has lived in increasing fear, we recognize and refuse to ignore it when we see it happening to other communities,” Shawn Reagor, with Montana Gender Alliance, told the Commission.

Well over 100 community members gathered before the City Commission meeting on the steps of the City-County building, waving signs over an hour before the Commission meeting started.

Some discussion was had over several amendments to the resolution proposed by Commissioner Melinda Reed. They dealt with data collection, including one with the ethnicity of the person being stopped and another asking the department track how often they “officially” coordinate with federal immigration officers. Coordination with various federal law enforcement agencies happens nearly daily, on a wide variety of issues, city officials said Monday.

Police officers also cannot legally ask a person’s race during a stop, but the data is informally collected by officers and reviewed twice per year. If there are issues with those stops, an internal investigation is launched, police officials said Monday night.

“If we notice flags or anything that’s super concerning on that, that would generate a review of their traffic stops,” said Helena Police Lt. Adam Shanks.

Additionally, racial data from stops is collected per state code, though Shanks said that he called the state Board of Crime Control and they didn’t have it on hand, because they’re not supposed to share the data unless it’s formally requested.

“The people I spoke with on the Board of Crime Control and Data Warehouse don’t actually know how to get that information,” Shanks said.

None of the amendments passed, leading to some frustration among attendees when the matter was put to vote at almost 10 p.m.

Sen. Ellie Boldman, a Missoula Democrat, has also proposed legislation to have immigration officers clearly mark who they are, to not wear masks and to have certain areas be protected from raids.

There was also a sense the resolution was just one step in protecting Helena citizens and more action was going to be asked for by members of the public.

“Today’s vote matters in and of itself for what it means to set a standard for a welcoming community committed to civil and to human rights,” Rachel Carroll Rivas, a longtime human rights activist in Helena, told the commission. “But today is also practice, practice for the potential consequential moments that are to come when you will be needed by this community to stand in your power in opposition to authoritarianism when it comes knocking on the door of Helena.”