Helena investigated for potential ‘sanctuary city’ violations
Micah Drew and Jordan Hansen
(Daily Montanan) Montana’s governor and attorney general announced on Wednesday a formal investigation into the city of Helena to determine if a recently passed resolution to restrict the municipality’s cooperation with federal law enforcement violates a state law banning sanctuary cities.
In a joint press conference, Gov. Greg Gianforte said the resolution is “potentially a direct violation” of a law he signed in 2021 prohibiting local governments from creating sanctuary cities in the state.
Gianforte wrote a letter to Attorney General Austin Knudsen on Tuesday asking for an investigation, and at the press conference Wednesday the officials said they are contemplating penalties if the city is found to be breaking state law.
The law Gianforte signed was passed as House Bill 200 to prohibit sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities generally do not fully cooperate with federal immigration laws in order to protect the safety of all residents.
Montana’s law says state agencies or local governments may not enact or enforce a policy that restricts government employees from “sending to, receiving from, exchanging with, or maintaining for a federal, state, or local government entity information regarding a person’s citizenship or immigration status for a lawful purpose.”
The Helena City Commission signed its resolution on Jan. 26 with overwhelming support from members of the public, as concern about aggressive federal immigration enforcement around the nation has increased and affected even small communities in Montana.
In a statement, the City of Helena said it was “aware” of an announcement from Gianforte’s office regarding a potential investigation into their city policy.
“At this time, the City has not received any official notice or formal communication from the Governor’s Office or the Montana Attorney General’s Office regarding this matter. As a general practice, the City does not provide comment on pending or potential litigation matters,” the City of Helena statement reads. “The resolution was drafted with careful consideration of applicable local, state, and federal law, and the City believes the resolution is consistent with those legal requirements.”
It goes on to say the city remains committed to “upholding all applicable federal and state laws.”
The resolution states the city “shall not disclose” sensitive information about any person to outside agencies or individuals, including a person’s immigration status or national origin, except as required by local laws or with a valid court order.
“This is clearly the city council of Helena thumbing its nose at the Montana Legislature,” Knudsen said. “If the city of Helena does not like state law, I encourage it to retain counsel, get a lobbyist, come up here to the Capitol during the ‘27 legislative session and take its best shot at changing the law.”
According to Montana statute, violations of the sanctuary city law could lead to a $10,000 fine for every five days a local government is out of compliance, withholding of state funds including from the Montana coal board and coal board endowment program.
“Today we send a clear message to all local governments across the state: If you are found to be in violation of state law, there will be penalties,” Gianforte said. “In Montana, we don’t tolerate defiance, and we support our local law enforcement.”
Gianforte said neither he nor the attorney general had initiated any conversations with Helena City Commission officials or the chief of police, but are basing the investigation on the public actions taken at the January meeting. A city official earlier told the Daily Montanan there had been no indication an investigation was coming.
The Helena resolution additionally supports the Helena police department’s policy to “not, independently or assisting other law enforcement agencies, stop, pursue, interrogate, investigate, arrest, or otherwise detain a person solely based on their immigration status or suspected violations of immigration law.”
Knudsen said that part of the investigation will be whether existing city or police department policies are found to be violating state law, and that “the penalties could be much more severe.”
“I’d suggest the city of Helena, you know, concentrate on enabling their law enforcement, maybe fixing some potholes, instead of trying to play national politics,” Knudsen said.
Knudsen said that the current investigation is specifically looking at the recent Helena resolution, and to his knowledge, no other local government has formally taken action that might be a similar violation of law. He added that there has “been some concern” about Missoula, but he had done a cursory investigation and no official policies had been implemented by Missoula city officials.
If the attorney general’s investigation determines state law has been violated, legal action would be filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court.