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