Mayor: Trump's Executive Order Does Not Apply To Detroit
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - There was swift reaction to recent executive orders signed by President Donald Trump related to immigration policies and building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
"The issues the executive order is directed at do not apply to the city of Detroit - so this will not have any affect on us," says Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
Duggan told WWJ Newsradio 950 that the president's policy will have no effect in this city but acknowledges there is some confusion surrounding the issue.
"In Detroit, when it was adopted 10 years ago, it means we do not profile you, as law enforcement, because of the way you look. Other cities have defined it as saying that we will not participate in any way with Customs and Immigration - so there are two different definitions," says Duggan, "so, it's not my place to question anybody else's practice - in the city of Detroit there has always been cooperation between Customs and Immigration and the Detroit Police Department."
Trump's executive action on immigration instructs the Homeland Security secretary to engage with governors and local officials about agreements under which local law enforcement officials could investigate, apprehend and detain people in the country illegally.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder told reporters Thursday he doesn't view immigration enforcement as one of the "primary" functions for state and local police.
Against a backdrop of mayors in many cities resisting Trump's executive order
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto says he will not attend a planned Jan. 31 meeting with President Donald Trump -- hours after Trump tweeted the meeting should be canceled if Mexico won't pay for a border wall.
A professor of Latin American Studies at Wayne State University says Trump's plan for a wall is a complicated issue.
"It is very difficult to create a wall on an area that has long been as a cultural space between two neighboring states," says professor Jorge Chinea."So the people there are people of Mexican origin and of Native American origin - there are heritage ties between both nations as a result of that."
Chinea says that President Nieto's canceling the meeting with President Trump, sends a message that he will not be pushed.
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