Wayne County Executive Will Defend Rights Of Residents In Wake Of Trump's Immigration Orders
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) -- In light of President Donald Trump's executive orders involving immigration, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans says he's been hearing concerns from members of the community who are feeling anxious about what may happen.
Evans told WWJ Newsradio 950 that while his administration will cooperate with the federal government, he will continue to defend the rights of all Wayne County residents.
"I feel their concern too and I think sometimes what gets lost in the whole translation is that we are a very diverse county, I have a very diverse administration and I think the strengths of this region has an awful lot to do with that diversity," Evans said.
Trump signed an executive order Friday setting "new vetting measures" to keep "radical Islamic terrorists" out of the United States.
The order indefinitely stopped Syrian refugee and immigrant entry into the U.S., suspended all refugee entry for four months and suspended refugee admissions for three months from countries with terror concerns, naming majority-Muslim nations including Iraq, Syria and Iran. The new president and his supporters say his measures are needed to strengthen national security.
Evans said with reductions in law enforcement budgets, it'll be tough if local officers have to become more involved in deportation and immigration issues.
"So you take that reduction [and] couple it with added responsibilities that might come up in terms of immigration and those kinds of issues -- our police don't have time to do that," Evans said. "What they need to be spending their time on is protecting our communities, as they have in the past. To further subvert their duties to do other things just diminishes the number of police on the street."
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