Before moving to a new neighborhood, there are certain things people have on their wish list. Great school district. Short commute to work, proximity to parks and grocery stores. And for some the neighbors.
Golden Valley's Mayor, Shep Harris, knows everyone doesn't want diversity on their street but he is working to change that. On the city’s website, there’s a welcome message. And that's not all. Golden Valley recently updated its impartial Policing policy. The update was highlighted during this week's city council meeting.
City leaders reinforced Golden Valley officials are prohibited from taking any action to detect or apprehend people based solely on their immigration status.
“We as a city and community really are proud of this stance we are taking. We felt that it was important to upgrade it and put immigration status on there,” he said. “We are not going to be asking people what their immigration status is or their national origin of any type. It is not our job to find that information out. It is the federal authorities job, we are going to stay out of that lane.”
Meanwhile, immigration officers are ramping up deportations of undocumented immigrants in 10 cities.
Minneapolis and St. Paul were not on that list. The raids targeting as many as two-thousand immigrants. But Harris says leaders in his city started working on upgrading this policy two years ago. That’s when members of the community asked for a change. They believed President Trump, who vowed to deport undocumented immigrants, would execute his campaign promises. They worked with the human rights commission to revise the policy.
“There is no gray area. It is clear and concise and to the point. We want people to work here, live here and traveling through the community to know this is a place that is safe.” Harris said Golden Valley is no different than any other community that has not participated in ICE activities.