Cincinnati City Council passed a resolution Wednesday condemning the shooting death of Renee Macklin Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis.
Council and Mayor Aftab Pureval also urged federal agents operating in Cincinnati to "comply with City policy and operational requirements related to masks, body cameras, and officer identification."
Council member Anna Albi introduced the measure.
"We do not want masked agents terrorizing our neighborhoods and pulling residents out of their cars," Albi said. "If there are violent criminals ICE is apprehending, then we expect them to do so safely and professionally — because that is not what we saw in Minneapolis last week."
The resolution passed on a 8-0 vote with one Council member (Jeff Cramerding) not present.
Mayor Pureval says the city has strong partnerships with many federal agencies, including the Department of Justice and the FBI.
"We have a gun violence problem, particularly amongst our youth, we do not have an undocumented immigrant problem," Mayor Aftab Pureval told WVXU. "And so absolutely, we do not want ICE here. We do not want the National Guard here. We need actual strategies and solutions to keep us safe, not to foment fear and violence like what is happening in Minneapolis."
The resolution outlines city policy for its own police officers, including:
- officers are prohibited from intentionally disguising or concealing their identities from the public by wearing any mask, covering or disguise while performing official duties;
- officers assigned conduct patrol or field duties wear body cameras and activate their cameras during all law enforcement-related activities during which the officer is interacting with a member of the public;
- officers must, when requested, correctly identify themselves by providing their rank, name and star number (or employee number for civilian members) to any member of the public.
The resolution urges ICE and other federal agents to comply with Cincinnati policies, but ICE policies do not match — and there's no way to force federal agents to follow local rules.
According to the ICE website, their agents wear masks "to prevent doxing" — in other words, explicitly to conceal their identities. Agents carry badges and credentials and "will identify themselves when required for public safety or legal necessity," the website says.
As NPR reports, there is a federal requirement that immigration agents identify themselves as agents (but not necessarily by name) as soon as it is "practical" and "safe" to do so during an arrest.
ICE officers and agents also are expected to activate body-worn cameras during enforcement activities, as NPR reports. But ICE has not distributed body-worn cameras to all agents.
Read the full resolution below (article continues after):
Some local immigration advocates praised the resolution.
Bryan Wright, executive director of Cincinnati Compass, commended elected officials for passing the resolution.
"I also want to ask that Council members and the mayor remain steadfast in their commitment to serving all residents of Cincinnati, regardless of where one originates," Wright said. "Along with such resolutions put forward today, we need to continue courageous leadership of Council and the mayor's office to back programming that ensures the safety and wellbeing of immigrant neighbors while also reducing barriers to economic opportunity."
Nancy Sullivan, director of Transformations Community Development Corporation, has organized events to build whistle kits, designed for people to alert others nearby if they observe ICE agents. She says the resolution is a good first step but is too moderate.
"It has no teeth," Sullivan told reporters. "I would love to see the Council all wearing whistles at all times ... everybody needs to wear a whistle and be active, not just waiting for something to happen."
Sullivan says Cincinnati should ban ICE agents from staging on city-owned or city-leased property.
Mayor Pureval says his administration is looking into that possibility.
"My interest here is putting messages and laws out to our community that are actually enforceable and have some teeth behind it," Pureval told WVXU. "And that's definitely a strategy that we're considering."
Ryan James, the city's newest Council member, says the city should address ICE enforcement more directly and forcefully in the near future.
"I would like to see this only being the tip of the avalanche here," James said.
CPD 'is not assisting ICE'
Pureval says the city cannot change federal immigration policies or enforcement, but he and other officials can express their values and expectations, as well as their "concern and disgust."
"When you see the images and video coming out of Minneapolis — of communities terrorized, of a woman shot in the face and killed — it shocks me, and it should shock all of us to our core," Pureval told WVXU. "But we also have to be very careful to not be unclear with our immigrant populations about the protections that we can afford them. I think virtue signaling in this space is very dangerous, and we want to be very clear about the authority that we have."
Pureval says the Cincinnati Police Department does not engage with any federal immigration enforcement, and CPD officers are told not to ask about immigration status when interacting with the public.
Pureval says ICE does not inform the city of current or upcoming operations.
The city's current budget includes funding for a few organizations that work with immigrant communities:
- $49,000 for Cincinnati Compass
- $122,500 for Santa Maria Community Services
- $50,000 for the Hispanic Chamber Cincinnati USA
- $125,000 for the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center
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