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CENTER LINE — The city of Center Line has withdrawn from a federally-funded public safety training program following pushback from residents.
Center Line administrative leadership, including the city manager and public safety director, were reportedly made aware of a training program offered through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The program, called 287(g), would train the city’s public safety officers to identify and process removable undocumented residents with pending or active criminal charges; enforce limited immigration authorities with ICE oversight during routine duties; and serve and execute administrative warrants on removable undocumented people in the city’s custody.
“The city of Center Line’s objectives in the 287(g) programming would be to provide its law enforcement officers with an understanding of immigration laws, multicultural communication and racial profiling assistance,” the city said in a press release.
Additionally, Center Line public safety officers would be able to address any perceived immigration violations identified at the point of contact with an individual who has violated ordinances or state laws, the release states.
Center Line City Manager Dennis Champine said they initially looked at the program as a way to receive training from another government agency.
“Simply put, our public safety saw this as an opportunity to train PSO’s (Sergeants only) on the legal way to handle suspected undocumented illegal immigrants,” Champine said in an email. “When training is made available from other government agencies, Center Line has taken advantage of it. This was one of those times.”
The city would have committed to the program by signing a memorandum of agreement.
When word got out that the city’s public safety officers would be working with ICE, Center Line Public Schools Superintendent Joseph Haynes said he began receiving phone calls from parents with concerns asking if ICE would be coming into the schools, which “could impact our kids and our families.”
“We have a lot of immigrant families,” Haynes said. “We can’t ask people their immigration status when students enroll. It’s illegal.”
Haynes said he wanted to be clear that the city’s decision to work with ICE “had nothing to do with the schools,” and that, “It’s out of the realm of the school’s responsibilities.”
During the phone conversations he had with residents, the superintendent let families know that he could not speak for the city. In light of the situation, Haynes contacted Mayor Bob Binson, Champine and Public Safety Director Paul Myszenski. After their discussions, Haynes set up a community forum that was scheduled to be held the evening of Nov. 6 inside the Center Line High School auditorium, where families could get more information about the city’s decision to work with ICE.
“It was not a pro- or anti-ICE thing. Schools are the central point of the community,” Haynes said. “We are the hub, so I wanted to get the two sides together. There’s the unknown and people had questions. It was the best I could do to get the city and police with our community to answer questions.”
The city and Center Line Public Schools have an agreement for the city to provide a school resource officer. However, Champine said the officer was not going to participate in the 287(g) training.
At the Nov. 3 City Council meeting, several residents spoke against the program, causing tensions to rise.
“Some of those opinions were based upon misinformation, or were politically motivated, and not on the city’s set goals and objectives while participating in the program,” the city said in a press release. “This resulted in the meeting becoming raucous and the behavior of some participants became disruptive to the meeting, which did result in some participants being asked to leave so that the meeting could continue uninterrupted.”
Prior to the public comment portion of the meeting, Binson pointed out that there was a large number of people who wanted to speak — many of whom spoke against the city’s participation in the program.
In total, 20 people spoke at the meeting, several of whom came from surrounding communities. At several points, Binson faced criticism for attempting to maintain order and keep the meeting moving.
At the meeting, Binson said this was not a City Council decision.
“This is not a council action. Nobody up here on this council had anything up here to do with this decision,” he said. “As a matter of fact, most of us found out through the emails we received from some of you that this had happened, so we have questions of our own for our administration.”
Binson said the matter wasn’t something the City Council voted on, which was met with vocal criticism from several residents in attendance who asked how the agreement could have been passed without the mayor knowing about it.
“I don’t run the city, the administration runs the city,” Binson said. “We are the council. We oversee the running of the city. We don’t micromanage how the city is run. We have the power to direct what is going on and if we are not happy with this decision, we have the power to direct (administration to) rescind it.”
The day-to-day running of the city is handled by the people that the City Council puts in place, Binson said.
After the meeting, Champine decided it would be best for the city to withdraw from the program.
“There was pushback on (the program), and I ordered the MOA to be rescinded,” Champine said.
According to the press release, on Nov. 4, the city formally notified ICE that it would be withdrawing from the program. As a result, the Nov. 6 forum was canceled.
Even after withdrawing, Champine said he continues to receive feedback.
“I do continue to receive negative and positive comments from individuals who are for or against the city’s decision to withdraw from 287(g),” he said in an email. “Some claim to be residents, some have openly indicated they were not from Center Line.”
