On Nov. 6, the Providence City Council unanimously passed new immigration and policing reforms to the Community-Police Relations Act that restrict Providence Police Department officers’ ability to assist federal immigration enforcement.
The amendments clarify that officers should only assist federal authorities if they have a signed judicial warrant, expand the definition of protected spaces in which immigration officers cannot investigate without a warrant, strengthen data privacy protections and lower barriers for organizations to bring lawsuits against the city for alleged violations.
These proposed changes were granted first passage on Oct. 16 following a July incident where the Providence Police Department was found to have illegally collaborated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, The Herald previously reported.
“Providence thrives when every resident can live without fear,” Council President Rachel Miller wrote in an email to The Herald. “With Donald Trump’s cruel targeting of immigrant communities, that sense of safety feels out of reach for too many of our undocumented neighbors.”
ICE and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Under the updated CPRA, “police may not inquire about an individual’s immigration status or national origin.” The CPRA also notes that when conducting a stop or search, all law enforcement officers must provide their federal identification number as a measure of accountability.
Providence city agencies, departments and subdivisions will also be barred from providing documents or records to federal immigration authorities until the case has been reviewed and evaluated by the city attorney.
Protected spaces including public schools and courts will also not grant access to any federal immigration authorities “to investigate, detain, apprehend or arrest any individuals for potential violations of federal immigration laws” without a warrant, the act reads.
Christian Torre, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told The Herald that “the amendments are important to strengthen protections against police and court collaborations with ICE.”
Ahead of the Oct. 16 vote, the council received over 100 letters in support of the amendments. Only one individual submitted a letter in opposition, according to records publicized by the council.
Rhode Island native Iris Bucio wrote in her testimony supporting the amendments that “ICE is like a plague, slowly but violently entering into our most vulnerable spaces.”
“This disruption of our communities, of our homes, of our safe spaces, has no place here,” Bucio added.
Nicole Brown, a Rhode Island resident, also testified in support of these amendments, writing that “every time our local systems collaborate with ICE, they become complicit in the violence and cruelty this agency inflicts.”
“Families are being torn apart, parents taken from children and people living in fear simply because they sought a better life in the very country that was built by immigrants,” she added.
“What we can control, as a city, is how our police interact with federal agents operating outside of the bounds of due process — and with these amendments, we make clear: they will not,” Miller wrote.
