It’s Time for Bozeman to Become a Sanctuary City

Opinion – The MSU Exponent

Bozeman Mayor Carson Taylor took time Thursday, Feb. 9 to issue a series of equivocating statements about proposals to designate Bozeman as a sanctuary city. He first stated that “the word ‘sanctuary city’ has so many meanings that it’s not really functional.” Taylor went on to claim that Bozeman Police Department procedures are already roughly in line with any proposed sanctuary city ordinance. This seems to suggest that a sanctuary city designation is both functional and comprehensible, not the undefinable term Taylor implies it is.
He also claimed that he’d rather save time and allow the City Commission to focus on “local issues” – undocumented immigrants in Bozeman fearing to report crimes due to their immigration status apparently doesn’t quite make the cut for “local” – but he will take the time to issue a statement with no legal force proclaiming Bozeman as a “safe, welcoming and inclusive community.” Both of these reasons advanced by Taylor transparently sidestep the real issue: the benefits of adopting a sanctuary city resolution versus the Trump Administration’s threat to withdraw federal funding from any local jurisdiction which does so.
At the most basic level, the sanctuary city resolution advanced by local activists would bar local police from inquiring into the immigration status of anyone who has not committed a felony. The proposed ordinance would give undocumented immigrants the ability to report crimes and serve as witnesses without fear of deportation.
Similar measures undertaken by other cities have been shown to reduce crime by enhancing trust between local communities and law enforcement. By getting local police out of the business of enforcing federal immigration law, sanctuary city designations allow them to better carry out their core function: keeping their community safe and free of crime.
The major new factor in the sanctuary city debate, and the one cited by many Bozeman residents to explain ...


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