Debate over sanctuary status continues in Schenectady

PHOTOGRAPHER: Brett Samuels

About 20 people urged the City Council to make Schenectady a sanctuary city on Monday.

For the third consecutive week, a small contingent of residents urged Schenectady officials to consider adopting sanctuary city status.

About 20 people, most of them city residents, attended Monday night’s City Council meeting holding signs and speaking in favor of making Schenectady a sanctuary city in an effort to protect undocumented immigrants. Visible public support for the movement, while still relatively small, has increased in recent weeks.

To date, the council has yet to formally discuss the subject. A few council members said at the end of Monday’s meeting that they’d be open to having a conversation about the topic, though they wouldn’t necessarily change their minds.

“I don’t think there’s anybody on the City Council who doesn’t want to allow legal immigration and have that be unbiased in terms of race, religion or gender,” Councilman John Polimeni said. “Schenectady was built on the backs of immigrants. But this issue I think for the majority of us is legal versus illegal.”

Polimeni added that the subject is a personal one for him, as he’s had family and friends go through the lengthy and expensive process to immigrate and obtain citizenship.

The topic was on the council’s committee agenda last week, but was removed by Council President Leesa Perazzo after only she and Councilwoman Marion Porterfield expressed support for discussing the issue.

The sanctuary city designation has no official definition, but generally means city police would not enforce federal immigration laws, leaving Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to do the job themselves.

Albany, Rochester, Syracuse and Kingston are among the upstate municipalities that have declared themselves sanctuary cities.

Mayor Gary McCarthy previously said calling Schenectady a sanctuary city wouldn’t change the way the city operates, since city police aren’t questioning residents on their immigration status or being asked to enforce ICE detainers.

About a dozen people spoke Monday in favor of making Schenectady a sanctuary city, citing the need to protect at-risk communities, highlighting the important role immigrants played in Schenectady’s history and asking council members to at least discuss the possibility of taking action.

“I think this is a moral issue,” one woman said. “It’s about keeping families together. The bottom line is we can protect families.”

Bob Corliss, who spoke at a meeting two weeks ago, said the council’s inaction on the matter has galvanized many residents who are pro-sanctuary city. Those people will continue to speak up at meetings, he said.

A few attendees dissented, saying there are more pressing concerns for the city than becoming a sanctuary.

One resident of Schenectady’s Bellevue neighborhood said the city already has enough people who don’t pay taxes, and the school district serves many students who struggle to read and write. Harboring undocumented immigrants would only exacerbate those problems, he said.