HANOVER — Local activists are pressing town officials to adopt a “Welcoming Hanover” ordinance, making it the fourth community in the heart of the Upper Valley considering a measure to forbid local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
About 40 people, many of them from Dartmouth College and the grassroots activist group Rise! Upper Valley, attended a Selectboard meeting Monday to show their support for the proposal in Hanover.
Similar measures will be decided by voters at Town Meeting in Hartford and Norwich, and another is also on the March municipal ballot in Lebanon.
“I told the Selectboard at one point that we welcome a wide range of people to Hanover … and yet if we don’t have a policy like this we can’t guarantee that they have the same rights as people who are white or have different kinds of privilege,” Kristina Wolff, a Dartmouth researcher and one of the Hanover residents organizing for the ordinance, said Friday.
The town could adopt the ordinance in one of two ways: The Selectboard could adopt it after a public hearing, or Hanover voters could vote to adopt it at Town Meeting in May through petition, Kira Kelley, a Vermont attorney who is helping to advance the issue, said in a letter to Town Manager Julia Griffin.
Kelley said Friday she hopes the Selectboard will pass the ordinance on its own before then.
However, she said, supporters would be ready to petition for a warrant article by early April if necessary.
“Fingers crossed that the board realizes how powerful of a statement they could make about their own values, standing up for what’s right without prioritizing popular opinion over public safety,” Kelley said.
The ordinance is intended to ensure “that fair and impartial policing practices are upheld, limit sharing of information with federal immigration authorities, and prevent Hanover law enforcement from engaging in the enforcement of immigration law,” according to the proposal’s declaration of purpose.
Griffin said via email that the discussion at the Selectboard meeting was thoughtful but that the proposed ordinance is considerably longer than one presented in Lebanon.
She added that there are “still competing views as to whether or not the proposed ordinance is enforceable given the differing legal opinions and recent court cases.”
Hartford Town Manager Brannon Godfrey last month raised concerns that an ordinance considered there would violate two federal laws that require local governments, such as police, to share a person’s immigration information with federal authorities.
Judges in two federal district courts have said the laws are unconstitutional.
Griffin said that Hanover police in late December updated its “fair and impartial policing” policy in anticipation of the concerns raised by activists who want to protect immigrants in the Upper Valley from immigration officials, who set up a checkpoint on Interstate 89 and took several people into custody this summer.
The updated policy prohibits Hanover police from stopping or questioning anyone based solely on the suspicion that they might be in the United States without proper documentation or, in most cases, from asking about a person’s immigration status while investigating a crime.
Kelley said the proposed welcoming ordinance has three aims.
First, she said, the measure would affirm the town’s commitment to the Fourth Amendment, which requires police officers to demonstrate probable cause if they pull someone over.
Second, the proposal affirms the town’s commitment to the 10th Amendment’s “anti-commandeering clause” and requires that the Hanover police not engage in any immigration enforcement activities.
The third and, according to Kelley, the most controversial provision requires town officials to notify residents if they become aware of the presence of federal immigration officials in Hanover.
Kelley said this could happen through Listserv emails or text alerts but that the mechanism is still unclear.
She added that this measure, “doesn’t interfere (with federal law enforcement) because just notifying somebody of the presence of federal law enforcement does not incur liability for the town.”
Among the people who spoke to the Selectboard on Monday was Asma Elhuni, the organizer who helped launch Rise! Upper Valley and has been active in other communities on the immigration issue.
Elhuni said Border Patrol agents in Hanover had “basically kidnapped an immigrant whose only crime was coming into this country for safety. That should make all of us very uncomfortable.”
Griffin said that because the proposed ordinance was more complex than traditional town ordinances she intends to work on a “more streamlined version” with activists, their attorneys and town counsel.
The measure would then be brought back before the Selectboard for a discussion on Feb. 10, Griffin said.
Police chiefs in Lebanon and Hartford have expressed reservations about the local welcoming ordinance.
Messages left for Hanover Police Chief Charlie Dennis were not returned Friday.
Rohan Chakravarty can be reached at rchakravarty@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.