HANOVER — Hanover has passed an ordinance meant to protect undocumented immigrants, despite criticism from activists who say the wording of the law undermines its impact.
In a unanimous vote Monday night, the Selectboard approved the Fair and Impartial Policing ordinance, which prohibits Hanover police officers from asking about a person’s citizenship status or from sharing citizenship information with federal authorities. The approval means the ordinance goes into effect immediately.
“If even one more immigrant coming through our town feels more confident that they can interact with the police … then I think this will have been all worth it,” Selectboard Chairman Peter Christie said at the meeting.
The ordinance came out of a collaboration between town officials and a group of immigration activists called the “Welcoming Hanover Committee” who helped draft the original version of the ordinance earlier this year.
However, after concerns were raised that the ordinance violates a federal law that says towns must share immigration information with U.S. immigration authorities, Hanover officials made an addition to the language. Early this month, Hanover’s attorney added a clause to the proposal, stating that any portion of ordinance “need not be” implemented if the Selectboard believes that it conflicts with state or federal law.
The change upset committee members who argued at a meeting earlier this month that the clause undermines the point of the ordinance.
“The clause doesn’t really strengthen it, it doesn’t really protect us,” Dalia Rodriguez, a Hanover resident and committee member, said in an interview Tuesday.
Rodriguez has previously said she had been worried about the safety of her parents, who are undocumented, when they attended her graduation from Dartmouth College.
Town officials and Welcoming Hanover committee members tried but failed to reach an agreement on the clause over the past two weeks. Prior to the vote Monday, the committee sent the Selectboard an email, urging members to either vote on the ordinance without the clause or drop the ordinance entirely.
The board opted to vote on the ordinance with the clause instead.
During the meeting Monday, Selectboard Vice Chair Athos Rassias said the committee, Selectboard and town officials have had some “wonderful and compelling discussions,” and that they have spent a lot of time and resources crafting the final version of the ordinance.
“I am fully in support of where we are now,” he said. “I think this meets the goals we have set out.”
But supporters of the original ordinance, like Rodriguez, are disappointed in the outcome of the meeting.
“They passed an ordinance, but not the one we expected,” Rodriguez said.
Kira Kelley, an attorney who’s been working with the committee to push the original ordinance forward, said the group would have preferred no ordinance to one that included the clause.
“I was surprised that they wanted to pass it when there wasn’t really any support for it from anyone in the community, the way it was written” she said Tuesday. She called the approval of the ordinance a “performative” gesture that does little to help undocumented immigrants.
“It makes the town look like it took bold, decisive action, but it doesn’t really do much,” she said.
However, Town Manager Julia Griffin said in an email Tuesday that the decision to add the clause was important because it helps ensure that the “authority of the Selectboard to both adopt ordinances and to amend ordinances if any section is deemed to be in conflict with state or federal law was clearly articulated.”
The ordinance is similar to other measures passed in Norwich, Hartford and Lebanon in recent months.
All three municipalities have discussed similar concerns about how their proposals might violate the federal law, though none have included similar clauses.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.