Providence City Council Meeting | October 6th, 2025 | Committee on Ordinaces

I just to let you know that we're just waiting for some copies of the amendment so we can distribute it to you and you'll be able to have that. So, just give us a few more minutes. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Committee on Northerners. I'm Chairman, Pedro Espinoza. Welcome to you all.

Thank you for being here. The time is 05:52. Tonight, we are here to discuss amendments made to the PCPRA. And this amendment, these changes will clearly, define the prohibited cooperation by the province police with the Federal Immigration Authority, enhancing enforcement and accountability mechanism, designating specific public building at sensitive spaces, prohibiting discrimination based on immigration status. So this encompasses a host of changes that we made to the PCPRA.

And to go through all those changes, we have invited our guests. So madam clerk, please call the roll.

Chairman Espinal?

Present.

Vice chairwoman Peterson?

Present.

Councilwoman Harris?

Present.

Councilman Vargas?

Present.

Councilor Royas?

Present.

You have five present. You have a quorum.

Thank you, madam madam clerk. I'll entertain a motion to enter into the records of May.

So moved.

Made by councilor Peterson. Second by councilor Vargas.

All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. And I also have letters of testimony, which is exhibit eight.

I'll enter to the motion to enter into the records exhibit eight.

So moved.

Second.

Made by councilor Royes, second by council member Vargas. All in favor,

aye.

Opposed? The ayes have it. Again, thank you so much. And to go through this amendment that we have made, I have invited our Chief of Staff, June Rose, to please take us through.

Thank you, mister chair. Thank you, committee. Over the past many months, this council has taken this work incredibly seriously with so many counselors, including each one in this room, deeply engaged in the efforts. Before I get into the amendments, I wanna give a huge thank you to our outside partners, Rhode Island ACLU, Prism, Dorcas, Fuerza Liberal, Amor, Center for Justice, Local Progress, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Shana Kurland, Miriam Weisenbaum, and so many others who have been beyond instrumental in putting this together. The solidarity and collaboration demonstrated in this policy making process from, by, and for the community is a shining light in this very dark time.

Tonight, what the committee has in front of it are amendments to section 18 and a half dash four of the city's code of ordinances, what was originally known as the Community Safety Act, later called the Community Police Relations Act or CPRA. These amendments are intended to better protect Providence residents by expanding prohibitions on voluntary Providence Police Department cooperation and federal immigration enforcement. In Providence, such cooperation is already unlawful. In 2017, the CSA or CPRA barred the police department from collaborating with federal immigration authorities absent a judicial warrant. Section h three of the CPRA states, Providence police are not permitted to comply with the request by other agencies to support or assist in operations conducted solely for the purpose of enforcing federal civil immigration law, including but not limited to requests to establish traffic perimeters related solely to immigration enforcement.

The police department's internal policy, general order five ten dot o one, mirrors this language. This policy was recently tested. In a widely circulated video of the July 13 Alverson Avenue incident, viewers watched as Providence police officers provided assistance to ICE in what para the independent board charged with oversight of the department found was, quote unquote, operationally significant. Critically, this was during an exclusively immigration enforcement action where ICE officers were operating without a judicial warrant. Counselors have argued that the incident exposed gaps in the CPRA's protections by showing how Providence police could still, in practice, provide indirect assistance to federal immigration enforcement despite the ordinance.

Ambiguity in the act's language around cooperation and lack of meaningful enforcement mechanisms could allow for police actions that facilitate ICE's activities without consequence. In or in order to ensure the spirit of the law is maintained, city councilors have argued that the CPRA must be strengthened and clarified to clearly bar resources and personnel from ever being used to facilitate ICE operations and to establish accountability measures for if they are. At the beginning of the Trump administration, counselor Justin Royce introduced amendments to the CPRA that have been in this committee since January. Since then, counselors have spent the time researching best practices and working with subject matter experts to determine what tangible actions could be taken to protect Providence residents and what best practices other municipalities are employing to take on these challenges. The changes today can be made via substitution on councilor Royce's existing proposal.

So let's jump into them, putting the proposed changes into five major categories. The first category is expanding types of prohibited contact between Providence police and federal immigration authorities. The changes brought in the definition of federal immigration enforcement to include any federal entity tasked with carrying out such activities. The prohibition on cooperation by Providence Police would include any agency the Trump administration decides to use to meet their stated goal of 3,000 arrests per day. The list of prohibited activities would be expanded to include leaning on ICE for identification, verification, or translation services, further limiting interactions between municipal law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement.

The changes would also prohibit the police department from exercising authority under what is known as a two eighty seven g agreement, which allows police departments to be formally formally deputized to themselves conduct the work of ICE. The second bucket is clarifying prohibited collaboration with federal authorities without a signed judicial warrant. Under the proposed changes, Providence Police will continue to comply with all federally required actions as they always have as long as those directives are accompanied by a valid signed criminal warrant signed by a judge. The proposed CPRA changes prohibit cooperation based on civil immigration civil administrative warrants, an intimidation tool used by federal immigration authorities that carries no legal requirement for compliance by local law enforcement. The amended ordinance clearly lists what exactly is prohibited, including but not limited to, providing information to ICE about arrestees that is not available to the public, using any city money, personnel or resources to assist in the investigation, interrogation, detention, detection or arrest of anyone for immigration enforcement, establishing traffic perimeters or otherwise controlling public areas to assist in solely in immigration enforcement.

The amendments also allow for student IDs or other forms valid forms of photo IDs to be used as acceptable forms of identification. The third bucket is establishing protected spaces within the city. The changes expand the CPRA's definition of schools to include charter schools, city run preschool and early learning programs, and day care and after school facilities. The ordinance then requires those schools as well as the courts and nonpublic parts of the police department to deny access to their premises if immigration enforcement requests entry without presenting a valid judicial warrant. Defining these protected spaces allows families and especially Providence's youth to have more confidence about their safety while at school or accessing city services.

Providence police, courthouses, prisons, and jails would also be required to designate a person who can independently verify judicial warrants that are presented by federal authorities. The fourth out of five buckets is limiting collection and disclosure of sensitive personal data. To limit the harm disclosing private personal data would cause to Providence communities, the proposed changes would prohibit Providence police from collecting demographic data such as race or ethnicity via city operated surveillance technologies such as flock cameras and services such as the new real time crime center. They would then require that all current and for and future partner agencies accessing city owned data agree via formal written agreement to all of the restrictions set forth in the ordinance, including not sharing any data with federal immigration enforcement absent a judicial warrant. The fifth and final bucket is allowing organizations to hold the city accountable by suing after alleged violations.

The proposed changes establish what's called an organizational standing in the private right of action. In other words, they would allow certain types of non governmental organizations such as civil rights, human rights, and youth organizations to file civil action against the city, the department, or an officer if they alleged CPRA violations by Providence Police. By intentionally broadening the city's accountability in cases of alleged violation, counselors are attempting to ensure that violations are accompanied by consequences. Those are the proposed amendments. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Now I'd like to call Councilman Sanchez, who will become the prime sponsor of this amendment. I'd like to remind everyone that we do have copies there of the amendments, if you'd like, Just come up and get them.

Hi, Mr. Chairman and members of the Ordnance Committee. Thank you so much for giving us the time and space today to talk about this very important proposal that we have before us. I'm gonna keep my remarks short because I I think what we're all here are are super interested to to hearing from the public. On that note, I'd like to echo the chief of staff's comments on all of the, you know, helping hands that were involved in in getting us to where we are today.

We truly did our our due diligence in in not only getting, you know, professional experts here in Rhode Island, but also talking to national partners. But before I continue, I wanna take a moment to to quickly thank and and recognize the community orgs and the different support networks that have been keeping our communities safe and protected the last few months. As you're all aware, there is a very important tool that's being utilized very effectively in our communities, and that is the defense support line. That is being managed and and run by orgs like PSL, ONA, and AMOR. So I definitely wanna, you know, notate that.

Go going against an administration that that we're currently seeing, it it's really gonna take all of us. You know, us here in in government spaces, but also a very united community front, and that's what we're seeing here in Providence. You know, you you turn on the news right now, you see what's going on in Chicago, what what's going on in in Portland, Oregon, and you get really dis disgruntled a little bit. But but, you know, we we can't let that fear and and those tactics, you know, make us be quiet. Right right now is is a time to to stand up, to fight back.

And what is here before us, in my opinion, it's, you know, the basics, the the minimum that every single municipality in the state of Rhode Island and The United States should be doing to to protect our residents and and our neighbors. Because that that's what this is all about at at the end of the day is standing for our neighbors, the the people that, like, have called Providence home for decades. I've talked to to certain family members the last couple weeks about this, and, you know, they they talk about the history. My my grandpa came here in in Providence in the late eighties, opened up a Mexican business, and to have members of our extended family being picked up by ICE, it creates, you know, a lot of frustration, a lot of anger, but it also lights that that fire that that you see in in in some of us because without those, you know, sacrifices that a lot of our families still continue to to make for for a better life, to put us in in this position. I I look around at my colleagues every single day, and and I'm amazed to see the type of representation that that we have on on this legislative body.

It's it's something that I definitely don't take for granted. It's definitely the something that our communities don't take for granted. So it makes me extremely proud to to be here before you all, not only you colleagues, but every single community member behind me that took time out of their busy day to to come testify and support for for a better world because that's what we're creating by passing an ordinance like this. I'm I'm not gonna go through the details, because I think our chief of staff, June Rose, did a phenomenal job, describing and and sharing those details. But in my opinion, the the biggest, part of this ordinance is the accountability mechanism.

In today's day and age, folks don't wanna be held accountable. And as public servants, that is extremely disappointing to me. Even if it shines, you know, mistakes or or unjust actions on on the city's end, there needs to be an accountability mechanism, and and that's what this ordinance before us does. It allows the community to have a path to hold us as a municipality accountable to our own ordinances. So with that being said, committee chair and and committee members, I hope you you truly take, you know, the the time to to listen to everyone's testimonies.

I'm sure there's gonna be folks here in opposition. And if there wasn't, you know, I I wouldn't be concerned because stuff like this isn't easy, but it's the right thing to do. So with with that being said, thank you, chairman. Thank you, members of the committee. A huge shout out to everyone that has gotten to us point, our policy team, the legal department, and I'm looking forward to to sitting here and and hearing what our community has to say about this ordinance amendment proposals.

Thank you, mister chair.

Thank you, councilman. Right. So So now we're just going to go into testimonies from those of you that have signed up. City Sergeant, could you please bring up the signing sheet? After the testimony, we'll open up for committee members to render their remarks.

Okay and the first person I have it's Meli McWilliams. If you please go come up. And I'll just try to give two minutes apiece because we do have a huge list, and I would like everyone to have an opportunity to be heard. Thank you. Welcome.

Hi, friends. Hi, friend.

Could you just state your name and address for the record, please?

This is Molly McWilliams calling in from 1090 Douglas Turnpike in Burrellville, Rhode Island.

Welcome.

Thanks. First time, so bear with me. I I grew up here. I grew up in Burrellville. I went to school in Chicago.

I lived in Seattle. I came back here when I got pregnant and had a four year old who is being watched by grandma right now so I can be here. And I'm here for my mom, I'm here for my dad, I'm here for my uncle, I'm here for my friends in Chicago, I'm here for lots of people who can't be here or may not have the opportunity to speak up in this way because they may not have the same privilege that I do. I The amendments are good, but what I find myself thinking about constantly is that we have so many laws being passed and we are putting in so much effort to make these laws as strong as we can,