Good evening, everyone, and welcome to committee now.

Welcome to you all.

Thank you for being here.

Uh, the time is 552.

Um tonight, we are here to discuss amendment made to the PCPRA.

Uh and this amendment, this changes will clearly uh define the prohibited cooperation by the Providence Police with the Federal Immigration Authority, enhancing enforcement and accountability mechanism, this signating specific public building and sensitive spaces, prohibiting discrimination based on immigration status.

So this encompasses our host to uh changes that we made to the PCPRA.

Uh, and to go through all those changes, we have invited our guests.

Uh so madam clerk, uh please call the role.

Chairman Espinal.

Present.

Vice Chairwoman Peterson present.

Councilwoman Harris, present.

Councilman Vargas.

Present.

Councilor Royus.

Present.

You have five present.

You have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh Madam Clerk.

Um, I'll enter to the motion to enter into the records of May.

So moved.

Maybe Councilman Peterson.

Uh, second by councilman Bargas, all in favor, aye.

Aye.

Oppose.

The Ice Habit.

And I also have letters of testimony, which is exhibit a to the motion to enter into the records of exhibit A.

So move.

Second.

Made by Councilor Royce, second by Councilman Vargas, one in favor, aye.

Oppose.

The Ice Habit.

Again, thank you so much.

And to go through this amendment that we have made.

Uh I have invited our chief of staff, uh, June Rose to please uh take us through.

Thank you, Mr.

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 want to give a huge thank you to our outside partners, Rhode Island AS ACLU, PRISM, DORKIS, Fuerza Liberal, Amore, Center for Justice, Local Progress, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Shauna Curland, 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 Bay 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-4 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 prohibition on voluntary Providence Police Department cooperation in federal immigration enforcement.

In Providence, such cooperation is unre already unlawful.

In 2017, the CSA or CPRA barred the police department from collaborating with federal immigration authorities, absent a judicial warrant.

Section H3 of the CPRA states Providence police are not permitted to comply with requests 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.01 mirrors this language.

In order to ensure the spirit of the law is maintained, city counselors 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 Royus 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 counselor Royus' 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 broaden 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 287G 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 assigned 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 daycare and after-school facilities.

The ordinance then requires those schools, as well as the courts and non-public 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 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 allege 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.

Hi, Mr.

Chairman and members of the ordinance committee.

Thank you so much for giving us a time and space today to talk about this very important proposal that we have before us.

On that note, I'd like to echo uh the chief of staff's comments on all of the you know helping hands that were involved in getting us to where we are today.

Um we truly did our due diligence and not only getting you know professional experts here in Rhode Island, but also talking to national partners.

Um but before I continue, I want to take a moment to quickly think and recognize uh the community orgs and the different uh support networks uh that have been keeping our uh communities uh safe and protected the last few months.

Um as you're all aware, there is uh a very important tool uh that's being utilized very effectively in our communities, and that is the defense uh support line uh that is being managed and run by orgs like PSL, ONA and Amor.

Uh so I definitely want to, you know, notate that going against uh an administration that we're currently seeing, um, it's really gonna take all of us, uh you know, us here and in government spaces, uh, but also uh a very united um community front.

And that's what we're seeing here in Providence.

Um, you know, you you turn on the news right now, you see what's going on in Chicago, what's going on in Portland, Oregon.

Um, and you get really disgruntled uh a little bit, but but you know, we we can't let that fear in those tactics uh, you know, make us uh be quiet.

Right right now is a time to stand up uh to fight back.

And what is here before us, uh, 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 uh should be doing to protect our uh residents and and our neighbors.

Uh because that's what this is all about at the end of the day, is standing uh for our neighbors, the people that have called Providence home for decades.

Um I've talked to certain family members uh the last couple weeks about this, and you know, they they talk about the history.

My grandpa came uh here in Providence in the late 80s, opened up uh a Mexican business, um, and to have members of our extended family uh being picked up uh by ice, it creates you know a lot of frustration, a lot of anger, uh, but it also lights that that fire that you see in some of us because without those you know sacrifices that a lot of our families still continue to make for a better life to put us in this position.

I I look around at my colleagues every single day, and I'm amazed uh to see the type of representation that we have on this legislative body.

It's it's something that I definitely don't take for granted.

It's definitely the uh something that our communities don't take for granted.

Uh so it makes me extremely proud to be here uh before you all, um, not only you colleagues, but every single community member behind me that uh took time out of their busy uh day to come testify in support for a better world because that's what we're creating uh by passing an ordinance like this.

Um I'm not gonna go through the details uh because I think our chief of staff, June Rose did a phenomenal job uh describing uh and sharing those details.

Uh but in my opinion, the the biggest uh part of this ordinance is the accountability mechanism.

Um in today's day and age, uh folks don't want to be held accountable, and as public servants, that is extremely disappointing to me.

Even if it shines, you know, mistakes or unjust actions on on the city's end.

Uh there needs to be an accountability mechanism, and and that's what this ordinance uh before us does.

It allows the community to have a path to hold uh us as a municipality accountable to our own ordinances.

Uh so with that being said, uh committee uh chair and committee members.

I hope you you truly take you know the the time to listen to everyone's uh testimonies.

Um I'm sure there's gonna be folks here in opposition.

Uh and if there wasn't, you know, I would be concerned because stuff like this isn't easy, uh, but it's the right thing to do.

Um so with that being said, uh thank you, uh chairman, thank you, members of the committee.

Uh a huge shout out to everyone that has gotten to us uh this point, our policy team, the legal department.

Um, and I'm looking forward to to sitting here and and hearing what our community has to say about this ordinance uh amendment proposals.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Councilman.

Right.

So um so now we're just gonna go into testimonies from those of you that have signed up.

City sergeant, could you please bring up the uh 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 uh Melly McWilliams.

If you please go come up.

And I just try to give two minutes apiece because we do have a huge uh list, and I would like everyone to have an opportunity to be heard.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Hi, friends.

Hi, friendly.

Can you just say your name and address for the record, please?

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

Welcome.

Thanks.

Uh, first time, so bear with me.

I I grew up here.

I grew up in Burleville.

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.

Um, 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 I as much as 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, and then it doesn't matter, and then they show up and blow past these laws, right?

Like it what what happened in Chicago?

We why Blackhawk?

Why do we have a black hawk rappelling in to downtown Chicago and zip tying children?

Right?

Why is that a thing?

This is 2025.

And so not only like this amendment is great, but I cannot see any situation where cooperation with ice would be advisable at all.

Because while, yes, they do they are federally funded somehow.

Um we have watched the desecration of families, we've watched them rip people apart.

I watched a video of them trying to snatch a DoorDash guy on a bike.

He's biking with DoorDash, and they tried to snatch him.

They didn't have a warrant for that.

You know, they didn't they didn't have that guy written down in their back.

Oh, it's Jim.

No, no, they didn't.

And so with they're just they're trying to make money.

This is a money-making venture, right?

They're making a lot of money per person, so they don't care who they scoop.

This is like trawling with a fishnet, right?

We're scooping everybody.

And the I don't know who else has to get hurt for this kind of stuff to stop.

And you guys represent us, so please look out for us.

Because these are our neighbors and our kids.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Maureen Eckert.

I'm 1117 Douglas Avenue.

And I'm testifying as a deeply concerned citizen to support the proposed amendments to protect our community from IC.

Thank you so much for your efforts and hard work to develop this legislation improvements.

The proposed changes to the law are a necessary beginning step in protecting city residents and regaining the trust of our community.

I urge you all, the city council, to do everything in your power to stop ICE from terrorizing our neighborhoods and make sure that police and courts are not helping ICE destroy our well-being and our city.

This is not hyperbole.

I'd like to draw your attention to reality.

Here's US Federal Judge William Young in his ruling against Secretary Secretary of State and Homeland Security Secretary for violating First Amendment in federal law.

He states in all our history, we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police.

Carrying on in this fashion, Ice brings indelible obloquy, which is public disgrace to this administration and everyone who works in it.

And I quote terrible things are happening outside.

Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes.

Families are torn apart.

Men, women, and children are separated.

Children come home from school and find that their parents have disappeared.

That's that's July, uh January 13th, 1943.

Diary of Anne Frank.

We are we are at a serious crossroads, and what we do to help our community to strengthen it in this time of crisis is worth everything.

It's worth it.

And we are here with you.

Look at us.

We're here with you to do the right thing, to urge you to support the community and give us what we need to begin to legally fight back against the lawlessness of ice.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Nancy Green.

My name is Nancy Green.

I live at 576 Hope Street in Providence.

And thank you for letting me speak today.

Hi, neighbors.

I'm asking our city council to adopt the amendments to the Providence Community Police Relations Act.

I am the granddaughter of Eddie Flynn of Providence policeman.

And I've been a Providence resident since the Blizzard of 78.

I was at the hearings in 2017 for the CPRA.

And it was passed with much care and collaboration between the citizens and the police.

Today we are facing a new threat coming from abuse of authority, a different kind of crime.

We've been called a sanctuary city and threatened with federal action, both in Trump one and Trump too.

Immigration and customs enforcement ICE, which was created about 20 years ago in the panic after 9-11, is being used as a faceless, unaccountable, remorseless new militia, unlike anything we have seen in our history.

At the same time, a new industry profiting from detention lobbies Congress to expand arrest in order to fill cells.

Also, as technology advances, we need new protections from misuse of electronic surveillance.

This updated bill contains some important protections for everyone.

The rights you say may be your own.

Just as we committed to building a hurricane barrier, we must build laws to protect our city from being drafted into serving ice.

For the sake not only of our neighbors whose only offense is lack of papers, but for all of us, we must build a legal wall protecting the rights of our state and city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Becca Yang.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Hello, uh, my name is Becca.

Becca Yang, 807 Broad Street.

I work in Providence.

I'm a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and I'm a volunteer with the deportation defense network, along with hundreds of other Rhode Islanders, including many who are here today.

This rapid response network that we we've been building responds to ice sightings every day as this administration has unleashed terror against our immigrant loved ones.

We operate a tip line that people can call about suspected ice activity in the community.

The phone number is 675 1414.

Through this work, we've been able to stop kidnappings from being carried out, chase ice out of our neighborhoods, and support impacted families.

One thing that I want to emphasize that our work has made even clearer than before is not only that ICE and the police collaborate, but that they are fundamentally part of the same racist system.

We've received calls reporting brutal violence against community members that turned out not to be ICE, but another agency.

City officials must make sure that our laws reflect the interests of the people.

And we can't stop there, because no change to the law will ever be a substitute for the power of our community when we come together.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Joshua Morton, 145 DNA in Potucket.

And being a part of that team and having no experience organizing, it's been amazing to see how people from the community, as Becca just mentioned, come together to look out for one another.

And that's why I am in full support of these amendments, because when our officials, whether they be police or otherwise, abuse their power, there should be tangible consequences, not just immaterial reviews.

So these proposed amendments are a slight improvement, but still a far cry from the protection that vulnerable people, not illegal aliens, people need.

These are people who work and live as hard and as humbly as anyone else, and they deserve legal protection and person-to-person empathy.

And I'll close with saying that.

Again, this is this is great that we have all this, but this is barely the beginning.

I don't know about you guys, but it's been a struggle for me working two jobs, looking out for my family, and still not having enough to make ends meet.

And then we have people who are working as hard as they can, and they're being snatched up, taken from their homes at some points, sometimes taken from court proceedings.

When we can give people virtual court proceedings, we're not doing that.

Thank you, Yes.

And so again, I'm really thankful for the work that everyone here has put in to make these amendments possible, but we have so much more work to do, and I hope that we can do that together and in good faith.

Thank you.

Next it's Cata Lorento.

Thank you.

My name is Catarina Lorenzo.

I would say that I am a resident of Providence, and I will say too that I love Providence because the way our Providence is a lot of people different, uh, people from different countries, different culture, and different everything.

I really like that.

That's why I'm not moving pro to Providence to other city if it's not like you know, people or police ice forcing us to go out on our city.

Just want to say that.

And yeah, today I'm here because, yes, as a community member, but also I work with the organization, uh, Amor, the Alliance of More Rights or Resistance.

We know that this is a need for a community, that we know that our people is being punishment, and we know that we need to support our community, and I need to come here to speak.

I'm here to demand, and in a police and ice collaboration.

I know that the police of Providence have been collaborating with ICE, even though it's against the local law that we know is the community safety act.

And with the change that we are doing now, the proposed change also we need to include the way specific way how we can hold the province police accountable if they collaborate with ice, because we are just no holding them accountable, and that needs to be a way to do it in a real way.

We know they're federal, they're big guys, but that doesn't mean that we don't have our local power or community power that here we are here.

People is present here, and we are the people that we see what's happening on the street, and we need to support that, and all of you, you need to support us, you need to see the way that the city can support that uh effort that we are doing, and support our people or residents, because if we know us here, who's going to do that?

Nobody else.

We need to do that.

D City, the community, all our effort together.

And yeah, uh so I say like we need to protect our community, the residents.

Why?

It's a lot of reason why.

We need to protect them just because yes, it's they are have a life, they have family, it's not because something else, but they're part of our economy.

They go to school, they need everything what we need.

And what happened now?

Parents is not feeling safe to bring their children to school because they are being targeted at Jews around the school after the school, all of us, this program, they are not feeling safe.

If we don't do anything for them, who's going to do?

I'm saying for them because actually we are part of it.

It's not everybody here, we have neighbor, we have family, we have friends.

It's us, but we need to do it, and they are not here because they are feeling fear, they're being targeted.

We need to do that.

And the province city, no need to come to be complex in traumatizing more children's family and increasing all the need that is happening, more homeless on the street because people is not able to pay rent because uh parents, the the person that brings the income in the house is being deported.

We if we are now uh saying, oh, a lot of homeless in the street, we can control it then.

We need to decrease, we need to help how that is not going up because it's going up, and we need to uh to work together, as I said, and yeah, the community, we are doing what we can.

Everybody back here, we are doing things that we are able to do as a community member as organization, but also you you need to do whatever is in your power to do this and make our community safe.

Providence as a province, that is why I'm here.

People is like accepting each other and welcoming everybody and uh helping uh ice to destroy our community and our city, and that's what I am here.

Please um make this happen in the way that is good for our community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kathia de los Reyes.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Okay.

I'm Sophia Losrez, 289th Street.

As a resident, as a resident of Providence, I'm here to fully support the amendments to the Community Safety Act and to demand proper implementation and consequences for violating the act.

The act exists to protect the community from violent police interactions or interactions that violate our rights and building a system of police accountability, which we are yet to see.

This act will not protect anyone if there is no accountability.

So I'm urging you to pass these amendments to strengthen its enforcement.

The Community Safety Act also prohibits collaboration with ICE, of which there is evidence of Providence police doing just that.

And even just one instance of collaboration is too many.

We do not want ICE here.

Not in the streets, not in the courthouse, not at school.

And we can't trust the police to protect us from their terror, especially when they are collaborating with them, which is why we are showing up to protect each other.

And you can pass these amendments to show up for us.

Plain and simple, we are seeking to pass these amendments to strengthen its implementation as just one part of our efforts to continue to protect our communities and to demand an end to ICE collaboration and presence in Providence.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Shana Curlin.

Good evening.

Good evening.

And first, I just want to say thank you, Mr.

Chairman, members of the committee, Madam Clerk, and the other council people who are here.

I see my councilman here.

Um and the staff, who I know has worked really hard on this.

Um, I'm gonna try to keep it super brief, but I would like to cover some technical um aspects that would hopefully be helpful to you.

Because I think what often happens when your only legal resource is part of the administration, you receive what the administration wants to give you.

And so, as a council, as independent legislators, as the people who actually rock by bringing this stuff out to the community and listening to your constituents, which everyone did, um, you don't get that benefit of having your own attorneys.

So I'm gonna take my little volunteer time to contribute what I can so that you know some more information and can't get bullied, because your job is too important to let yourselves get bullied.

So, any way I can help without going too much over the two minutes, I'll try to do and feel free to call me later.

Go ahead if you need more info.

But basically, I think there's one piece in here that is very upsetting about the administration's position on this bill, and that is that they are trying to take away the right of action that gives your constituents us, and I forgot to say 149 Lennox, I'm a proud resident award nine.

Um, but that's what gives us the ability to enforce it.

We don't have a police deport department to enforce the police.

We can try to use para, they've tried, and you know, they don't have unfortunately the teeth to do it.

Um, we don't have our own law department, we just have ourselves when we can protest in the streets, that's great, but they're always telling us calm down, calm down.

Um, take it to the courts, do it the right way.

So we try to do it the right way.

And let me just when this ordinance was created, even before the 2017 when it was passed.

Do you know the house meetings and people's living rooms to come up with the ideas for it?

Started back in 2011, 2012 to come up with these ideas to build on the work that folks have done for so long.

Councilwoman Harris, I'm going back to you know, Michael Van Leeston, decades of work, and came up with this ordinance.

But as others have said so powerfully, so what if you have a beautiful law?

I've been working on getting beautiful laws passed, you know.

Yay, that's great, and that's what you guys do, but without our ability to come in and how and enforce them, your amazing work doesn't actually hold up over the years.

So the way when we made this bill, and I'm gonna say this CSA, I know it has the different name, I can't remember, but everybody knows what the CSA means.

Um, but when we passed the CSA at those tables where we did work together, you know, we had youth sitting across from Colonel Clements and agreeing, okay, we'll drop the name CSA, who cares, but we do need to keep in some ways to enforce this law, and we said a private right of action.

So now, from if what I have heard is true, the Smiley administration wants to be the first administration not just to support strengthening the CSA, but is actually trying to dismantle a core piece of the CSA by trying to tell you that we can't have law that lets us enforce it by taking it to court.

That's all.

Taking it to court.

Now, the words that have been in there and will continue to be in there because I know you guys are strong, and no matter who tries to bully you, are to any court of competent jurisdiction.

So if I feel that my rights under the CSA have been violated, I can go to a court and take it there.

Now I don't get to say as a person or a lawyer or the law department doesn't get to say whether or not superior court has competent jurisdiction.

A lot of us read the law and say, yes, it does.

They might read the law and say, no, it doesn't.

That's fine because we don't decide.

The judge, the court decides if they have competent jurisdiction.

We're not saying that no matter what the city says we can all go to superior court.

No, we say you can take your lawsuit and let the court decide.

Now, what's kind of funny is as much as they're trying to tell you that no, the superior court can't enforce a city ordinance.

What's funny is if you look at, I'm gonna give you a case.

Um, sorry, I only have the Rhode Island reporter numbers.

Um, it's called Clements versus Taz Join.

It's 92 Rhode Island 308 at 313.

And here's a great sentence.

And it's the Supreme Court, Rhode Island Supreme Court, so they're gonna know more than any of us.

This court long ago declared that the violation of a statute or an ordinance, right?

City ordinance.

That's what we're doing.

You're the ordinance committee, in fact, right?

Was not of itself grounds for a civil action unless such right was annexed.

That's that part that they want to take out, the part that you all annexed that we agreed sitting across the table with folks from the police department and the community would be annexed, and that when your predecessors passed this ordinance, it was annexed.

So that language is in there.

So you can't say that the Supreme Court would have said that that can happen if it turns out it can't.

Yep.

And you can look it up, and I'm quoting it correctly.

Um so, first of all, you can bring it to Superior Supreme Superior Court, and if that's incorrect, the court will say so.

You don't need to cut off our possibility because this is what happens with um with uh civil rights enforcement, is that all of a sudden there's nobody who will who will help you do it.

You know how hard it is to find a lawyer when you have a challenging or unpopular cause, times it by 20 when the lawyer doesn't even think it will get through because there's no right of action written in there.

This gives it a chance.

This says, okay, we're gonna give you the oxygen tank, put it on and see what you how you can how you can swim through this.

Was that the two minutes?

Uh it's it's about five, but um I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna let you finish with a couple of more minutes because I feel that what you'll say is very important.

Okay.

But just keep it in mind, try to wrap it up.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Okay, so then um, no more preaching, but just some concrete examples where the city has not had a problem with this clause before because we have brought lawsuits under the CSA and they didn't mention it with a P, they didn't have any issues when PRISM sued Mayor Lorsa under the CSA for having a just a completely messed up policy of how they were gonna do the gang database, even though they tried to say, oh, well, Prism can't sue because it's an organization, they never ever tried to say, and you can't sue under the CSA.

Now that was federal court right across the street.

Maybe they didn't want to try that in federal court, but I think if federal court can determine that they have the jurisdiction, then I think you can leave it up to the state court to determine that too and not cut off the legs before we even get to walk through the door.

Um, there's been other cases too where we brought claims under the CSA in federal court.

I can give you the sites later if you like, and the city has never challenged it, so kind of funny that they want to do it now that we're trying to improve it and add organizations.

I would like to put in a plug for something we gave up in that horse trading back in 2017, and that's called fee shifting, meaning the attorneys can get paid for representing you if you win.

They're not gonna get paid if the lawsuit's no good, but if you win, it means your lawyer can get paid, and it's not gonna come out of your settlement.

Because unfortunately, settlements for emotional injuries are real small, and it's hard to find lawyers.

We do it, and I know back at the time they were saying, oh, Shauna Curlin wants to get rich.

Ha ha, I'm gonna do it paid or not.

I mean, I'm a full-time lawyer plus making 53,000 a year because I want to keep doing these suits.

So some of us will keep doing it, but people need more lawyers, and if you could just add that fee shifting language back in, so at the end, people can get have more opportunity to get lawyers, the amazing nonprofits that are willing to step out there and represent people, can keep their doors open and keep helping people.

So add that back in.

Thank you so much for the time.

I appreciate them for your hard work.

Thank you, Sean.

All right, next we have Maya Lehrer.

Maya.

Hi, my name is Maya Lehrer.

I am at 109 Princeton Av.

I grew up in Providence, and I'm an organizer with the deportation defense network and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

ICE has been kidnapping our community members from court, despite the previous Community Safety Act.

Over the last three months alone, we've received reports of at least 20 ICE kidnappings at the courts of Rhode Island, the majority being at the Garrihe Courthouse complex, just a few blocks from here.

We believe that these kidnappings are only possible due to ICE presence inside the courthouse.

For the past three weeks, myself and more than 100 volunteers from the College Hill outreach group have been present at the courthouse Monday through Friday, every single morning.

We look around the court for iCE cars, which are nowhere in sight, yet with no warning, several ICE cars can appear in a matter of minutes, corner someone in a parking lot or getting into their Uber and take them away.

How could this be possible without someone inside?

How could they know when our community members were where they were going or when they were going to leave?

The Community Safety Act has claims to prohibit ICE from entering the courts or sharing any information with ICE.

But the only way that ICE could be kidnapping our community members is if they actually had eyes and ears inside the courts.

So this is precisely what's happening.

We welcome the updates to the Community Safety Act, which will allow us to sue the courts and hold them accountable if they let ICE in, but this is really not enough.

Legal battles are extremely expensive, and we know that the government, local, national, and uh uh state has the odds stacked in their favor using our tax dollars against us.

That's why the people have been demanding a virtual court proceedings.

If our community members don't have to go to court, they don't have to be kidnapped.

More than 1,500 people, 900 people from Rhode Island have already signed on to a petition demanding virtual court hearings.

City council and the mayor must call on the courts to provide virtual hearings.

The infrastructure is already there from COVID.

We demand all measures possible to prevent even one more ICE kidnapping at the courts, and we need it now.

We can't only regulate police or ICE or the courts to prevent deportations.

We need to dismantle this racist injustice system and win power for working people to abolish ICE and end police terror.

Thank you.

All right, Jake.

Um Jacob de Black Court.

And I apologize if I did not pronounce that right.

You actually nailed it.

Close enough, right?

Um tough act to follow.

That was really cool what just happened.

Uh hi, my name is Jacob DeBlake Court.

I use say them pronouns.

I'm a Federal Hill resident.

I live at 60 Penn Street.

Um, you have heard and you will continue to hear people who are much more eloquent than me speak to the importance of strengthening protections for undocumented folks.

Um, for my part, I I previously served as a policy director with the Boston City Council, where I was really lucky to work with um really amazing advocates um with lived experience as undocumented folks, and each and every one of them was uh kind and thoughtful and funny and hardworking, and those are the only things that you can really expect from people in the United States.

Um, it makes me proud to know that people are coming from all over the world to be here to work hard to start a family and contribute.

That's the story of my family, and it's hopefully the story of generations of Americans to come.

And uh I feel no greater shame as an American citizen knowing that my taxpayer dollars are going to um persecute uh disappear women, children, kids, these are families, these are people that you know, these are people that I know, um, and they deserve they deserve our help.

Um, but it's it's and I'm very grateful for the advocates who do what they do as well.

The hotline number again is 6751414, just to get that on the public record.

Uh, but it's in my experience as a as a policy director that I wanted to come and speak.

You have all clearly done your homework and you've consulted with experts from throughout the country, but just as the fresh set of eyes, uh, a piece of the ordinance that I saw that I wanted to bring to attention is uh under section H here, collaboration with other law enforcement agencies.

Uh subsection one there says that um any cooperation between uh Providence Police and federal um authorities needs to be made public unless it quotes adversely impacts investigatory activities.

Um, as a policy director, I recognize language like that, and that is a very easy way for the police to say that they don't have to comply with this law, because without defining what it means to adversely impact investigatory activities, that's just gonna be an easy way for them to uh deny the the rights of the people to get the information that they deserve.

So I just wanted to name that um this is really important, and the work that you're doing is really important.

The work that the advocates are doing is really important, and it reflects in this work.

Um, but our job as the people here is to continue to push us to go even further, and there's still a lot of work that needs to get done to make sure that ICE has absolutely no role in the goings on of the city of Providence.

So thank you for what you're doing, and thank you.

Thank you for doing it.

Yeah, at this moment, I just want to acknowledge our council president Rachel Miller, who is here with us.

Thank you, Council President, for being here.

As well, right, Councilwoman and Thea Graves, yeah, policy team, and uh say the solicitor, thank you.

Uh and now we have our news allen.

Of course, uh, Council uh Broad Temp, uh Picharo, apologies, I did not say it.

Go right ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh my name is Anousha Ullis, um, 807 Broad Street.

I'm a Rhode Island resident and an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and with the Rhode Island Deportation Defense Network.

In the past eight months, the deportation defense network has organized a network thousands strong in the face of Providence City's inaction.

While the mayor and police have lied in our faces about their collaboration with ICE, are we surprised?

No.

This violence on our communities is not unprecedented.

Historically, the city has either failed to protect our people from state violence or has actively enacted it, from the destruction of homeless encampments to the police and prison violence that has devastated our communities.

Even without ICE sneaking around and attacking people.

To too many other times to name here.

From people who are trying to escape domestic violence at home to parents and guardians who are trying to protect their families to people who have committed harm but need real help, not to be thrown away in a cage.

It is hard enough for our community members to be going through the court system to be dealing with the carceral system without having to fear this escalation of violence against them by ICE.

Our city has a lot of work to do, but as many people have said, this is the bare minimum.

At the very least, we can stop collaborating with ICE and stop letting these ICE agents come into Providence courthouses.

Thank you.

Thank you so much to everybody who's come out here to stand up for our community.

I live and work in Providence.

We stand with our immigrant neighbors who are from around the globe, whose communities back home have been made unstable and unsafe by this country's endless wars and plunder, who have been evicted from their lands by the multinational corporations based in this country whose soils have been made non-errable by the climate crisis fueled by this ruling class, the same ruling class that now has the audacity to brutally turn them away at the borders and now terrorize them within our cities.

These forces include the Providence police, as we all know.

PPD has developed crueler and more wicked ways to oppress the poor and marginalized people of this city since its inception.

This year, ICE's attacks have gave them the perfect cover to dive more deeply into their attempts to control our people.

They are literally piggybacking on this most recent attempt of the ruling class to target the most vulnerable of us.

PBD knows the fear that immigrant communities are feeling, and they are fueling this terror through their collaboration.

And ultimately, it is the people who will truly resist these irredeemably violent institutions, ICE and people and Providence Police.

I know this because I have spoken to hundreds of neighbors throughout the West End where I live through the work with the deportation defense line, and we're not backing down.

Still, changes like these, which seek to compel institutions that we are all forced to rely on, schools, hospitals to adhere to our community needs are the least that we can do.

This will not dampen our struggle nor provide a sense of comfort, but I urge you to allow this change to continue to fuel the resolve in our people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the time.

My name is Colton Hast, um, and I live at 60 Oriol Avenue in Providence.

I come to you.

Good evening.

I come to you as a PhD student and a resident of Providence.

I'm testifying today to support the proposed amendments to the Community Safety Act as a first step and to state clearly that I want our city to do everything it can to keep ICE out of our community.

As students, instead of preparing for class, we are preparing ourselves for if and when ICE arbitrarily detains and deports our international colleagues, our students of color, our neighbors.

Providence claims to be home to some of the greatest universities in the world, but a university or city which exists under a curtain of fear cannot be great.

Our community is enriched by the people who call this place home.

It is on us to protect our neighbors.

For that reason, I implore the council to go above and beyond this amendment to reform our own police department to protect our courthouses via virtual hearings that many have said, and to for to create real consequences for police who abuse their power or collaborate with ICE to harm our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Thank you to the chair and the council.

Uh the committee.

My name's Kate Shapira.

I live at Ford Brighton Street in Providence.

I'm calling on the council and the city of Providence to protect our community, your constituents, your colleagues, your neighbors, and mine from ICE and DHS, and to strengthen a mechanisms for disciplining PPD officers who choose to violate the ordinance and existing rules by collaborating with those agencies.

DHS has announced publicly that they're ignoring federal law by arresting people on quote reasonable suspicion when the law requires probable cause.

In Chicago, federal agents functioning as shop shock troops invaded an entire apartment building, zip tieing naked kids out of their beds and smashing people's belongings.

They've handcuffed city officials and violently arrested clergy.

That is who they are.

So to any officers here, that is what they are inviting you to do.

That is who they're inviting you to be.

And as your employers who pay your salaries, the city and the people of Providence need you to make the right choice.

We can't risk you making the wrong choice.

We have a record of officers making the wrong choice on July 13th.

We know there are other incidents that no one has felt safe making public.

We need these protections, and we need oversight and consequences.

And so for the council, this is also a moment of choice.

Are we going to stand together as a city and be on each other's side?

Or are we going to choose the side of the people who zip tie kids and make people disappear?

The city council can side with the city's people, people who work in this building, and register their house titles and their business permits and their kids' births here by making their protective changes to the city ordinance and making sure that they are followed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Angel Lopez.

I attest my biometric information is not for sale.

I'm here as a resident of Silver Lake, a product of the Providence school system, and an Ahana alumni of Boston College.

I agree with the reactivation and enforcement of this ordinance and believe it will make Providence a safer place.

Positive relationships with the police must work both ways.

A police officer who does not show respect to the people they serve does not receive respect or appreciation from the entire community.

Cop activities that target youth like stop and frisk and the activities mentioned in the community safety agreement.

Two of them are targeting electronic, targeted electronic surveillance of lawful activities and the gang list have adverse impacts on the growing youth of Providence.

Students and residents like me easily perceive any malpractice in these as attacks on the community, my community, and we start to build resentment.

So I'm here to urge everyone, right, to push a little bit further on this ordinance and add a section that prohibits any devices on the sidewalks and the telephone poles from sharing information with ICE.

The city council, y'all confirmed that the license plate readers do not track people.

But what about the other devices that have been co-located on sidewalks and telephone poles from 2017 until today?

As of this morning, I found two locations in my neighborhood where school bus stops are located.

And there's privately owned surveillance devices, right?

So these devices, they're self-regulated by the owner who does not show their face to my community as an occupant or as a regulator of our sidewalks or our telephone polls, and they influence our elected officials and our appointed officials holding public office.

And one of those XNS systems, um, if and all the other players of what I would call this private public rights of way market, um have not shown their faces to the community or provided the community with a clear process to ensure accountability.

Students shouldn't be forced to wait at the bus stops with these devices there.

So I ask all of you to relocate all the bus stops away from all of these surveillance devices and also prohibit the direct and indirect sharing of any data collected by these types of surveillance devices with iCE.

Uh, thank you.

Thank you.

Alisia da Silva.

Good evening.

Hello, I'm Alicia DeSilva of Bloomfield Street in Packet.

I work and I'm part of the Providence community, and I'm also a volunteer with the deportation defense network.

So I'm testifying to demand that the Providence police work an end to the Providence Police working with ICE.

We need more accountability, and we need more from our city and our police force in terms of accountability.

I understand this ordinance is just a start.

Um, I would prefer not to see ICE in Providence at all.

And there's been some really great suggestions tonight, which I think also need attention, such as keeping ICE out of the courts, having virtual options for our courts in our hearings, and also um AI and how to uphold the law.

Um, sorry, the last testament about like data collected.

How are we using this?

How is it being shared?

This is all really important.

We need to keep these things in mind and not collaborate with ICE.

So it's important that Providence sets the example for our state, our neighboring communities, and sends a message to the nation at this time.

Our immigrant neighbors should not live in fear, they should not be treated like criminals for merely existing.

They should not be racially profiled, they should not be afraid to bring their children to school, and they should not be targeted in the courts.

When local police cooperate with ICE, they're aiding an agency that is kidnapping our neighbors, they're ripping apart families, they're stripping people of their rights and instilling fear in our communities.

They're a machine fueled by billions of dollars, and it's this administration's agenda of hitting quotas to fill detention centers that profit off of capacity.

Its budget has exploded, and they want further assistance from our local police and our local resources.

More of our tax dollars taken from us, taken from our communities to tear them down instead of building them up.

Local officers and resources should be here to protect our neighbors, to protect our neighbors, our neighborhoods, and not hand people over to a broken immigration system that thrives on fear and racial profiling and profit.

Providence cannot be a pipeline for federal enforcement.

Please stop tearing families apart and stand with passing this ordinance.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Um I'm Caroline Courtz.

I live at 69 Brown Street.

Um I am testifying to demand that as a first step, um, the Rhode Island courts prohibit federal immigration authorities access to their premises in order to investigate, detain, apprehend, or arrest individuals for potential violations of federal immigration laws.

Handing out flyers with resources that people can use in the event that they or their families come into contact with ice in order to have safe interactions.

Almost three weeks ago, I saw ICE for the first time.

I looked into the parking lot across from the side path of the courthouse and saw multiple men in masks, hats, sunglasses, and bulletproof bulletproof vests.

And turned out that there were 12 ICE agents there to take one single woman coming out of the courthouse.

I bring up this story to make it clear that the only way ICE could have known where to find this woman is by working within or with the court.

These are calculated plans that take advantage of people simply trying to use legal processes to gain U.S.

citizenship.

If immigration authorities want these legal routes to be used, why would they camp outside the courts to prevent people from utilizing said routes?

We demand that these coordinated efforts are stopped.

Exactly a week after I first saw ICE, my fellow volunteers and I happened to see ICE again, taking a man from outside the Rhode Island Supreme Court, just down the street from my school.

It made me realize how close and unfortunately how often these tragic events are occurring.

As someone whose family immigrated here when earning citizenship didn't require going through the same lengthy and legal steps as today, how can I say that I have any more claim to U.S.

citizenship than people who are being captured by ICE outside courthouses today?

What gives us the right to prevent people from utilizing the legal routes we have to citizenship when some of us weren't expected to do the same?

Let people safely access at the very least Rhode Island courts without fear of being torn from their families and lives.

Thank you.

Hi.

Good evening, city council.

My name is Jamie Cowwood, and I'm at 27 Zippora Street, North Providence.

I won't make this long as I'm not a great public speaker, but I could not not testify today.

As a Rhode Island resident, I want ICE out of our communities.

I don't want my son growing up in a world where families and children are grabbed out of the streets, out of their houses, outside of court, where they are trying to do things legally, where parents are ripped away from their children.

I fear for our children's futures and the hatred that has been allowed to grow and consume us.

Rhode Island is beautiful because of its people, all of its people, regardless of status.

I'm asking that you protect all your people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Leah Shim.

Leah Oliven.

Hello, my name's Leah Shrimph, and I live at Two Deming Street in Pawtucket.

I'm testifying to demand an end to the Providence Police working with ICE.

As a resident of Rural Island, I want ICE out of our communities.

Collaboration between the Providence Police and ICE is not okay.

Providence police denies that this is going on, but it is, even though it's against local law.

This coordination needs to end now.

I demand an end to ICE kidnapping people outside the courthouse.

Virtual court proceedings need to be offered to all who request them right now.

We have to keep our immigrant community members safe, and the best way to do that is if they don't have to go to the court in person and risk being kidnapped.

And to close, I'd like to share something else I've been thinking a lot about.

I work in schools with children with special needs, many of them from minority or immigrant backgrounds.

Every year we have to do active shooter drills so kids and staff know what to do in the event of an actor shooter in the school.

If nothing changes, if this collaboration with ICE continues, what's next?

Ice drills?

Police drills?

What would that even look like?

I already have to be prepared to use my body as a human shield for bullets to protect my kids.

Am I also going to need to protect them from the people who are supposed to be protecting them?

The thought of that makes me really angry, and it's a scary yet possible future if things keep going as they are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Andrew Poyant.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Andrew Poyant.

I am a resident of Ward 14.

I'm testifying to demand an end to Providence Police working with ICE.

We've seen on video proof that Providence Police is collaborating with ICE, even as city law forbids it.

Where is the accountability to the Providence Police Department?

In 2017, I was here to pack City Hall, more packs than I've ever seen it for the passage of the Community Safety Act.

We call on Providence City Council to strengthen and amend the Community Safety Act so it lives up to its intent and hold the police accountable.

We've seen ICE target folks at courts.

We call for virtual court hearings for everyone who requests it.

City council should do everything to protect our residents and neighbors, including making sure that all city buildings are uh don't allow ice inside them.

Additionally, police have been shown to be using unmarked vehicles.

This makes people in our neighborhoods very concerned that it may possibly be ice.

They should not be using unmarked vehicles or showing up not in uniform.

Please do everything you can in your power to protect our neighbors.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rebecca Dupras.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Rebecca Dupree.

Um, I live at 62 Rome in Providence.

I'm also a business owner and a lawyer.

And I wanted to come today just to say that I support the amendments being discussed today.

I serve clients at my office on Smith Hill.

I also have staff that I employ who come here to work.

I want my clients and my staff to feel safe coming to my office to receive services and to do their jobs.

As a lawyer, I understand we have constitutional rights that are under attack right now.

This is concerning to me and those testifying today, obviously.

As a resident, though, I want to feel safe in the house that I own here.

I do not want to feel like masked people could kidnap me or my neighbors off the street.

Sorry.

With support of the Providence Police and my tax dollars, I want to feel like I can count on police to protect me.

I have friends and neighbors in Providence who live in fear every day.

Now, whether, especially now, given the current changes in the federal law.

Sorry.

These amendments won't address all the issues, including these human rights violations that we're all seeing every day.

But it's important for citizens and those who serve citizens to stand up for human dignity whenever and wherever possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jennifer Woodman.

Good evening, Chair, and thank you, members of the council for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Jennifer Wood.

I am a Providence resident.

I live at 312 Morris Avenue, and I'm the director of the Rhode Island Center for Justice.

I'm here to testify in support of the amendments to the ordinance.

These ordinance amendments are critically important at a time when the city should be standing up to maintain the safety of its residents with all means available to the city.

There are certain things that the city cannot do to impact ICE enforcement.

But these critical amendments are things that are within the control of the city that can enhance the safety of our neighbors and ourselves.

Why are these changes so important?

I do a lot of work with people in schools, in human service agencies, in the healthcare profession, and they're all seeking guidance and support on understanding what to do in the event of an ICE encounter.

And the lack of clarity in the ordinance previously has made it very difficult to give people reliable information about what their expectations might be in the event of an ICE encounter as it relates to the Providence police.

Making these changes to the ordinance would make it crystal clear what collaboration with ICE means and how that's defined in the city of Providence, and making it clear that that is prohibited is critically important for everyone involved, but most notably for the residents of the city.

However, that clarity is meaningless without an enforcement mechanism.

And you've heard that several times this evening.

Adding the ability for civil rights organizations to sue on behalf of citizens because they are organizations that serve people whose civil rights have been violated is critically important because in these times it is sometimes very difficult for an individual to stand up and go to court on their own behalf, but where these organizations are also able to have standing to sue, that is a powerful expansion of the accountability mechanism.

Finally, addressing the repeal of this safe and sensitive places policy at the federal level, such that schools and courts would be off limits to ICE without assigned judicial warrant is an important enhancement to this ordinance for the city of Providence.

And the city of Providence can be a leader in our state and be a role model to other municipalities to put the same protections in place in their schools and in their municipal courts.

When we train educators and are asked questions by school leaders about what they can reasonably expect in the event of an ICE encounter in other communities outside of Providence, we're not able to be clear on this point because there is no federal policy that restricts ICE enforcement in the public schools any longer, as there used to be.

But with this change to the ordinance in Providence, it would be clear.

And very practically, a mechanism is added to the ordinance requiring that there be a designated city official who will review any warrants that are presented to determine whether they are valid.

When we do this kinds of conversations with educators, educators often turn to me and say, Yeah, Jen, I get it.

Um, a signed judicial warrant, we should check for that.

But I'm a school administrator.

How am I supposed to know what a signed judicial warrant looks like and doesn't look like?

So these are some very important practical enhancements that are being made with these ordinance changes.

This is one of the most difficult times in my over 40 years as a civil rights lawyer in terms of advising family members, friends, community members, people who ask me, how do we understand what we can expect from officials from law enforcement?

Because actually, there are many unconstitutional, lawless actions being taken every day, as everyone in this room knows.

And I believe that this ordinance, these amendments, are an attempt to begin to put up some guardrails to some of those actions, at least in the city of Providence.

Those actions are so unnerving that people who run childcare centers have asked me, well, okay, you told me that I have a right of privacy, particularly in my home, if I'm providing care to our community's children.

But what am I supposed to do if masked individuals who refuse to show their identification kick down my door?

And it is very, very dissatisfying to tell them, well, it's hard for me to answer that question.

And I guess all I can say is that if you are subjected to unconstitutional illegal action, we'll try and sue afterwards.

That's not very reassuring to people.

In fact, it's terrifying.

At least with these changes to the community safety act, it is possible that community members will understand that it is actually illegal for the Providence Public Police, for the Providence Police Department to collaborate with ICE, and they may actually call to see whether or not the person kicking down their door wearing a mask is someone who is seeking to extort them in criminal conduct or whether they're actually an authorized law enforcement official.

And will begin to restore some of the confidence that people may have that the constitutional boundaries that have applied all along and still apply today may have some enforceability.

Thank you very much for your thank you, Jen.

Jason Victoria O'Connor.

There you are.

Thank you.

And I'm testifying in support of protecting our community from ICE.

Police are marketed as people who protect and serve the community.

But we've seen police brutality here in Providence.

We've seen Providence police working with ICE.

And we've seen the Providence Police Chief and Mayor Smiley lie through their teeth about the police ICE collaboration.

Probably because they know it's against local law, but they don't have the spine to enforce it.

Take away the opportunity for ICE to kidnap our community members at courthouses.

Also, it's been said that Para has no teeth.

Give them the power to suspend any police officer who violates the law and suspend them without pay, as well as the authority to terminate the employment of police who violate the law they are sworn to uphold, whether it's working with ICE or brutalizing people of color, give para the ability to effectively do its job.

People always say that history will not look kindly on people who do nothing in the face of injustice or even help it along.

But don't worry about future historians.

Worry about the people who are looking at you here and now asking for your help.

Don't worry about someone in a hundred years thinking, what was wrong with those people?

Worry about people in the present who will see all of this on social media thinking, what is wrong with these people?

I know this council isn't all powerful, so even if you can't do everything we're asking, we need you to put pressure on the people who can.

I've read enough history to know that secret police who terrorize and kidnap people with impunity are never the good guys.

They are never the people you want to side with.

All of us here know that.

That's why we're here, because we want to be not just on the right side of history, but on the right side, period.

And I urge you to do the same.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

April Cougar.

Where is April?

Kruger.

Okay, we'll go to the next.

Rebecca Shades.

Hi, Providence.

Good evening.

My name is Rebecca.

I'm a Rhode Island born and raised in Providence.

And I'm testifying tonight in support of the suggested amendments to the CSA.

I believe it is inhumane to demand people be in person for court proceedings while fully aware that ICE agents are at the ready to abduct jets outside the door.

People come to their court proceedings in an effort to comply with the local law.

Even when they know the hearing might not result in what they want, they still participate in this legal system.

Even now, when we all watch court abductions on our phone, they risk their safety.

All the while, Providence police continue to break local law by collaborating with ICE.

This is hypocrisy.

There needs to be accountability.

Someone already tonight quoted Anne Frank here today.

She wrote that newly famed blurb in her diary during Nazi occupied Europe.

So I offer these questions to you, City Council.

Where do we stand today in ICE-occupied America?

Will we continue to allow lawless actions to occur in Providence by the Providence police and thereby giving more power to ICE?

Please consider amending the CSA to make the first step to protecting our community, to protecting our loved ones.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lily Stolper.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Lily Stolper.

I live at 175 10th Street, and I'm here to support these proposed changes.

In particular, I want to ensure that the Providence police do not assist or collaborate with ICE and to make sure that we have a mechanism to hold them accountable if they do.

We've seen countless examples of violence, lawlessness, and brutality inflicted by ICE on communities across the country.

ICE is designed to terrise and to brutalize.

That's why they wear masks.

That's why they refuse to identify themselves.

The Providence Police are here to protect and serve.

Their mission, and this is directly from their mission statement.

Their mission includes improving quality of life in our city, preserving the peace, and protecting human rights.

Providence police cannot fulfill their mission while collaborating with or assisting ICE.

Their mission is antithetical to what ICE stands for.

Please help protect my neighbors and keep our communities safe by enacting these proposed amendments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I was also recently an employee of the Providence Public Schools, and I live on Wood Street in Providence.

And with those experiences, I'm here to testify in support of the amendments of the Community Safety Act, but also to urge you all as city leaders that these amendments do not go far enough.

We have already seen the lies from the Providence Police Chief again and again, saying that they are not collaborating with ICE when they are.

What does the amendments do without accountability?

What does accountability mean when we know that our police and ICE are part of the same terrorizing system?

In my work as a Providence Public School teacher, we know that we have the police in our schools.

And we know that families are keeping kids home.

It's impacting their attendance, it's impacting their learning.

As part of my work in doing outreach for the line, we've talked to business owners that have said that they're not having folks come out and utilize their businesses.

They're losing money.

We have healthcare workers testifying that people are not going to the doctor.

The impact of this ICE terror has lasted generations.

It is only increasing immensely right now.

We are gonna see the impacts of this for generations.

Research from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Bradley Hospital, among other groups, found that one in three Rhode Island youth had a emotional, mental, or behavioral health problem.

One in three, and that was three years ago.

Imagine how this is impacting our students now.

When they know that their guardians are going to make court appointments, their guardians are going to work, people are afraid to commute just to their jobs.

We've seen through the deportation defense network, ICE agents stopping people commuting to their jobs, banging on the windows of their cars, demanding that they get out, even though they don't have the right to do that.

We have hundreds of Rhode Islanders working around the clock as community members to keep our community safe.

And we need y'all to do the same.

Thank you.

My name is Anea Sangster, and I'm a high school student at Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts here in Providence.

I'm also a co-director at the Providence Student Union.

I'm here to talk about the collaboration between our local police and ICE, especially the practice of arresting people outside of the courthouse.

This isn't some abstract political issue for me.

It affects my life and the lives of people I care about every single day.

Knowing that ICE is working with the police creates fear in our community.

It makes my friends scared to go to school and their parents scared to go to go to court.

It makes us feel like we can't trust the people who are supposed to protect us.

Instead of feeling safe, we're constantly worried about who might be picked up and deported.

I also want to address the ongoing issue of police misconduct and the violation of our rights, particularly the horrific incident that happened this past summer on West Friendship Street, where Providence police officers were seen beating up young black and brown kids.

One of those kids was my best friend's brother, George Ventura.

This situation had me sick.

Watching an act like that happen to a person I know.

As a young black teen, this incident hit me hard.

Seeing those officers act with such brutality against children who look like me was deeply disturbing.

It reinforced the fear and distrust that many of us in the black community already have towards law enforcement.

It's hard to focus on school in my future when I see the very people who are supposed to protect us, inflicting violence on our neighbors.

How can we trust the police when they treat us like the enemy?

The police are supposed to protect and serve everyone in Providence, not just some people.

By working with ICE, they're essentially helping tear families apart and create a climate of fear that undermines the safety and well-being of our community.

I urge you to end this collaboration and focus on protecting all residents of Providence, regardless of their immigration status.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, the next person, it's I I really cannot make it out.

Um call the address 190 of Thea Street.

Okay, so who lives at 190 at Thea Street?

All right.

I apologize.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Um is Kingsley Dye, and unfortunately, Ray N Al Monte could not be here, but I will be voicing her thoughts for her.

Okay.

I'm a Providence resident.

I was born here and grew up here, and I want iCE out of our city.

You can start by ending ICE collaboration with police to start your public servants, and we are the public.

So when we say that we are not being protected and that we are not are unsafe, it is your job to serve us and heed us.

Currently, we are seeing ice abductions in front of the courthouse.

We are seeing them in our neighborhoods.

There are ice patrols on our streets and ice officers harassing people waiting for their buzz.

We know the police are helping ICE to terrorize us.

There's record evidence, recorded evidence of this.

I don't want legal jargon and theoretical protections that only advocate for us on a technicality.

I want the city to take a stand, and I want real consequences for police collaboration with ICE.

I am second gen, my family is Dominican.

We are part of the well-established Dominican community here in Providence.

Providence has long benefited from immigrant labor and culture.

We deserve to be here as much as anybody else.

We deserve to thrive and succeed without fear.

And people are afraid, which is why communities have come together to defend each other in protest in the immigration defense line.

I would like us to have other options, which is why I'm demanding that you give real teeth to the community defense act and end ice collaborations with police.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I have Leah Tavares.

I'm here to demand that the Providence police and our court stop working with ICE and to support the amendments that would strengthen the community safety act.

I am a student, a neighbor, and somebody who cares deeply about this community.

And it makes me furious to know that families in Providence are living in fear, afraid to go to court, afraid to walk outside, afraid that ice might show up and tear their lives apart.

That's not what safety looks like.

That's not what justice looks like.

We've seen ice waiting outside courthouses, and we've seen our police helping them, even though it's against the law, and yet nothing happens.

How can we say we value justice if our own leaders keep breaking trust with the people they're supposed to serve?

I want to live in a city where my neighbors don't have to look over their shoulders, where parents can take the kids to school without fear, and where we actually mean it when we say community safety.

So tonight, I'm not the I'm not asking, I'm demanding that city council do everything in its power to end collaboration with ICE to hold police accountable when they break the law and to make Providence a city where everyone feels safe, valued, and protected because our safety depends on each other.

Thank you.

Councilman Royus.

I'm sorry, just uh the young lady, I think from Rhineye, who just spoke.

So what's her name?

Leah.

Is it Leah?

Leah.

Um, I don't know if you know Miss Ortega or Mr.

Bina who works there, but I can't wait to call them tomorrow and tell them how proud I am of you.

All right.

Eugene Rose.

Eugenie.

Eugene Rose.

Good evening.

Good evening.

And it's pronounced Eugene.

But good evening, Chair, Council members, and community members.

My name is Eugene Rose Bellany, and I'm a proud product of the Providence Public School system.

I now attend American University in DC and work for the Providence Student Union.

A youth-led nonprofit community committed to building collective youth power, school safety, and community well-being.

As a young person raised in this city, I know what it feels like to grow up in a system that doesn't always see you or protect you, especially if you're black, brown, immigrant, or poor.

I know how hard it is to navigate systems that say they're here to help, but are often rooted in punishment and fear.

ICE has no business in Providence, period.

Our city is home to immigrants, refugees, and working class families who deserve protection, not persecution.

The presence of ICE here is a direct threat to civil rights and community safety.

It creates a climate of fear that silences our people, especially our youth from speaking out, showing up, or simply existing.

Across the country, over 60% of ICE removals start with local police referrals, even for minor arrests or traffic stops.

That means any interaction with the system, no matter how small, could tear a family apart.

And Providence is not immune.

In 2023, ICE made over 142,000, 140, 142,000, excuse me, arrests nationwide, many without due process and often targeting black, brown, and undocumented folks who already face systemic violence.

As someone who organized and still organizes with youth every day, I'm angry.

Angry that our government continues to fund detention over education, cages over care.

Providence should be a sanctuary, not a hunting ground for ICE.

We demand a city that stands on the side of justice, dignity, and liberation, not one complicit in the criminalization of our people.

In my work, I help equip young people with the tools to speak, organize, and advocate, not just for themselves, but for their families, their peers, and their neighborhoods.

We talk about real safety, not more police or surveillance, but access, access to freedom, the freedom to live without fear.

And right now, the presence of ice in our courts and the collaboration with police directly threatens that vision.

Keeping ICE out of our city is not radical.

It's responsible.

It's the least we can do to ensure that our residents feel safe showing up to court, reporting harm, or simply walking down the street.

To you, cancel, I say you have the power to move us closer to a providence where safety is rooted in trust and dignity and not in fear.

Passing these protections is a step forward towards a future our youth are already fighting for.

Like I said, ICE has no place in Providence, a city built on resilience, community, and belief that everyone deserves safety, dignity, and opportunity.

And for that, thank you for your time and more importantly, hopefully your action.

Thank you.

Tommy Brown.

Hello, uh, good evening.

Good evening.

Uh my name is Tammy Brown.

I'm I live at 246 Armington Street in Cranston.

I was born and raised in Providence, and it's uh the beloved city that um that I love.

It's my home, and I don't want to see it taken over by ICE.

Um, I'm just really in awe of all of the thoughtful and eloquent testimony we've heard tonight.

Um there's not a whole lot I can add as as a new perspective, except that I do not want to see the local police collaborating with ICE in any way.

Um, not just because it creates an atmosphere of fear and terror um for our immigrant neighbors, but it also just creates an atmosphere of danger for everyone in the community.

It creates a sense of distrust with the police and distrust with the court system.

If you feel like you can't trust the police and you can't trust the courts, then if you are a victim of crime in some way, you can't come forward and tell somebody what happened to you because you feel like you're in danger of becoming um uh of being deported for reporting such a thing.

Um so I think it's really important if we want to maintain the integrity of our public safety system, the integrity of our court system.

We cannot allow this collaboration um with ice to continue, and we have to have accountability for breaking our laws.

If we have a local city ordinance in place, we cannot just watch as the police and the mayor lie about whether they're in compliance or not.

Um we have to hold our um our local officials and our police department accountable um for what's happening here.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Brianna Canning.

Brianna Canning.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Brianna Canning.

I live on Vinton Street in Providence.

I testify as a resident and an educator.

I taught in Providence schools for six years, and when I think of ICE in our communities, I think of my former students.

No one should be afraid to go to school or to leave their house for fear of being kidnapped and/or disappeared.

The CPRA states that Providence Police may not collaborate with or support ICE, and yet we have clear evidence of their assistance.

I demand that we amend the act in order to enhance accountability of for if or when PVD police assist ICE.

There should be no room for loopholes.

Providence is a city full of people from all over the world.

It means nothing to say we love our community if we don't protect every single member.

We cannot allow actions like the ones we've seen in Chicago recently and the ones we've seen at the Rhode Island Superior Court to continue or to escalate.

This not only happens to people without papers, but anyone who officers profile as suspicious looking.

Offer virtual hearings, refuse refuse to share any information with ICE, increase accountability systems to hold PVD police accountable who assist ICE.

We must codify the safety of our immigrant population.

ICE violence against any of our community is violence against all of us.

Thank you.

Beth Killian.

Beth evening.

Good evening.

I'm a mental health clinician, a local musician and artist and facilitator, and I'm testifying alongside my neighbors to urge you to do everything in your power to protect our community from ICE.

It doesn't take my role as a mental health clinician to see the impacts of trauma that ICE has on our community, particularly children.

It doesn't take a degree to understand the generational trauma that biased policing and profiling has on my neighbors and will have for generations to come.

And yet we are seeing this trauma intensify with every passing day that ICE is allowed access to our community.

Providence, as y'all probably know, is affectionately known as the creative capital, and I'm an active member of the music and dance community here, but creative creativity goes beyond just holding an annual arts festival every September.

Creativity is being able to notice the trajectory of this country under this administration, and it makes it means saying that we can and must do something different here in Providence.

It's imagining another outcome and making a reality with tangible action and accountability.

These amendments are the first initial steps toward that reality.

A friend of mine, Pablo was kidnapped from the Rhode Island Traffic Court in June, and he is still separated from his husband.

He's separated from his community, his family, his friends.

He's lived here for over half of his life.

I personally don't have experience with ICE profiling me.

I have identities that protect me from unjust profiling.

And I know that every single person in this room agrees that those identities don't make me any more worthy of the safety and protection that my black, brown, and immigrant neighbors deserve.

Thank you to everyone involved in moving them forward.

Thank you.

Hello, good evening.

Uh Vanessa Flores Maldonado, uh 807 Broad Street.

I am the executive director of Providence Youth Sudan Movement, and was actually used to be the uh uh coordinator for this campaign.

So I'm having some really bad deja vu.

It's like a never-ending nightmare.

Um, so just you know, acknowledging Prism, working alongside Direct Action for Rights and Equality Dare, Old Needle Neighborhood Association ONA, American Friends Service Committee, and numerous community members and organizations that work to develop and pass the Community Safety Act.

And we did this under the Obama and Trump administration because again, this nightmare does not end that we're back in a Trump administration.

And we did this under a Democratic and Republican administration because we knew that this country, no matter who's running it, makes a scapegoat out of our communities of color, especially immigrants, refugee youth, and Korean trans people.

And the tools that are used to make us scapegoats is law enforcement, like police and ICE.

And so now that we're under a fully fascist administration that is emboldening all law enforcement in assaulting, kidnapping, and disappearing our people, we need to take action, right?

Providence and Rhode Island are no exception.

These amendments are important, clearly all night.

We've been hearing how important these amendments are.

We showed up to those meetings.

I saw Susan here earlier, so she can say we showed up and we got frustrated because it didn't go anywhere.

So Para did find the Providence Police Department in violation of the CSA, but what consequences will actually happen?

Have those will those officers be fired?

Will the Providence police budget be cut?

The chief of police says that they did nothing wrong, and we know that that's not true, but what consequences will there be for lying to us?

Because we need actual consequences, not a recommendation, because that's the power that para has to make recommendations, not a statement.

The only way to hold police accountable is through the firing of officers who have been violating the law or by cutting the Providence Police budget.

This year, the budget is at a hundred and eighteen million dollars.

The budget for next fiscal year is projected to increase by four million dollars.

We have a housing crisis.

Schools are under state takeover, eggs are $30.

How many times has the Port of Providence been on fire?

Because I live near there, so I breathe in them fumes.

Why are we continuing to invest in a department that has not shown to care about our people?

Because I have seen more often a Providence police officer who looks like they just got out of high school, be on their phone at a construction site texting than I have actually seen them helping someone.

So I went through the budget very, very quickly, and I found a couple of areas where I'm like, hmm, this could change because why are we investing our tax dollars, a million dollars into uniforms?

About half a million dollars going towards auto parts, over a hundred thousand dollars for horses.

Two of your bathrooms over here are broken.

Can we divert those a hundred thousand dollars to that?

Can we hire more nurses, guiding counselors?

Can we do something about this housing crisis?

Because it is real.

Those are solutions that actually keep our people safe.

Police do not.

Action is taken.

And Brett Smiley, do not stand in our way.

Because community has power.

We've shown over and over and over again, and y'all are here showing that you're alongside us.

So let's work together, put as much pressure on whoever we need to put pressure on to keep our people safe.

Thank you.

Pamela Montes Amela Montes.

Hello, everyone.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Pamela Montez.

I was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, and I'm an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

I'm a volunteer with the deportation defense network, and I work at Rhode Island College.

And I'm also a damn proud daughter of immigrants.

I'm here today to demand an end to the collaboration of ICE and the Providence Police.

To demand an end to ICE in our state.

When review of body camera footage from the incident reviewed by the Providence External Review Agency PERA found that PPD violated city ordinances by providing unneeded assistance, establishing a perimeter, holding back neighbors, and actively assisted ICE in helping to detain the man on immigration detainer who had no outstanding criminal charges.

As their report said, we have determined that the police department was in violation of both city ordinance and the police department policy when they impermissibly assisted ICE agents in conducting civil immigration enforcement operations.

That is not enough.

Now that's unity with the people in our city.

In fact, ICE has even detained at least 10 children under the age of 18.

Most of those without with criminal convictions were for minor traffic or immigration violations for not violent non-violent crimes.

And the people of Rhode Island are being told nothing.

And the violence has surged with an increase of over 180% detainments this year here in Rhode Island alone.

City Council and the mayor have stood by silent and complicit, and police chiefs had lied to our faces.

So I'm urging city council to do everything in its power to stop ICE from terrorizing our neighborhoods and kidnapping our friends, family, neighbors, and loved ones.

As a volunteer with a defense line, I've now been on the phone and in person with people.

Human beings in tears about being ripped away from their loved ones.

People are afraid to go to work, to get groceries, to take their kids to school.

What everyone here is asking you to do as well.

We need you, city council, to help make sure that the police and the courts are not helping ICE destroy our city and to hold ICE accountable for their actions.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Good evening.

My name is Juan Pablo Campo.

I'm a resident of Providence.

And I'm the coordinator of the immigrant coalition of Rhode Island.

On behalf of the immigrant coalition and our 38 member organizations, I ask this committee to approve the amendments to the Providence Community Police Relations Act.

Providence residents are asked to trust the police to keep us safe.

When they collaborate with us, they permanently damage that trust.

These amendments add some necessary clarity and accountability.

With the amendments, we will have greater mechanisms for enforcement of the ordinance.

Community organizations should be entitled to seek appropriate relief in the civil action for violations of this ordinance.

This will help somewhat keep our community safe.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Christian Torres.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Christian Torre.

I'm a coordinator with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Deportation Defense Network of Rhode Island.

I'm testifying in support of the proposed amendments to protect our community from ICE by demanding an explicit and enforceable end to the cooperation between Province Police and ICE.

ICE and DHS have been carrying out a campaign of intimidation and fear against people all over the country as part of a racist xenophobic campaign of terror against our people.

And Providence is neither immune nor exempt from that.

On July 31st, ICE agents violently detained one of our community members downtown, literally just a few blocks away, here in broad daylight.

And two weeks prior, Province PD and ICE collaborated to kidnap Hounduran immigrant Ivan from his home on Alverson Street in clear violation of the Community Safety Act of 2017, which expressly prohibits the police from detaining any persons to assist in immigration enforcement agencies.

The video footage, eyewitness testimony, both corroborate these events.

And the findings by the Providence External Review Authority only a few weeks later came to the very same conclusion and confirmed what the community has known all along.

The police in Providence do in fact collaborate with ICE.

And despite the overwhelming evidence, Chief of Police Oscar Perez continues to lie and deceive the people of Rhode Island about the role Providence PD played in the kidnapping that day.

He claims that Province PD were simply there to keep the peace, but has nothing to say about ICE agents crashing and totaling two vehicles to surround Ivan's home.

He says they were simply there to de-escalate, yet no rebuke or condemnation about ICE agents drawing their weapons at neighbors and children during the assault.

Multiple times a warrant was demanded of the ICE officers, and none was provided.

Yet, despite this blatant violation of civil liberties and the terrorizing of community members and children, the province PD decided that the best way to keep the peace and to de-escalate was to help the actual ICE agents kidnapping Ivan from his home and tearing him from his family.

It is the responsibility and duty of the city council, who are the elected officials of the people of Providence to protect us from police abuse and to punish police when they break the law.

The amendments were proposed today are a good start, but nearly not enough, especially without concrete ways to hold the police accountable.

The current body for that, para is essentially toothless without any meaningful mechanism to hold the police accountable when they violate the law.

And let me be clear, review without enforcement is theatrics.

And this measure, this measure wouldn't even be unprecedented.

In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson just signed the ICE Free Zone, an executive order that prohibits federal immigration agents from using any city-owned property, not just the courts, for federal immigration operations.

This goes to show what happens when the community collectively demands that ICE get out of their community.

So Chicago can do it.

Certainly, it's possible in Providence, Rhode Island.

So for months, the deportation defense network, comprising a network of over a thousand community members and over 30 businesses and growing, have been on the front lines, leveraging the power of community defense to deter, prevent ice kidnappings, and to stop our neighbors from being torn apart and to hold families together.

If the city council has a fraction of the commitment and conviction of the people out there every day coming to defy ICE time and time again, then you will pass this amendment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, I have Leo Ariola.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Leonardo Ariola Carnicelli, and I live in 30 Frederick Street, and I'm also a member of the Board of Directors for the Alliance to Mobilize Her Resistance, which is Amor.

And I would like to start by sharing a little bit about my story.

My journey in this country has been shaped by many years of fear and uncertainty due to my immigration status, an experience that too many in our community continue to endure.

For seven years, I lived with an undocumented status due to circumstances beyond my control.

I came to the United States as a teenager when my mother married a US citizen, trusting that he would help us to obtain legal status.

Instead, he neglected and lied about filing our paperwork for five years before ultimately kicking us out of our homes.

We were left in limbo, vulnerable and without legal protection.

Thankfully, we were able to obtain residency through the Violence Against Women Act, which is BAWA, but that process took two years.

These were two years of living in constant fear of being detained by ICE and two years of uncertainty about our futures.

Fortunately, I didn't have to fear ICE agents waiting for me and my mom outside the courts for hearings, which should be everybody's rightful experience.

We have we have seen firsthand through our collaborative efforts with the deportation defense line, how ICE and the police are collaborating and allowing ICE to stalk people at the Providence courthouses.

This is limiting our community members' rights to do process, which should be illegal and brings so much shame to the Providence, me and so many others call home.

Even now, as a green card holder, this fear has not disappeared.

Under the current administration, immigrants are not only being detained for their undocumented status, but even those with legal status, visa holders or permanent residents like myself, are at risk of detention for speaking out against injustices, such as the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people.

This is not the future I hope for when I finally obtain my legal status, and it's certainly not the future I want for the people in my community.

Through my work, I provide nutrition education to families, helping them build healthier futures for their children.

I meet people in food pantries who are eager for the opportunity to support their families despite the crushing cost of food and rent.

I see individuals who want to work, contribute, and thrive, yet our broken system continues to fail them simply because of how they enter this country.

These are not outsiders, they are members of our communities, and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

ICE, however, does the opposite.

It tears families apart, it detains people at facilities like Wyatt, where reports of mistreatment and neglect are rampant.

No human beings should be subjected to these conditions, and no community should be complicit in such cruelty.

Our local police departments are meant to protect us, not collaborate with ICE and detaining and deporting our neighbors.

If we're not going to provide undocumented community members with work permits, legal pathways, or even basic state-funded assistance to support their families.

The least we can do is to stop uh collaborating with ICE and separating them with their love from their loved ones.

That being said, I urge you, I urge to update, I urge you to update the Community Safety Act with stronger enforcement measures to prevent police and courts from collaborating with ICE, allow virtual court hearings as an additional safety measure for community members, and take a stand against criminal the criminalization of immigrants or communities that serve better.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Emily Kribas.

Emily Krivaz.

I live on 416 Broadway.

And surprise, surprise, um testifying to demand an and an end to um the police working with ICE to update the to support the proposed amendments and honestly to just ban ICE entirely.

I think it's pretty clear we don't want them here.

Um I am a proud daughter of immigrants.

I'm also a volunteer with the deportation defense line, and I have a PhD in infectious disease.

And oh, and I was born and raised in South Florida, but it sucked.

So I came here, and I'm really proud to call Providence my home.

And a lot of it is because of the ways that I've seen our community show up for each other.

Um, kind of going back a little bit.

I'm kind of tired now because we've had so many testimonies.

Um, but my interest in infectious disease and immunology is something that really fascinates me, is the fact that like the brain, it has a memory.

And this memory um is something that's the reason that vaccines work.

That is uh part of why that's the principle behind the Nobel Prize that was awarded today in physiology and medicine.

Um, what this means, like what we're seeing here right now is in an very clear immune response that the community does not want ice, that ice is the disease, it's the threat, it's never kept us safe.

Um, they're not here for us, they don't care to know us, they don't care to listen to our stories, understand what each person's role is, and they just don't belong here.

So, can we learn this lesson and do like our body does and remember this so we don't have to keep fighting this?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is Aaron here?

Uh no.

Okay.

Uh Taylor Camperry.

Taylor Camperi.

Okay.

Hi, everyone.

Uh, my name is Taylor Concary, and I'm a West End resident.

I'm also an adult ally and staff coordinator with our school's PBD, which is a youth blood alliance that includes a rise, Prism, Providence Student Union, Young Voices, Youth in Action, Cycle Plea, and the Rhode Island Center for Justice.

I want to begin tonight by recognizing the historic organizing by the Providence Youth Student Movement that led to the creation of the Community Safety Act.

The fact that any of us can be here tonight discussing how to strengthen this accountability framework to meet this horrific moment in time is a testament to Prism's legacy and the storied history of leadership from Providence's young people.

Thank you for pushing us to transform our community's understanding of safety and for the work you do every day to disrupt the school to prison to deportation pipeline.

I'm here tonight to share my strong support for the proposed amendments to the CPRA.

Over the past year, there's not a single issue I have heard about more frequently from students than the threat of ICE disappearing people they love.

The proposed amendments say loudly and clearly that public schools should be safe and protected sites where the only things students should have to worry about is learning.

These changes would also ensure that the burden of reviewing a judicial warrant to make sure it's legitimate, does not fall on frontline school staff, but is instead the role of a trained and clearly identified individual.

The extension of a private right to action to organizations focused on the well-being of youth also means that if the city fails to uphold their role in keeping our community safe, the organizations that young people trust can hold the city accountable through civil action.

All of these proposed changes designed in collaboration with community are very the bare minimum to move us closer to being a city where young people can feel safe.

As adults, our job is to look young people in the eye and say we are doing everything we can to keep young people safe.

Please act swiftly to approve these changes so that we can move closer to the day where we're actually able to say that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

David Polak.

David Polak.

Hello, thank you for your time.

I'm David Pollock.

I live at nine Constitution Hill in Providence.

I'm a graduate of Classical High School, 1982.

Graduated of Rhode Island College, 1987, and I was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in 1992.

I come here to in support of the proposed amendments.

The Nazi SS came into Vienna.

And overnight.

And my grandparents had to flee.

They were lucky.

They were admitted in Ellis Island.

My grandparents worked in sewing factories as immigrants for 14 hours a day.

So that they could save enough money.

And then put him through.

Allow him to get a physics degree from Faramie Labs at the University of Chicago.

My father moved here with my mother and myself when I was nine months old, and he was a professor at Brown University.

We should not in this country allow to happen what is happening.

We should not in this country desecrate our constitution, our way of life, the rule of law.

We should not do this.

Let me read from the Declaration of Independence.

I was actually gonna read from Judge Young's opinion.

He was one of my professors in law school, but somebody usurped that.

All right.

He erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat their substance.

He kept among us in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislatures.

This is one of our legislatures.

He affected to render the military independent and superior to civil power.

Are we going to allow this in our country?

Are we going to allow this in our state?

Are we going to allow this in our city?

We are all members of community.

The Providence Police Department is a member of the community, just as you are representatives of the community, just as we are all part of the community.

Let us stand as a community to do the right thing, to do the American thing, to stand up for our rights.

This amendment is a first step.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, I got it.

Rogue.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Uh my name is Eloy Rodas.

Uh, I live at 109 Priston Avenue.

I'm here to demand an end to the Providence Police collaboration with ICE and for City Council to give our current laws the power they need to stop this collaboration.

We should not have to entrust our safety to a police chief who blatantly denies the facts uncovered by investigations or to a city government that allows PPD to break the law without facing any repercussions.

There must be real consequences when Providence Police abuse their power.

The Providence External Review Authority, as many have said already, found PPD in violation of the Community Safety Act for collaborating with ICE.

That's not enough.

Pero is an entity with no power to hold Providence Police accountable.

Absence of accountability inflicts real damage on our communities.

ICE agents are waiting outside our courthouses, preying on people who come seeking justice.

We even know survivors of domestic violence have been taken off the streets.

This is not public safety.

The Rhode Island family and Supreme Courts already offer virtual proceedings.

During COVID, every court operated online.

We demand the service to be extended to all courts permanently to protect our community.

Concrete and forcible consequences are necessary to stop both ice terror and police brutality.

I am echoing the voice of everyone today.

And where I work at the Oneivale Neighborhood Association, we see every day people carrying the fear and the lasting harm caused by this abuse of power and how it triggers crisis across the whole community.

Missed work, lost income, children out of school, delayed medical care, struggling small businesses, risk rising evictions, you name it.

Every other challenge our city faces is worsened by the disabuse of power.

City Council, these proposed amendments are the floor, not the ceiling.

We need a real consequence for the authorities who violate our laws.

Now is the moment for the city to stand alongside the thousands of people who have gotten involved and have been reached by the deportation defense network.

We are organized, we are growing, we will continue to respond patrol and document and mobilize the community regardless of the outcome, and we will defend each other.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Alan Waters.

Good evening.

Good evening to you.

My name is Alan Waters, 69 years old, resident of the West End of Providence.

I am a black American, fourth generation.

My mother and father were born in the city.

My father's mother was born here in 1903.

My grandfather of the same name, Reverend Alan Waters, came here in 1905, Church of God and Saints of Christ.

You know the building right next to Martin D.

LaPore's across the street at Dodge at Cranston, first tabernacle.

I didn't grow up in that, but he was from the Eastern Shore, Maryland, my grandfather, born in 1875.

He died in 1934.

He was born in the same land of Harriet Tubman.

He would have been in his 30s when Harriet died.

But we are an American family, all of us citizens.

Providence is a minority majority city.

43% Latino.

The rest blacks, Asians, others, Native Americans, etc.

I want to read something to you about.

It's just some quick numbers of deportations by the United States.

First term.

Second term, five million.

Barack Obama, first black president.

Three thousand.

Three million one hundred thousand deportations.

Second term, two million.

Donald Trump, first term, two million, two thousand.

In the first term of in Joe Biden's first two years, deportations.

Two million eight hundred thousand.

This business is not just Donald Trump's business.

This business has been going on for past decades.

Back in the 50s, we were sending wetbacks from Mexico back to Mexico because they didn't belong here.

We should not have to compete.

The citizens, black Latinos, Native Americans, or other against this competition.

This is our city.

But here's the thing.

We have fiscal responsibility.

We have fiscal responsibility in Providence City Council.

As you know, we've had some serious fiscal problems.

And we have to pay that money back for Providence Public Schools.

But the cost of each student in Providence is 27,000 per student.

If you have one thousand illegal immigrant students, that's twenty seven million dollars.

And you know we have more than just one million.

We have two, one thousand, we have two thousand, three thousand, maybe more.

Let's stop multiplying the cost of illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants in our schools.

Thirty million, sixty million dollars, ninety million.

We can't afford this.

My father, Providence Patrolman, Alan Waters, was the first black motorcycle policeman for Providence, served 54, served the city, 1954 through 1973, the year I graduated from classical high school.

But I grew up in a law and order family.

Law, order, and consequences for not following that law.

People talk about immigrants, but there's legal immigrants and illegal immigrants.

We should not have to compete against illegal immigrants in our city.

Immigration and customs enforcement.

They've had to do this job year after year, decade after decade, going back many presidencies.

If they had another name, they still had a job to do.

It is the high cost of rent.

But in a free market, you have the buyers who need the rent and the sellers.

But in 2019, using data from that time, maybe 2000, the state of Rhode Island had 40,000 illegal immigrants.

In the Capitol City, we probably had half.

But then with the explosion under the last presidency, where 10 million people counted came into this country, that number may have blown up into the city to 20,000, 30,000, maybe 40,000 illegal immigrants in our city.

We can't afford that.

Mr.

Water, can you wrap it up a little bit?

Please.

So I want to say that I'm against this, that we need the Providence Police not only to protect us, but the role of a government is to protect the American people.

Thank you.

Hold on, oh hold on.

Excuse me.

Huh.

Excuse me, you know, we all have, and we'll have the opportunity to speak.

He has his.

That's fine.

Okay, so next.

Audrey?

Uh Borhe Audrey.

Okay.

Paul Rihanna.

No.

Sarah Griffin.

Okay.

Good evening.

My name is Sarah Griffith.

I'm a resident of College Hill.

Um, so when I hear about what happened in Chicago recently with the black hawk hovering over an apartment building with them busting down doors, with them dragging naked children screaming into the nights.

What I think about honestly is I I think about my father.

And my father came here as uh as an illegal immigrant.

Um he since has become legal, but that doesn't protect him really, does it?

Because the things we're seeing all around us are evidence of a federal government that is engaged in fascist acts, fascist rhetoric, fascist ideology, and is engaged in a racial purge of our country.

I mean, that is the goal.

It's not even really subtext, is it?

And my father is darker skinned than I am.

He speaks with an accent.

He's here legally, but first off, why should that matter to whether he's safe or not?

Second, does that actually protect him?

I don't know that it does.

And that terrifies me.

And in such a situation, all of you have an impossible task placed on you.

You have the impossible task placed on you of protecting us from a federal government that we can no longer trust.

And in order for you to do that, we have to have trust in our local government.

And that means that we need things like an ordinance with teeth that actually requires the police in practice to live up to their word and refuse to cooperate with ICE.

One thing I one thing I notice here, looking through the letter of this, is um in F3.

Um, any external agency which uses um automated license plate reader technology is required to sign a formal written agreement with the with the state.

Um if such an external agency should violate the agreement, um, for example, if they might be ICE, it's not totally clear to me what the what the remedy in this ordinance would be.

Uh, is our local civil rights group supposed to seek out injunctive relief through the state courts against ICE?

I'm not totally clear on that.

Um, and I think perhaps some work could go into that.

That's all.

Thank you so much.

Okay, uh.

Naveya.

Okay.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Nivea Senekal.

I'm here tonight, just not as the lead organizer for Prism, but as a woman of color living in Smith Hill and a Providence College freshman.

I have school tomorrow, but I'm here.

I'm here to say no more.

No more kidnappings, no more shattering families, no more breaking up communities, no more empty playgrounds, our churches, our temples, and community events broken.

Solely fulfilled by the fear of being stolen.

No more trauma.

Brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers have been broken up by the white supremacist system that is ICE.

No more colonialism.

We teach our students of the disease that was Christopher Columbus.

But who will teach them of the rapid spreading infection that is ICE?

Not you.

So it must be us.

We will keep showing up.

We will keep fighting.

These amendments are an improvement, but they are also an outline, an outline on how the police can, and I assure you they will collaborate with ICE.

But we are stronger.

Our community will not be defeated.

To everyone who came out tonight, applaud yourselves, for it is our collective struggle, joy, and success that will create a beloved community free from ICE.

Before I finish, I'd like to make an ask for any youth in the room to be given the opportunity to speak.

While it is late, our voices deserve to be heard.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Rush Frazier.

I'm a resident of Providence and executive director of Youth Pride.

As you know, YPI is a, as you may know, Youth Pride is a youth-serving organization that supports some of Rhode Island's most vulnerable communities.

Youth Pride Inc.

stands in solidarity with those groups and individuals who are working to end white supremacy evident in our communities and the troubling politization of emergency services.

The challenges faced by families without resources are already significant.

We are witnessing a decline in support for the most marginalized among us.

Our communities had enough to deal with before the police began to act in concert with the immigration enforcement mechanisms of the United States.

If ICE were considered a national military, it would rank as the 13th most heavily funded in the world.

Providence should not bolster this bloated and brutal occupying force by supplementing its might with the police force and courts, diminishing the dubious legitimacy of both these institutions.

According to a report from a two-year investigation conducted by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology, ICE has access to driver's license data for three out of four adults living in the U.S.

Additionally, they have scanned at least one in three adults' driver's licenses using controversial racial facial recognition technology.

This affects both undocumented individuals and U.S.

citizens.

ICE can locate three out of four adults living in the US today through their utility records.

They have access to unlimited surveillance and private information.

Yet we hear about the number of innocent everyday civilians being taken off the streets and disappeared by federal agents without the due process that is the right of every person on U.S.

soil.

Masked federal agents too ashamed of what they are doing or too fearful of community accountability to show their faces, have no problem racially profiling and ruining the lives of others to meet their quotas.

We don't need to wait for Providence to go through the brute and irreversible acts of terror that DC and Chicago residents are enduring as we speak to pull the brakes on the city's collaboration with what we have already seen to be an occupying force.

If anyone here was waiting for a sign that you have reached your baseline for action, I hope these words, along with the words of others on this microphone tonight, register as that sign.

When I became a resident of Providence, I was informed that the city was a sanctuary city.

In the three years I've been here, I've seen the city fall short of its promise in numerous ways.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alan DeSullo.

Good evening.

Hello, good evening.

My name is Ellen Tizzolo.

I live at 154 Miller Avenue in Washington Park.

Um, and I'm a staff member with the People's Poor Authority.

Um, thank you to the chair and to the council.

Um, I'm here in support of the amendments to the Community Safety Act that would end the cooperation between the Providence Police and ICE.

And I'm going to urge you to do a couple things tonight.

First of all, I just want to know do you feel sick to your stomach when you think about what ICE is doing to people.

If you don't, I want to ask you first and foremost to just try to feel that.

Like try not to be numb to it, because I think everything else that you act from from there will be in alignment with what we're asking for.

Anything that you can do, literally, anything to end the state organized violence against our neighbors and our friends, you must do it now.

There's no excuse for the terror.

There's no excuse for collusion with the terror.

There's no excuse for this great city to literally be feeding, literally, we are feeding our community members into this disgusting wealth-amassing ICE terror machine.

And then all the while lying about it.

So there's been incredible, brilliant testimony tonight.

I urge you to take it to heart.

I urge you to take it to paper, and I urge you to take it to practice.

I urge you to see through the lies of the police and the mayor and to create real accountability for police abuse on every level.

And then, as many, many people have said, right?

These are these amendments are a step, they're not enough.

You all can pass these amendments, and you could check off the box, the check off the list, right?

Or you could take it into your own hands to lead the city, the state, the region in truly doing everything that you can to protect our loved ones and to protect our neighbors who are targeted by ICE.

This terror is stoppable.

Stop it.

Now our people deserve so much more.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Monica Chaudari.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Monica Chaudry.

I reside in Cranston, Rhode Island.

I am the eldest daughter to immigrants.

Um I'm also a registered nurse in elementary school here in Providence.

We need virtual court hearings, and we also need Providence, please, to stand on the right side of our residents and the right side of history.

Like I have mentioned, I work at an elementary school.

I want you to take a moment to picture what elementary school children look like.

And now picture them clinging and shaking and holding me and crying in fear that they will go home every day without their parents there.

Every day.

This is my reality.

Well more so.

It's theirs.

And so here I am.

It's heartbreaking.

I'm heartbroken.

So here I am.

Because I refuse to let ICE continue to terrorize the babies that we are all responsible for.

Yeah.

Um we need to stop the ICE kidnappings because that is health care.

And that it's humanity.

This is crazy.

Um if you think about it just for a second, ICE is nothing more than a racist terrorist organization.

And again, like everyone said before, the deportation defense line's phone number is 401, 6751414.

Please add it.

Please use it.

Please show up.

And my thank you is pending your action.

Thanks.

Pete.

Thank you.

Hi, good evening.

Good evening.

And I'm here to speak in support of the proposed ordinance amending the Providence Community Police Relations Act.

During this moment, when so many in our community are scared to even leave their homes, we believe this ordinance reflects the type of place we want to be, where people feel welcomed, cared for, and safe.

The Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice is a youth-led organization fighting for the safety of immigrants by training and mobilizing college students to provide pro bono legal support to asylum seekers and to organize for local change.

We represent nearly a hundred students.

We have trained in Providence, approximately 75 community members who are active with SCIJ, and we have worked with 22 attorneys in Rhode Island to provide legal support to over 200 community members.

We have experienced firsthand the ways that the immigration system is designed to fail those seeking safety.

Earlier this year, our own development manager Ruth Mufute, a 70-year-old grandmother and beloved member of our community was detained and held at the wide detention facility.

From our community rallying together, she was successfully released and is now back to continuing her work to help those around her.

Last October, two of our members from Haiti give birth to a baby boy.

Since the start of this year, after the ending of TPS for Haitians, they've been terrified of the prospect of being torn away from their child or being forced out of Providence, the place they call home.

Since the beginning of this year, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, over 500 people have been given deportation orders in Rhode Island.

This number represents families separated, loved ones sent to places they no longer call home and widespread fear.

But is this the type of community we want to live in?

Do we want to live in a world where our neighbors are too scared to come out of their homes, where parents fear bringing their children to school?

How can we be the type of place that opens our arms with love and care for each other rather than this being a place contributing to the system of fear and pain?

Now's our moment to act.

We often ask ourselves when we will know if we are living through a moment in history that everyone will remember.

I can tell you with complete confidence that this is one of those moments.

Will we be a community that contributes to fear and exclusion or will we spread hope and inclusion?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Um anybody has Okay.

It's Juliana Espinal.

What are you doing here?

Um, okay.

Hi, my name is Juliana.

I'm 17 years old, and I've been an activist since I was 14 years old.

I hope most of you remember me from last year's action because I said I would be back, and I meant it.

In the era of school shootings, the youth of today have yet another thing to worry about, having their communities ripped apart by ice.

Every day, there's a new story of a regular kid, someone just like me getting snatched up on their way to school, on the way to volleyball practice, or in the middle of the night.

To protect our peers, we exchange pictures of ice sightings, share links to our friends GoFundMe's, and show up to events just like these to make our voices heard.

Not unlike the Holocaust, we're watching as more and more of our community members disappear, disappear from their homes, and then disappear from ice databases.

As a youth organizer with the Providence Youth Student Movement, also known as Prism, I've had the honor of working closely with many of the people you saw testifying in front of you today.

Well, I'm glad these amendments are being introduced, and I do believe that anything helps.

For a long time now, I've been conscious of the trouble the work I can do can bring me, but I don't care.

There is no room for fear of retribution and retaliation in a world where the civil rights of its inhabitants are constantly being threatened.

I stand here today with valiance.

Are you standing with me?

Just coming up and say your name, please.

You have our written testimony.

So we're back in session.

So now that everyone has testified, I'll open up for committee members.

So Councilman Royus.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Um, I just uh want to thank everyone for coming out, spending their late evening, but you know, potentially missing dinner with their families to be here uh tonight.

And for me, you all displayed what the best of providence looks like tonight.

Um, and you've modeled what you know um a welcoming city um is for the rest of Rhode Island and for the rest of this of this country.

Um I think tonight is one of those nights that I'm really proud to be sitting in this seat as a city councilor.

I always believe that government should be radically accessible, and the proverbial table in which we sit at and make decisions that impact this entire city should be long to include not just us as elected officials, uh, but to include every resident in the city, regardless of immigration status.

In your testimonies tonight, I heard you all describe sort of the symptoms of the disease.

And I made I made sort of two two charts in in chicken scratch here.

You described the disease as abuse of authority, crisis, living in fear, state violence, kidnapping, lawlessness.

You described it as a new threat, and almost in every testimony thereafter, you ended your testimony by describing the antidote.

You called it new protections, you described it as togetherness, the right side of history.

You said look out for one another, welcoming, safety, human dignity, the power of community, and those are principles that I'm proud to say in province we live by.

And I I want to uh read a a statistic tonight that I had posted earlier on social media, and here's why the stakes are uh high.

Uh according to Trent the transactional records access clearing house.

Uh the most recent data shows that a staggering nearly 72% of undocumented immigrants in this country detained under the Trump administration have no criminal convictions.

That is seven out of every ten people.

They're they are not coming for hardened criminals.

They're coming for our family, our friends, our neighbors, workers in the city who've built this city and are just trying to survive.

And we ought to protect them and give our city the two as necessary to make it difficult for us to round up our most vulnerable neighbors.

And so with that being said, Chair, I'd like to make a motion to vote this out of committee tonight and bring this to the floor for a vote.

I'll second.

That is as amended.

As amended.

So I was not ready to entertain a motion.

But a motion has been made and second.

So I'll open up for discussion.

Councilman Barga.

Thank you very much, Chair.

I want to say thank you to everyone who came today and testify.

And I hear that about at the end, everybody is talking about ice.

I want to say thank you to the organization who's trying to help the community who doesn't have no documentation.

But everybody's talking about we don't need ice here.

But something that we're doing today is protecting the community by telling the police department not to communicate with them.

A lot of people mention also the family court.

Province police doesn't control family court.

It's the sheriff and capital police.

If everybody knows about how we can create ordinance or laws or policies to go and be in the family court, try to work it out why they they bring in the people to to the ice on the parking lot.

That's something that we have to work on it.

I don't see no province police inside the courts bringing people outside.

I just wanted to call it clarify that one.

And the other one is we need to stick together to help everyone because somehow somewhere, everybody has family who needs our help.

But we need to follow a process.

Councillor Peterson.

Thank you.

Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak, Chair.

Um I colleague uh Councilman Vargas, we agree on so much with regards to this.

I agree.

We have a process.

I agree that we have systems in place to get all of this done.

And also that a lot of what we heard today, um, unfortunately, we don't have jurisdiction over.

However, with all of that being said, what we do have jurisdiction over is how our police handle these situations.

And what we're asking for when we ask our community to trust our police.

We're trying, we're trying to do that exact same thing.

And so what we're to we don't get a chance to be selective about how these things get done.

It's just a matter of getting them done.

Our community is begging for us to be supportive in this capacity, and we have an obligation and a duty to ensure that every single Providence resident is represented in some way, and that I stand by.

Thank you.

Uh Councillor Harris, please.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak, Mr.

Chair.

One of the things that I'm proud of of being a Providence, being uh resident of Providence and being a part of Providence, is that we stand together, we stand together, especially when people are uh attacked, our oppressed, uh, the poor, are the homeless.

We come out and we voice our opinion.

I definitely came in to listen and to listen to my community, to listen to people who especially do this work, that do this work every day that show up in court, that is responsible for the lives of people who go to court that has to go to court.

You heard that a lot of times people are arrested right in court, arrested before they even get their their uh complaint or whatever heard uh by ice.

I've been in this work for a very long time.

Everybody knows me, know I've been around a very long time, and I've been fighting for people for the rights of people simply because it's the right thing to do.

It's to fight for the un for people who don't have a voice, other voiceless.

I was involved with this in the very beginning when young people, it was a young people who were being uh uh definitely stopped and put in a data game base.

It started out like that.

And the young people who started out with that also started to see other things happening to our people in our community, people are ICE operating in the community without families, without families even knowing sometime that they were taken from their family.

At one point of work, we would get up in the middle of the night and go to a home of a of a woman who may have been abused but could not call the police because afraid of the police connecting with ice.

These are examples of things that go on and on in our neighborhoods, and we are not aware of that simply because sometimes we just don't pay attention, especially if it ain't at my door.

But how long will it take before it be at my door?

Um a different type of oppression.

We need to stand together.

I want to say tonight I'm here because this is about amendment.

This is not a brand new ordinance.

This is an amendment to the ordinance to strengthen the ordinance.

We heard that the ordinance was not working.

Um, and it needed to be strengthened.

We've seen examples the early part of this year where this had to be strengthened, and it had to be amended.

So tonight I am going to be voting on the amendments that have been proposed tonight.

And I want to thank everybody that took the time and still here.

See you here late at night.

You got to go to work tomorrow, you guys.

Remember that.

But thank you for sticking around and being here and uh showing that you care about your city and showing that you care about what happens to your neighbors.

It means more to me than anything to know that we care about each other.

And that's all I have to say, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor Harris.

All right, anybody else?

Some of the um Councilman Protempado.

Uh thank you, uh Mr.

Chairman and members of the committee for allowing us uh to provide at least some uh some of our thoughts after hearing uh from our community of different organizations, and I'm not gonna prolong on the numerous organizations that came before us.

Uh but it gave me the opportunity to reflect on the times that I have lived here as an immigrant, um, as a veteran of these United States, but also as a state legislator uh for the 15 years that I served in the Rhode Island uh General Assembly as a state senator.

And I mentioned that is because all those years, uh the struggles that we went through as immigrants and the immigration issues, uh we always came forward to ensure that with legislation to at least protect the immigrants and particularly those who families and those who are undocumented.

But I do have to say that after hearing from so many people, but also uh not just only uh the organizations that have been through uh providing testimony and real life experiences with their families and people that they know in our community, with statements that I've heard at the state level.

And there are some things that were presented to us that should be addressed at the state level, and particularly when it when it has to be addressed to the courts.

But I feel that the time for vague language and weak enforcement is over.

We are not uh legislating in a vacuum.

We've had the expertise of this legislation by so many uh people uh in the in the with their lower background, particularly when Mr.

Kruger uh from the International Institute or uh Docus International and then ACLU.

We are responding to a crisis of a trust at a moment when federal immigration enforcement is rapidly expanding across the country, often with devastating consequences for leak for local communities.

We are seeing federal government aggressively seeking uh to enlist local resources in its deportation machinery.

Uh this is not a distant threat.

This is not something that uh that we were advocate, you know, we were sort of uh that something that we never really wanted to uh 10, 15 years ago.

This is happening now.

We're seeing it live on YouTube.

We're seeing families being separated, not providing a due process.

Just last month, the Providence uh external review authority confirmed that the PPSD provided um operational significant assistance to ICE.

And I've had these conversations, and I am for making sure that our police at the local level are ready and have the tools to respond to the emergencies that we have in our neighborhoods, but I'm also a strong advocate that immigration enforcement should not be at the local level.

Well, advocated it for many years, and I've heard from our families and from our uh neighborhoods.

The federal government is actively pushing agreements like the 287G.

And I know our mayor, Brett Smiley and the administration are never going to allow that.

And I and I commend them for putting the um the order, the executive order that he put.

I think this piece of legislation gives another tool for our communities to feel safe to allow our local police to have the proper training to ensure that they don't use the resources in other departments, they don't use the resources to enforce immigration law.

So as I conclude, these ordinance changes are not just sort of a legal housey housekeeping, they are essential to shield to shield our community against this aggressive federal government, and particularly this Trump administration.

And I speak as a person that have embraced so much as an immigrant since I came here since I was nine years old as a veteran, but even veterans are being uh rounded up in a sense that in process and and then later on taking them to different places and then finding out that they're that they're legally here, that they served our country.

So with that said, this uh protection is critical.

And and by strengthening the enforcement and accountability mechanism, we are giving our residents the tools to hold the city, the province police accountable.

When the federal pressure increases, the chances of local for local violation increases.

We must ensure there are swift and meaningful consequences for any department member who undermine the trust of our immigrant community.

So Providence is a city of immigrants.

Our police departments should be an organization that all residents feel comfortable approaching for their help and their protection.

So for those reasons, I urge the members to vote in favor of this because a watered-down legislation to protect our residents at this level of the game and during this federal uh pressure, and as many have put it at the national level, at the local level, we're also we're all vulnerable.

We're all being attacked, and therefore I ask all my city council members and committee members to vote in favor of this uh ordinance.

Thank you.

Thank you, Pro Temp.

Uh, any other committee members?

Uh Councilman Sanchez, please.

Uh, thank you so much, uh Mr.

Chairman and members of the committee uh for you know still being here and engaging with the people that we serve.

Thank you so much to everyone that's still here.

Uh just quickly um obviously want to strongly urge uh this committee to to move it to the full council so the rest of us can participate in this very important vote.

Um, but I just want to acknowledge a couple things.

Um, you know, whether we will be passed this or or not, um, the horrendous things that we are currently seeing uh happen in our communities are are most likely still going to happen.

Um as mentioned, uh there's other things that we can do.

Uh we could certainly use our our platform to keep advocating and supporting uh either legislation or or policies uh courthouses uh that will further protect our uh immigrant community.

Um but what we can do uh is pass uh this very meaningful legislation, and I say meaningful because it is it opens up uh the city uh to stronger accountability mechanisms.

Um that's what the people that put us in these positions uh want.

We've heard it loud and clear from a lot of dozens of folks today uh that they want these accountability mechanisms in in place.

Um at the end of the day, uh what I see is this continuing to bridge uh the community and and the trust uh between local elected officials and the people that we serve.

Thank you uh so much for your consideration tonight.

Thank you, counselor.

Uh anybody else.

Okay, well, uh I want to thank everyone that came here tonight.

Everyone was well, very well spoken, very well informed, and very well passionate about something that is so critical is so important.

A lot of people said that there were uh sons of immigrants, and I feel that.

When I'm not a son uh of an immigrant, I am an immigrant.

I came here in 1978.

I've been here for about 47 years.

So I feel the pain because it hits me and it hits me hard.

Uh I I never thought in my life that I would see uh what's going on uh today out there, and yes, uh we need to take all measures uh to protect our community with whatever we can.

Uh and I I I see that our staff uh has done a tremendous job in putting all this together, identifying the areas of the uh CSA that needed to be uh amended and upgraded uh so that it's more effective.

Uh there are three votes that are going to happen, just so you understand the process.

Uh you have the vote tonight that if it passes, it'll go to the floor.

It'll get voted on the floor for the first time, and then it'll go back for a second passage.

From there, it will go to the mayor's office who will decide whether he signs it or not.

I as a legislator that was elected back in 2019.

Uh, one of the things I want to do, I want to be responsible for every vote that I take.

Uh, and I look at many things here.

I want to make sure that my vote is fully informed.

As at the end of the day, I am responsible for my vote.

Um this amendments here, I agree wholeheartedly, 99.9%.

There is one amendment that I had a little bit of question and that I still need some clarification on.

Which is why I was hoping to have a meeting next week where I could use this time to come uh to get the information that I needed.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.

A motion was made, it was second, and a vote is going to be taking place.

However, um, I think it's gonna go to the floor.

I think that that's where it belongs.

I I think that uh all the counselors deserve an opportunity to vote on this.

But me tonight, because I need a little bit of information.

I'm gonna abstain tonight, but this is going to come on the floor by the 16th.

And I guarantee you that I'll be ready to vote on that on the 16th, and I'll be ready to vote on it the first week of uh November.

So this is a temporary pause that I do because as I said, as a responsible legislator, I and only I did a little bit of clarification on something, and because of that, I will be abstaining.

But again, I am proud of the work that the staff has done.

I am proud of the work that the people that collaborated with this have done, and I am proud of you for speaking up for being here defending what needs to be defended.

Thank you.

With that said, a motion was made and it was second.

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Abstain.

So three and a positive, two abstention.

The motion uh passes.

The motion passes.

Congratulations.

Again, this will go to the floor and we'll be ready on that day.

Um, being that there are no further businesses on the calendar, or did they motion to adjourn?

So second.

Motion made by Councillor Peterson, second by counselor Royce.

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

The eyes have it.

Meeting is adjourned.

Thank you so much again.