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.