Michigan's capital city voted Wednesday to repeal a decision from just nine days earlier to call itself a "sanctuary city" for undocumented immigrants, citing concerns from the business community.
Lansing, Michigan's City Council voted unanimously last Monday night to call itself a sanctuary city, a term that has no legal definition but indicates a jurisdiction that has decided not to fully cooperate with U.S. immigration officials. Just over a week later, however, the City Council voted 5-2 to rescind its decision, the Associated Press reported.
After the initial unanimous vote, City Council members received a letter from the Lansing Regional Chamber and Michigan Chamber of Commerce insisting the body remove the term from its resolution.
Business leaders feared dubbing Lansing a "sanctuary city" would bring unwanted attention from the Trump administration and possibly cause the city to lose federal funding.
"Recent actions of City Council, whether intended or not, have placed an unnecessary target on the City of Lansing while jeopardizing millions of dollars in federal funding that impacts the city budget," the business groups' letter stated.
"The term 'sanctuary' in the resolution has become very problematic and distracting–so distracting in my opinion that it has taken away from the intent of our resolution, which is to protect individuals," Councilwoman Judi Brown Clarke told the AP. "It's basically a 'don't ask' policy, which was outlined by the mayor's executive order and what we had in our policy complements that."
Regardless of what Lansing chooses to call itself, police policy has remained the same. Lansing city policy does not require police to ask for people's immigration status unless it is required by Michigan or U.S. law or a court order.
While Democratic Mayor Virg Bernero claimed he is confident Lansing's policies do not violate federal law, Richard Studley, president and CEO of the Michigan Chamber, said the group's members want city officials "to stop wasting time on costly political statements and focus on real economic issues."
"The challenge is with the language declaring the city a 'sanctuary city'–adopted hastily with little debate. I think that it is easily misinterpreted or misunderstood," Studley said.