Donald Trump this week signed an executive order to strip federal funding from cities that refuse to collaborate with policies like his unconstitutional Muslim ban and the mass deportations of Dreamers.[1]

Trump's order is blatantly illegal, but on November 14, the Bangor Daily News reported that "Portland would likely cooperate with Trump's mass deportation plan."[2]

That report is consistent with statements made by Portland's chief of police, who said that "police will provide a uniformed presence to back up federal authorities upon request."[3] Immediately after the election, asked about Trump's deportation plans, the police chief reiterated, "Do we cooperate with our federal partners? The answer is yes."[4]

We need to let our city leaders know that if they do the right thing and refuse to cooperate with Trump's bigoted attacks on our immigrant neighbors, we'll back them up 100 percent.

Portland has a strong ordinance passed in 2003 that prohibits Portland police or city staff from conducting immigration status checks in most cases.[5]

But nothing in the ordinance prevents city police from assisting in mass deportations.

There are no indications that anyone on the council would consider weakening the current ordinance, and that's fantastic. But if we want our city police to refuse to assist in Trump's mass deportations, the ordinance would need to be strengthened.

That's why we stand with ILAP's Sue Roche, who told the Portland Press Herald this week that, "I certainly would support any measures by the city to enact ordinances that would prohibit the federal government from forcing local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws."[6]

Given the threat our Muslim and immigrant communities face today, we need to let our city leaders know that we want them to do whatever it takes to protect our neighbors.