All Immigration is Local
My waking dream unspools like this: in its first meeting of 2019, the Novato City Council throws down a gauntlet against the White House’s dystopic immigration policies.
“We believe in assisting all of our residents,” says Mayor Pro Tem Denise Athas. She proposes a resolution “To ensure family unity, community security dignity and due process for all residents.”
The vote is 5–0 in favor of Athas’ proposal.
This unlikely scenario, set in the most conservative city in Marin, is all the more remarkable for having happened in real life.
So, why would Novato lead the way on a progressive issue, even as other cities in Marin stay quiet?
I can think of three reasons.
First, other Marin city and town councils tend to focus on local problems. A glance at recent news from Mill Valley shows parking and leaf blowers on top of the agenda. Residential density and a park fundraiser are high on Fairfax’s agenda. Many residents would argue this is the proper focus of local leadership.
Those localists (if I may coin a word) would be right if it were 1959 and there had been no civil rights movement, no women’s movement, no anti-war movement. They would be right if we hadn’t seen the unifying power of #MeToo and the divisive power of #MAGA.
They would be right, too, if the federal government had a sensible immigration policy and the White House wasn’t signaling its willingness to demonize immigrant communities in perpetuity.
The fact is, because we don’t have effective national leadership, immigration demands a local response. More than ever before, local communities are developing sound, 21st-century policies to good effect. So when localists argue that immigration isn’t a local issue, they’re on shaky ground.
Second — last year when Novato’s then-Mayor Josh Fryday visited Texas and stood alongside the mayors of New York and Los Angeles to decry child-separation policies — a front-page story in the New York Times and top-of-the-hour news on CNN — it inspired progressive Novatans to recognize that small cities can make a difference.
Localists were not happy — the mayor of Novato in Texas? Criticizing immigration policy? Fryday showed that all immigration, like all politics, is local.
The third issue is Sheriff Robert Doyle. His public statements against progressive immigration policy carry weight.
Even as the Human Rights Commission called for Marin to become a sanctuary county, citing the benefits to public safety, and even as the Board of Supervisors continued to press for compassionate policies that prioritize public safety, they can’t persuade the sheriff. He has unlimited power over Marin’s immigration enforcement policy. He doesn’t answer to the HRC and can’t be fired by the Board of Supervisors. He is not only the most powerful politician in Marin right now, he is likely to be remembered as the most powerful politician ever to hold office in Marin.
But in his third decade as an elected official, Doyle’s popularity is ebbing. His battle against policies that focus on inclusion might be one reason.
Perhaps more damningly, he’s gaining a reputation for falsehoods and arrogance. In a county that values truth and civility, that’s a problem.
He isn’t trying to hide his deceptions. At a Board of Supervisors meeting last December, Doyle claimed “all of our policies and procedures are based on the recommendations that they [county counsel] gave.” He was flatly contradicted by Marin’s counsel.
When the HRC made its recommendation in January, Doyle said “It’s just astounding to me that a commission appointed by the board would recommend that the Board of Supervisors break the law. To suggest that I should give certain information to the public and withhold it from ICE is unbelievable to me.”
Here, Doyle is both wrong and misleading. Federal courts have held unconstitutional the statute purported to mandate communications regarding immigration status (8 U.S.C. § 1373). Plus, the statute doesn’t apply to reporting release dates and information. In short — there is no legal requirement that he or his department communicate at all with ICE.
So when Marin HRC recommended to the Board of Supervisors that they “take the necessary steps, political or financial, to prevent the sheriff from making public the information about jail release names, dates and times,” they were simply asking the sheriff to follow the law.
Meanwhile, back in Novato, maybe we’re on track to become Marin County’s new force for progressive leadership.
Stranger things have happened.
UPDATE: Shortly after this story was published, Novato’s city council established gerrymandered districts which diluted minority voting strength. It established Novato’s Central District as a fiefdom for Mayor Eric Lucan — a white, wealthy man who lives in the hills above Novato. More here about that.
