By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
August 16, 2024
The Gary Common Council repealed the city’s welcoming ordinance last week, becoming the third municipality to change or rescind its immigration policy, after being threatened with a lawsuit by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.
The city’s 2017 ordinance, which was meant to encourage immigrants in the community to call police if they needed help regardless of their immigration status, had already withstood a legal challenge brought by private citizens. However, acting under new authority granted to the attorney general by the Indiana legislators in an amendment to the Indiana sanctuary cities law, Rokita had given Gary until Aug. 6 to revoke the ordinance.
The common council had already amended the ordinance in July, but the attorney general’s office said the change was not enough to bring the policy into compliance, so the council repealed the welcoming ordinance on Aug. 5. According to the Chicago Tribune, the council did not discuss the matter but just took the vote to rescind, which passed 7-0, with two council members absent.
Rokita issued a statement after the repeal, claiming the vote was “a win for law-abiding Hoosiers and legal immigrants.”
City and council officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In May, Rokita issued warnings to the cities of Gary and East Chicago, the West Lafayette Police Department and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office that their ordinances and policies regarding the treatment of immigrants were violating Indiana’s sanctuary cities law. The attorney general was preparing to exercise new enforcement authority given to him in Senate Enrolled Act 181, which amended the sanctuary cities law.
Democratic legislators representing the four municipalities condemned Rokita’s actions. In a joint statement, they said his threats of litigation were “simply the latest ploy from our attorney general to take advantage of Hoosiers, threaten minority groups, and misrepresent our communities for his own political gain.”
Although the amended sanctuary cities law did not take effect until July 1, West Lafayette revised its police policy, which had advised local law enforcement to not detain immigrants who had been released from local custody, even if requested to do so by federal immigration authorities. East Chicago repealed its welcoming ordinance in July, after the attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has also been sued for having a detention policy similar to West Lafayette’s. A special judge has been appointed to preside over the case, since all the Monroe County judges recused themselves, and the sheriff has until Sept. 5 to file his answer to the attorney general’s complaint.
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He has been a content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and a planner for other papers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
