State, local officials react to Helena vote to rescind immigration resolution

After the Helena City Commission voted Thursday night to repeal its immigration resolution, aiming to revise it with input from the Montana attorney general to avoid an immediate lawsuit, reaction was starkly divided between the celebrating state officials and largely outraged Helena residents.

“The commissioners made the right decision voting to keep the Helena community safe,” Republican Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a statement Friday morning. “This resolution should never have been passed in the first place. My office will continue to hold any jurisdictions in violation of Montana’s sanctuary city prohibition accountable.”

“The Helena City Commission made the right decision to rescind its resolution that prevented the Helena Police Department from cooperating with federal immigration authorities,” GOP Gov. Greg Gianforte said in a statement. “In Montana, we banned sanctuary cities with the priority to keep our communities safe. I’m glad our officers can continue to work with federal partners.”

“Cowards!” shouted several people who wanted to see the resolution upheld at Thursday night's Commission meeting following the body's 4-1 vote to rescind. “Where is your spine?”

By rescinding the document, organizer and Montana for Palestine's Lily Clarke said, Helena was showing its morals and ignoring the Helenans who'd pushed for the resolution to pass in the first place.

The rescission of the resolution was not meant to be an admission of defeat, Mayor Emily Dean said late into Thursday's meeting, which was called so the Commission could make a decision on how to proceed with the resolution.

Knudsen’s threat of a lawsuit, and the potentially steep penalties that could be assessed if the city were found to be in violation of the state's 2021 anti-sanctuary-city law, set Helena up to fail, Dean said. She assessed the situation as Knudsen demanding the city heel or face what could be a crushingly expensive round of litigation.

Knudsen's office did not respond to an Independent Record question on whether the lawsuit threat was political in nature as Dean alleged.

Dean's stated goal was to pause the lawsuit threat and buy Helena time to create a new draft of the resolution that could muster litigious scrutiny.

The second 4-1 vote of the evening, one that again saw City Commissioner Melinda Reed as the only "no," instructed outside counsel Tasha Jones to revise the resolution’s language to “address the AG’s concerns,” invite Knudsen to respond to edits within 14 days, and provide an update to the Commission within 30 days.

Knudsen also did not respond to an Independent Record question of if he would sit down with Helena officials to hash out a new version of the resolution.

In her statements, Dean took issue with Knudsen and the governor calling Helena a sanctuary city, saying that wasn’t what the resolution did, nor did it intend to stop the Helena Police Department from lawfully complying with state and federal law. Much of the resolution had memorialized existing HPD policy, officials have said.

HPD Chief Brett Petty previously told the Independent Record he had no interest in joining a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which would allow federal agents to deputize local officers to help with immigration enforcement.

Jones, who was brought on from a Missoula-based law firm, said HPD works in the “exchange of information” with state and federal partners every day, which Knudsen alleged Helena was unlawfully restricting with its resolution.

Jones also said the Helena Commission still had the ability to vote against HPD joining a 287(g) agreement regardless of the resolution's existence.

“I want to be clear, I don’t take any of this lightly,” Dean said during the vote. “I am not taking this vote because I think the attorney general is right.”

Reed, who presented edits to the Commission and pushed against the measure's rescission, said even Knudsen hadn’t asked for a full walkback of the resolution.

In his cease-and-desist letter, sent March 10, he demanded Helena rescind only the parts of the resolution he thought violated the law, though Jones predicted Knudsen would find error with any revisions made at Thursday's meeting.

Reed said during the meeting she was voting with her conscience.

“From the presentations from outside counsel and staff to the prepared statements that were read by the mayor and Commissioner Rigby, it seems clear to me that there was never going to be another outcome,” Reed posted on social media Friday. Rigby's statement refers to the second motion that gave a timeline for a newly drafted resolution. “It was clear that the city of Helena was going to preemptively comply and that the will of our community did not matter.”

Though around 250 people attended in person, and a peak of 157 additional viewers online, around 50 attendees remained to the end of the nearly six-hour meeting, a few applauding and whooping.

However, most shouted in anger. Some curse words hurled at the body led Dean to call for a recess before finishing up the meeting.

Many of those in favor of editing the resolution without rescinding it felt Knudsen wouldn’t be willing to negotiate; some described the Commission's decision as bending the knee to him and his politics.

"Your vote will show what you value," said Diana Hammer of Helena's Citizens' Conservation Board.