At council meeting, crowd urges city to not cooperate with ICE
Hungry Horse News | UPDATED 2 weeks, 5 days AGO
After a march down Nucleus Avenue earlier in the day on Jan. 20, several members of Flathead Democracy, a local democracy advocacy group, raised concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the valley and nationwide.
“Our ask is non-cooperation with DHS, ICE and Border Patrol,” said a man who identified himself as “Bug” with Flathead Democracy. He said the organizations are “rogue” and he opposed using local tax dollars to support the agencies.
“Immigrants are not the problem,” he said.
The national debate over ICE enforcement actions has resulted in large protests in states like Minnesota, particularly after a woman was shot multiple times by an agent in that state. ICE and federal agencies claim the woman was trying to run the agent over, while video evidence seems to show otherwise.
The woman, Renee Nicole Good, died from the gunshot wounds.
Since then, another man has been shot in Minnesota.
Flathead Democracy has made appeals to the other cities in the county as well as a big showing at a recent county commissioner meeting.
Several others also urged the city to not support ICE as well.
Resident Roger Hopkins commended Columbia Falls police during the march for their professionalism and help with traffic control during the event.
Council took no action on the matter.
In other news:
• The city council agreed to write a letter of support for Farming of the Future Academy, which is applying for a state Department of Commerce grant that it could use to create a program at the Shops for Station 8.
The hope is to buy the building and create a variety of programs that will employ developmentally disabled adults in the valley producing goods that will appeal to tourists and the general public.
• Heard from Sam Kavanagh of the Glacier to Gateway Trails organization. He noted the organization has received and completed about $700,000 in grants and other funding to build a trail network in the Cedar Flats area north of the city. The trails are very popular and more work needs to be done. Trail counters show about 100 to 150 people using the trails daily.
• Heard from resident Mike Burr who urged the city to come up with a way to email city officials individually.
Other cities in the valley have the ability to do just that. Later in the meeting Mayor Don Barnhart gave out his personal cell phone number as did councilman John Piper.