GILL — Following other cities in the Commonwealth and across the country, Gill will now be a “sanctuary city” following a vote by the Selectboard.
The vote stems from several months of discussion on the issue and had previously been tabled at an earlier meeting, because several members of the Selectboard wanted to do more research on the issue.
Greg Snedeker and John Ward voted “yes” on the issue earlier this week, and Randy Crochier abstained.
Being a sanctuary city means the Gill Police Department will not honor or enforce a civil immigration detainer requested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that would seek a prolonged detainment of an undocumented immigrant.
Since the town of Gill does not have a detainment center and the police use the Franklin County House of Corrections, the move was seen as supporters as something more symbolic that would make Gill a more welcoming for all.
The move follows several other cities in the area including Holyoke, Springfield and Northampton. Greenfield is currently debating a similar resolution.
The resolution was initially brought to the board in February by two Gill residents, Rachael Abernethy and Seth Montgomery, who are teachers at Northfield Mount Hermon School.
The Selectboard had several conversations about it, including an open forum on the issue in March.
Snedeker had requested more time on the issue to research possible impacts. He said he contacted the dean of enrollment at NMH to see if there had been issues with declining enrollment from Mexico and Latin American countries because of national rhetoric around immigrants.
Snedeker said he asked the NMH dean because he’d seen similar trends where he works at Stoneleigh-Burnham School and the NMH dean confirmed the same for the school, which is located in Gill.
“These are real fears that are impacting us in real ways,” Snedeker said.
Snedeker said that while he personally supports the policy, he wanted to find concrete impacts that this was having on the community, to help explain to residents who may oppose becoming a sanctuary city why he was supporting it.
“I needed to respect the people in this town that may think differently,” he said.
In previous meetings, Chief Police David Hastings said the resolution wouldn’t change Gill’s current policing policies.
Abernethy and Montgomery had attended the meetings and said the process had taken longer than they expected.
“It gives me hope for local government,” Montgomery said.
The Selectboard thanked the two for being so involved in the issue and encouraged them to run for office.
“I’m very proud to be a part of this community,” Abernethy said.
Reach Miranda Davis at
413-772-0261, ext. 280
or mdavis@recorder.com.