Boise certified as ‘welcoming’ city for immigrants. That’s not the same as ‘sanctuary’
Amid more presidential suggestions on how the country might limit immigration and asylum seekers, Boise has taken a different approach to immigrants.
Boise has been officially certified a “Welcoming City,” the city said in a news release Wednesday. The certification comes from Welcoming America, a national nonprofit that sets guidelines for cities aiming to be more inclusive to immigrants and other residents.
Welcoming America established the certification program in 2017 to create a formal designation for cities that have committed to being welcome and that meet the guidelines.
“Boise has been a place of refuge and opportunity for refugees and immigrants since its founding, and there is no question we are richer as a community as a result,” Mayor David Bieter said in the release. “We will continue to strive to remain a leader on this issue and keep Boise a welcoming city for all.”
Welcoming America looked at the city’s policies and programs and evaluated how they compared to its standards, which include ensuring that access to community services is available to all residents and ways the city builds connections between newcomers and longtime residents.
Involvement with groups like Neighbors United, a community group that helps refugees integrate in Boise, and the Idaho Office of Refugees were specifically highlighted in Welcoming America’s evaluation, the release said.
A welcoming city is not the same thing as a sanctuary city.
A sanctuary city has specific policies to protect undocumented immigrants from the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Boise does not have those. The Boise City Council opted to pass a resolution in January 2017 to commit the city to “creating a community where all of our residents feel welcomed, safe, and able to fully participate in, and contribute to, our city’s economic and social life.”
There are no sanctuary cities in Idaho, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. President Donald Trump has recently shared ideas to send undocumented immigrants to sanctuary cities, but that plan would likely have no impact on Boise.
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