By Staff Reporter, Miranda Owen.
Bay City’s City Hall, 301 Washington Ave, was packed Sept. 22 with speakers and spectators awaiting the decision of commissioners regarding the hot-button topic of sheltering refugee Central American children.
Despite the varying opinions surrounding the issue, the Bay City Commission voted 6-1 to pass legislation that put city support behind the arrival of refugee children. Voting against the resolution was Commissioner Lynn Stamiris of the 1st Ward. Commissioner Elizabeth Peters, 2nd Ward, and Commissioner Christopher Girard, 6th Ward, both abstained from voting.
The issue arose over the summer, when Wellspring Lutheran Services, 304 N. Tuscola Road, expressed interest in taking in 24 children from Central America who were caught alone at the U.S.-Mexico border.
People throughout Mich. travelled to Bay City to voice their opinions on the issue to commissioners. Elizabeth Williams from a Detroit chapter of BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), a group defending “affirmative action, integration and immigrant rights”, described the United States as a “beacon of hope”, and believed that the refugee children need to come to America in order to have a good life.
Opponents of the issue included Tamyra Murray of Frankenmuth, the leader of M.I.C.E. (Michiganders for Immigration Control and Enforcement). She stated that bringing children from over the border makes them “at risk for more exploitation”. Rather than housing the children in the U.S., she proposed that those who want to assist these kids should go on humanitarian trips to the areas they are from.
While the crowd had a mix of emotions regarding the decision, the conflict can now be set aside for the moment while Wellspring Lutheran Services prepares to take in the children.
