Providence committee advances stronger ban on police cooperation with ICE, adds private right of action

A Providence City Council ordinance committee voted to send amendments strengthening the city’s Community Safety Act to the full council after hours of public testimony demanding clearer prohibitions on local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

The amendments, presented by the city’s chief of staff and carried as a substitution by a council sponsor, would expand the ban on Providence Police Department assistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal immigration entities; define and protect sensitive places such as public schools, charter schools, early‑learning programs and court facilities; restrict collection or sharing of certain demographic and surveillance data; and create a private right of action allowing qualifying civil‑rights and youth organizations to sue the city, the department or individual officers for alleged violations.

June Rose, chief of staff, told the committee the changes "are intended to better protect Providence residents by expanding prohibitions on voluntary Providence Police Department cooperation in federal immigration enforcement." Rose described five categories of changes: broader definitions of federal immigration enforcement, clarification that only judicially signed criminal warrants require compliance, protections for sensitive spaces, limits on demographic data collection and…