The Rochester City Council is expected to approve legislation from Mayor Lovely Warren this evening, updating the city’s 1986 Sanctuary declaration.
Mayor Warren has submitted new 
sanctuary legislation based on language vetted by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, one of about a dozen attorneys general opposing the Trump Administration’s new immigration policies. Basically, it says city employees and police will comply with the letter of the law when asked by federal authorities, but won’t volunteer and won’t ask for information about any city resident’s immigration status.
Rochester declared itself a “City of Sanctuary” under a law passed during the Reagan Administration in 1986, when people fleeing undeclared wars in Central America were being denied political refugee status and deported as “economic refugees.” Several refugees were being harbored in Rochester churches at the time.