Editor’s note: This article was originally printed in the Merced County Times newspaper on Feb. 13, 2025.
This year’s three-part Town Hall series hosted by the Merced City Council came to an end last Thursday night, Feb. 6., at Stowell Elementary School in south Merced.
The finale was the most well-attended meeting of the series, and produced the most emotional responses from both residents and leaders. Numerous residents, including several young adults and UC Merced students, spoke up at the meeting and called for leaders to create a “Sanctuary City” in Merced in light of stepped up immigration enforcement across the nation after the election of President Trump.
The term Sanctuary City refers to a policy that limits or defines the extent to which a local/state government will share information with federal immigration law officers.
Merced artist Jazz Diaz reminded the audience that they were on the native land of Yokuts and Miwoks before she advocated for sanctuary status.
“I would like for our city to have a protocol,” she said. “What is our protocol with the schools? I grew up during the Bush Administration, and I did witness a lot of fear from the children and from students having to walk their brothers and sisters to school because their parents had fear of getting deported. … I ask that you create a protocol for that, not just for our students but for our community. … What is the stand that we’re taking? That we’re not collaborating with ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], and that we have support for those if something does happen. Also please consider that this is something very traumatic. These are very traumatic times for our community, and I hope that you take a stand on that … No ICE in schools. No ICE at churches. No ICE in hospitals and clinics. Please.”
A few City Council members, including the mayor, pointed out that a sanctuary status in Merced would be purely symbolic, especially since California is considered a sanctuary state, and would put the town at risk of losing federal funding for much-needed programs. Mayor Pro Tem Sarah Boyle said there was a need for better communication in the city over immigration concerns.
Merced Police Chief Steven Stanfield gave a detailed explanation on why his department is not involved — “zero contact, zero communication” — in immigration enforcement.
“The Values Act prohibits us from cooperating with immigration services,” he said. “They don’t come to our department. We don’t work and serve warrants with them. We don’t go out in the field with them. In fact, if they came here, I don’t even know if they would notify me. The Police Department here works for the city of Merced, and their job is to enforce safety rules. …. There’s no policy on the books at the Merced Police Department, there’s no requirement of ask, and there’s no form that we fill out that inquires about anybody’s immigration status at any time during contact — whether you be just a standard reporting party that called the Police Department or somebody that ends up going to jail. That’s not a check box question, and it’s not a question we even ask.”
Toward the end of the meeting, Councilman Shane Smith suggested he would like to hear more about possible sanctuary strategies, but he sounded disappointed that there had been little talk about the inequities in the local community and how the Council and community can directly make an impact. He mentioned that the meeting venue, Stowell Elementary, was an all-portable classroom school in need of repair and restoration.
“There is a way that we can seek common ground and achieve our shared goals,” he told the audience. “But I look a little more locally, and I look at the things that we can control. The things that we should control.”
However, Councilman Fue Xiong, fired back, saying Smith’s words were insulting and condescending to the Sanctuary City advocates who were present.
“We have talked over and over about how south Merced needs more funding,” Xiong said, shaking his head, and visibly upset. “And now we are talking about a different issue, and it’s frustrating.”
Xiong stressed that the idea of Merced becoming a Sanctuary City has dominated all other issues that have come up at the Town Hall meetings, and that the leaders need to take action to make the idea happen.
Councilman Daron DuPont jumped in, defending statements by Smith, and revealing that he had chosen Stowell as the Town Hall location for the same reason Smith was talking about.
“We cannot control everything,” DuPont said forcefully. “But we can control how we’re advocating for better roads, better sidewalks.”
Traffic safety exchange
There was an interesting exchange between a senior resident, Levonne Phillips, and the Police Chief Stanfield about traffic safety on neighborhood streets.
It went like this:
“I want to thank the Police Chief here because I have been complaining about traffic on my street. I think you said there were 24 people you caught. Well there were about 100 you missed. I live on Northwood. Between Northwood and M Street, it’s like the Indianapolis 500. I almost got hit several times trying to go into my driveway.
“I’m from from Louisiana originally. And I just came from there yesterday. They have beautiful streets. Ours are like wagon roads. Has anybody ridden down Yosemite recently? What about R street? It’s awful. And it gets worse. I understand you pass taxes. You really are in favor of us when it’s time to vote, but when it’s time to take action, we never hear from you.
“I want the streets fixed. I want them cleaned up. I mean we look like Stockton. Has anybody ever been to Stockton? It’s awful. And Merced is getting to be a little Stockton.”
In response, Chief Stanfield said: “Traffic is something our officers have really taken on this year, and we did have this conversation last week. I was happy to tell her [Levonne Phillips] that enforcement is just one small arm of what makes our roads safer. I think everybody here knows that. That’s just one thing, but it’s the one thing I can control.
“I’m a Police Department. I’m not a road engineer. So, ticket issuance in the city of Merced is up 154 percent. So it is a focus for us, and it’s nice to hear results. It’s nice that we can have conversations with our neighbors in our town about an issue, say on Northwood where we are having speeding, and we can send our traffic unit which is now staffed by three, full-time officers, and they can write 24 tickets for several things. I can say the No. 1 ticket enforcement out there was for seatbelts. I hate to say that but it was. … There are a lot of other things we have to pay attention to in town. It’s the safety of our driving. We need to pay attention to pedestrians in roadway traffic. …
“I am happy to report we only have one vacancy as of today. So our staffing levels are up. So you’re probably going to see more officers on motorcycles and our cars riding and issuing tickets to keep our roads safer. Tickets are only a small part of it. I want them out there and visible. I would be happy if I saw those numbers going down and our collision rates and our fatality rates plummeting. That’s the ultimate goal.”
Next Up: The Merced City Council will be holding its annual Strategic Planning Session, in advance of the 2025-26 fiscal budget talks, this Saturday, Feb. 15, at 9 a.m., in the Civic Center Sam Pipes Room, First Floor, 678 W. 18th Street, Merced.