In a well-lit classroom at the Santa Fe Girls’ School, Mayor David Coss towers over a circle of attentive seventh- and eighth-graders in skater shoes and skinny jeans. “When you look at a resolution, all the whereases are nice, but what really sets the policy is the ‘Now, therefore, be it resolved,’” Coss says, reading over the 1999 resolution forbidding discrimination based on immigration status.
“A lot of people have said that Santa Fe has declared itself a sanctuary city,” Coss says. “Well, there’s no such thing.”
Coss explains that no matter what the city’s laws are, “If ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] comes after you, the City of
Santa Fe
can’t protect you.”
Lee Lewin, a co-founder and history teacher at the school, says the dialogue she scheduled between her students and Coss arose out of her bringing up
Arizona
’s new immigration law in class.
“It raised a lot of questions I couldn’t answer,” Lewin says.
Santa Fe Reporter