To the Editor:

I am very disappointed with the St. Louis Park City Council’s decision to abandon the creation of a separation ordinance at its study session on April 6. Our community has seen firsthand the terror that our federal government can wield during Operation Metro Surge, and we must use every tool at hand to keep our community safe.

A separation ordinance is necessary to prohibit our police department from entering into agreements with ICE now and in the future and to deter ICE agents from our public spaces. As other cities around us adopt separation ordinances, will ICE see St. Louis Park as a more accommodating city to operate in?

It is troubling to me that the City Council is relying upon the police department’s internal policies, which do not require City Council oversight to amend, to guide their potential interactions with ICE. St. Louis Park Police Department’s Policy 413 on Immigration Violations, posted on the department’s website, does not prevent our police officers from cooperating with ICE on immigration enforcement.

This is not acceptable and our City Council must pursue a separation ordinance to ensure our city will not cooperate with ICE and that we have adequate mechanisms for oversight. If you agree that we need a city ordinance to lay out our community’s reasonable expectations for safety and hold ourselves accountable to them, please reach out to your City Council representatives.

Hanna Williams
St. Louis Park

Published in the St. Louis Park + Hopkins Sun Sailor on April 30, 2026