The Medford City Council passed a Welcoming City Ordinance on Jan. 14 with a 6–1 vote to establish Medford as a welcoming city for immigrants and to ensure the Medford Police Department continues its policy of non-involvement with federal immigration enforcement.
“No City funds, resources, facilities, property, equipment, or personnel may be used to assist or participate in the enforcement of federal immigration laws…” the ordinance reads.
Under the new ordinance, Medford personnel are not permitted to ask about a person’s immigration status and may not aid operations led by federal immigration agents. The city cannot take legal action against people based on immigration status, with the exception of criminal activity separate from the enforcement of federal immigration law.
“No officer or employee of the Medford Police Department may initiate an investigation or take law enforcement action on the basis of actual or perceived immigration status, including the initiation of a stop, an apprehension, or an arrest,” another portion of the ordinance reads. “No officer or employee of the Medford Police Department may participate in or assist with an operation led by a federal immigration agency to detain persons for civil immigration enforcement purposes.”
The ordinance stems from existing policy that had been in place at the Medford Police Department since 2019, according to Medford City Councilor Matt Leming. Leming said the move to formally set police policy into law was spurred by a desire to solidify its protections.
“There was some discussion during the committee meetings about the difference between this being just police policy and this being an ordinance,” he said. “If it were just police policy, then it could potentially be chipped away at over time. But if it’s an ordinance, then that’s a local law to point to.”
Medford City Councilor Justin Tseng echoed Leming’s reasoning, arguing that an ordinance incorporating the department’s non-involvement policy might let Medford residents feel safer.
“A problem that we started to foresee with that policy was just that not a lot of people knew about it,” Tseng said. “And so even though maybe practically, the effects were there … for that lived experience, there was still a lot of fear about interacting with the police department.”
Policy, Tseng said, is different from law.
“I think inherent in that difference is the worry that it’s not permanent and that any mayor in the future or police chief in the future could revoke that policy.”
Tseng said that while he first proposed the ordinance in 2022, the change only began to move through the council in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election victory in 2024.
“We were suddenly confronted with the reality that a lot of people would feel much more unsafe under this new administration,” he said. “These are residents. These are people in our community. These are people who play an integral role in who we are as a city.”
Similarly, Leming said that passing the ordinance was partly a proactive measure to clarify the city’s stance on immigration.
“Part of it is just easing fears,” he said. “It doesn’t change the police department policy. We’re still doing what we were doing before. But it does give assurance that that policy is less likely to change even with pressures from the Trump administration.”
The process of codifying police policy into law involved discussions between the Medford City Council, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and Medford People Power.
While the specific language of the ordinance classifies Medford as a “welcoming city,” Tseng and Leming both defined the law as a way to make Medford a sanctuary city.
“This is essentially sanctuary city legislation,” Tseng said, but noted the varied connotations of the term. “I think ‘welcoming city’ is a better descriptor of what we’re trying to do here in terms of stating our values but also the intended feeling we want to give our residents.”
Medford City Councilor George Scarpelli, the only member of the council to vote against the ordinance, argues that a lack of transparency with the police department and potential ramifications from the federal government are causes for concern.
Leming said he reached out to Police Chief Jack Buckley for revision suggestions to the ordinance but never heard back. The Medford Police Department did not respond to the Daily’s requests for comment.
“My reservation was for two very simple reasons,” Scarpelli said. “One, making sure that we left our police department with the authority that they needed to move forward within their day-to-day processes. The other piece was the financial ramifications … and how [it would] negatively affect our federal financial picture moving forward.”
Scarpelli expressed concern that Medford, a welcoming city, would face heightened scrutiny on funding from the federal government.
He also suggested that the council’s quick process in passing the ordinance left many citizens unheard.
“Sometimes you press the fast forward button without looking at the big picture,” Scarpelli said.
Tseng noted that the council solicited feedback from Medford residents.
“I don’t think there’s much disagreement in Medford about this policy, about the values behind this law. I think that Medford as a whole is very accepting of our neighbors, wants to protect our neighbors and wants to make people feel like they’re included.”
Tseng addressed concerns about a potential loss of federal funding and highlighted his belief in the ordinance’s intrinsic value.
“Our neighbors’ lives are worth more than a few pennies here and there,” Tseng said. “That’s an important statement that we are making with this Welcoming City Ordinance.”
